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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength...Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
Jesus
At a time when worshipers are massacred in their places of worship and hatred fans the flames of fear, followers of Jesus the Messiah are called to love, respect and dignity. This website explores steps designed to remove fear, build trust and friendship in a context of hope, caring and peace.
We envision communities of Jesus the Messiah-followers who, by abiding in Him and embodying who He is, cultivate peaceful relations with their Muslim neighbors and bear witness to God's ministry of reconciliation in Jesus the Messiah.
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Our mission is to build a network equipping Christians around the world for life-giving relationships with Muslims through hospitality, dialogue, witness, and peacemaking.
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Our core values include faithful witness embracing Jesus as Savior and Lord, answering questions, and being gentle and respectful to all. We are committed to building genuine relationships based on friendships with Muslims, becoming involved in the community, sharing love and compassion.
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Our goal is establish new partners, teaching, modeling and commissioning members committed to practicing the core values listed above.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28: 18 -20
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​The goal is to faithfully bear witness to Jesus the Messiah our Lord and Savior.
In obedience to Jesus’ command to be witnesses among all nations and to the apostolic exhortation to commend Christ with gentleness and respect, we bear witness to the good news of salvation, forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation that God offers in Jesus the Messiah.
We seek to do so in ways that are both faithful to Christ and sincerely respectful of each person’s dignity, culture, and freedom of choice.
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We desire to share in ways that are faithful to the following commitments:
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To reflect and honor the spirit and values of the Messiah.
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To be true to the gospel as revealed in the biblical Scriptures.
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To communicate God’s deep love for all.
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To depend on God’s Holy Spirit to reveal truth and transform lives.
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To reject the use of all forms of violence, imperialism, bribery, intimidation, coercion, vilification, misrepresentation, and deceit.
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To listen and respond carefully to the questions, objections, and witness others may have for us.
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To be honest and sincere and willing to suffer for the sake of justice and the truth.
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To fully recognize each person’s dignity and freedom of choice.
Muslim quote
The propagation of Islam to all people is a religious duty which must be undertaken by all true Muslims by following the good example of the Prophet who was sanctioned as “Mercy for all mankind.”-
Dr. Badru Kateregga
Christian quote
The Gospel is a like an African stool with a seat and three legs: the seat is the life and teaching of Jesus; the legs are the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of the Messiah. The salvation that Christians proclaim is centered in these four dimensions of the life and mission of Jesus the Messiah."
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian.Muslim.Friend, p. 162Herald Press
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9
The goal is to build a community where all people live at peace with
God, each other and the natural world.
​Today, we live in a global community: people from anywhere live everywhere. Because Christians and Muslims make up approximately half of all the people in the world, they often find themselves living as neighbors.
One of the special commands of Jesus to the church is peacemaking. A near synonym is reconciliation, as the very heart of the Gospel is reconciliation and the center of that calling is the cross, through which we find peace with God (Col. 1:19-20).
When the church is at its best, it is a healing, reconciling force for peace. Muslims and Christians both long for peace with God, with each other and with the natural world. Peacemaking calls us to a just stewardship of all the resources (natural, relational, spiritual) of the community. Peacemaking often means confronting injustice.
Muslim quote
As Muslims, we believe what the Qu'ran (3:113) teaches us about believing Christians and requires us to look for those Christians whose lives are true representatives of those values. I have known and respected Dr. Shenk and his team, who are wholeheartedly dedicated in building bridges of understanding between Muslims and Christians.
Dr. Sayyed Syeed President of the Islamic Society of North America
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Christian quote
Wherever the walls go up, the mission of the church is to seek ways to partner with the Holy Spirit and the people of peace in bringing down those walls. We need to repent of any inclination to wall-building divider and commit to being peacemaking bridge builders.”
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian, Muslim, Friend.p. 146, Herald Press. 2014
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:2
​The goal is real relationship and open friendship, loving and caring for
all people.
We both give and receive hospitality. It always takes more than one party as you can't do hospitality by yourself. In a world filled with conflict, hospitality feels scary. "Can I really open my home to a stranger?"
The ancient Hebrews were commanded by God to care for the stranger living among them as if the person was native born (Lev. 19:34). Hospitality is commanded and illustrated in the Biblical stories. Hospitality requires opening oneself to the "other." Among many Muslim peoples of the world, hospitality is a sacred obligation and a trust that must never be broken. Perhaps more than any of the other dynamics, this where Christ followers and Muslims are closest.
Muslim quote
...nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians" Qur’an 5:82
Dr. Sayyed Syeed
Christian quote
Every Muslim should have a Christian friend and every Christian should have a Muslim friend.
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian.Muslim.Friend, Herald Press, 2014
​​All too often we compare our best expressions of faith to the worst expressions of the other faith. To exaggerate my point, a Christian might declare that Christianity produces people like Mother Teresa and Islam produces ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi. Let's compare the best with the best.
Obedience to Jesus sometimes produces the likes of theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer and Islam sometimes produces an Al-Ghazali. The business leadership guru, Steve Covey said, “seek first to understand rather than to be understood.” When the church meets the ummah, we must seek to understand what the ummah finds so valuable in their community. Then a beautiful conversation can emerge, true dialogue.
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...
1 Peter 3:15
The goal is for Christians and Muslims to understand each other, and to compare the best of Christian faith with the best of Muslim faith.
Muslim quote
“The circle of concordance among religions is greater than that of their differences, leaving no place for solitude or isolation, nor any other option than living together on this earth, laying the foundations for dialogue as God desires. This is also the essential call of the initiative “A Common Word,” as is made clear from the verses in the Qur'an and the Bible which show that Islam and Christianity share two very important values: loving God and loving one's neighbor.”
​Prof. Dr. Ali Jumâa
Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt (translated from the original Arabic in the book foreword to A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue
Christian quote
“Every week ten to twenty elders from my clan would come to our home for discussions and food. Martha oversaw the cooking. We ate and fellowshipped and conversed vigorously together.”
​Ahmed Ali Haile
Teatime in Mogadishu, p. 79, Herald Press, 2011
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