Beyond the Wall: Sharing the God of love with Muslims
by Avery Willis, senior vice president
International Mission Board
As International Mission Board (SBC) leadership met together in November
2001, (their first meeting since the Sept. 11 attacks) they sensed two
things: greatly heightened awareness and concern about Islam in the United
States, and increased openness to the gospel among Muslims on the field.
As they talked and prayed together, they felt God leading
them to a deepened, unified commitment to coordinate, facilitate and intensify
worldwide efforts to share the God of love with Muslims. "Beyond
the Wall" was born out of their time together with the Father.
Muslims are separated from God's love and truth by walls
of religious and civil law, tradition, family/community relationships,
history, mistrust and fear. Christians often stay behind their own walls
of prejudice, ignorance, anger and comfort—unwilling to move beyond
them to penetrate the walls of Islam. The purpose of "Beyond the
Wall" is to share the God of love with Muslims by ...
- Dramatically increasing effective intercession for Muslims
and for particular unreached Muslim people groups by our constituency,
our personnel in the United States and on the field, and our Baptist
partners around the world
- Facilitating the development and use of effective evangelism
media
- Enabling more effective partnering with GCCs in Muslim
ministry
- Facilitating cross-fertilization and sharing of "best
practices" among Muslim-focused teams and organizations
- Encouraging and facilitating mobilization of Muslim-focused
laborers from our constituency and among our Baptist partners
- Enabling more effective human-need and disaster-relief
efforts to demonstrate God's love to Muslim people in the midst of their
need
- Facilitating effective training of Southern Baptists
in Muslim ministry and evangelism
- Communicating the news of God's work among Muslims
around the world
In the weeks and months to come, you will have various opportunities
to move "Beyond the Wall." I pray that you will seriously consider
these opportunities. At a minimum, I encourage everyone to be involved
in the most important aspect of "Beyond the Wall": faithful
intercession for Muslims.
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