Really? Why am I enduring the 110+ temperatures right now? And, why am I spending more time here in the summer than I will be in the States? Whether you've heard us overtly talk about it or guessed at the reasons on your own, here's an article written by a pastor in Dubai (a city in the Gulf) that speaks to why we live here. It's as if someone took our hearts' thoughts and wrote them down somewhere. Even more, we're praying for some of you to join us. Let me clarify that there are other reasons why we live here too, but this is primary.
I'll include the link from
The Gospel Coalition here, but I want to highlight some of the author's sentiments that model my own here:
Come Help Build the Church on the Arabian Peninsula
When the Saudi Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah, recently
said it is "necessary to destroy all the churches in the region," I
wondered: Does that include our church here in Dubai?
The Grand Mufti, Saudi's highest Islamic authority, was in nearby
Kuwait, supporting legislative attempts to eliminate the churches there.
He invoked an ancient
hadith, an official Islamic teaching
saying "there are not to be two religions in the Peninsula" and
concluded, "Kuwait is a part of the Arabian Peninsula and therefore it
is necessary to destroy all the churches in it."
The sheikh may threaten to
destroy churches here, but Jesus, the Sheikh of sheikhs and Lord of lords, promised to
build
them, and he is doing just that. There are encouraging signs among
English- and Arabic-speaking congregations in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the
United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere. In view of the massive ministry
needs and opportunities here, more followers of Jesus should move to
Arabia to plant their lives, build solid churches, preach the gospel and
reach the nations.
Why haven't you moved to Arabia? Here are some mistaken perceptions
preventing people from moving into the Grand Mufti's neck of the woods.
1. There are no churches on the Arabian Peninsula---so why plant my life there?
Actually, there are local congregations in all of the Gulf states,
including places like Aden, Yemen, Muscat, Oman, and Dubai, U.A.E. Many
of these are English-language congregations since English, as much as
Arabic, is the medium of business in many of the Gulf states. These
churches are demographically diverse, reflecting the culture at large.
In our church in Dubai there are people from more than 60 nationalities.
To be sure, most of the church-going folks are expatriates
(foreigners) and not locals. And many of the churches here are weak in
their doctrine and living.
But the best way to reach the nations is to
build healthy churches where Christians are growing and increasingly
motivated to reach out with the good news. And you can do that even in
the most resistant regions of the world.
The crying need here is for stronger churches and pastoral training.
In most of the large cities of this region, expatriate churches already
exist, but they are woefully underequipped. The Bible is not central in
their gatherings, the gospel is not clear in the people's minds, and
their witness is weakened as a result.
By training pastors we can change the ecclesiastical landscape in a
generation. At our church, we have trained church leaders from Syria,
Egypt, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, and other nearby closed countries. We
have also planted Redeemer Church of Dubai, a thriving congregation
reaching people on the other side of the city.
More opportunities are coming. Just recently, the Sheikh of the
northern-most emirate in the U.A.E. (just 60 miles from Iran) granted
land for an evangelical church building in his emirate. So we need to
gather a church there, and then we need to establish a visible presence
that makes sense to the locals, who compose half the population there.
2. It could be dangerous out there---better to stay at home.
True, church buildings in this part of the world are exposed for all
to see. They stand out like an island in an ocean of neighborhood
mosques. But that's the idea---a city set on a hill, a visible community
of people who know Christ and live in counter-cultural obedience,
serving the people and investing in relationships for the long run. The
local people here typically appreciate genuine Christians, and many of
them are interested in learning more about Christ. We want to be as
public as we can be.
It's true that "proselytizing" is illegal in the Gulf countries, and
that the blanket distribution of tracts will get you arrested and
deported quickly.
But, actually, I find it's much easier to talk to a
Gulf Arab about Jesus than it is to talk to another American about
Jesus. Muslims claim to revere Jesus as one of their prophets, and their
culture and language are infused with religion, so it's simple to talk
with them about religious things, correct misunderstandings, and
proclaim the good news.
It's also true that some Western believers were recently murdered on
the Arabian Peninsula, but this is the exception, not the rule, for life
in Arabia, because it is in the best interest of governments to protect
expatriates.
Local believers, of course, risk their lives to follow Christ. We must count the cost, too.
The opportunities for gospel advancement afforded by vibrant church
life in unreached areas far outweigh any risk. Realistically, Western
believers who reach the local people with the gospel will probably face
only threats or deportation; others may lose their lives. The indigenous
people who follow Christ will suffer more. But even if Arabia gets more
hostile, even if believers begin shedding more blood for the sake of
the kingdom, Christ is worthy of being proclaimed, especially to people
groups who, like the Gulf Arabs, have not yet responded to him. As I
tell our people,
our church being closed down by the government is not
the worst thing that could happen to us. No, the worst thing is that we
would be a non-factor in the advancement of the kingdom here.
[Stephanie's note: Some of our church extension buildings already have been closed down in Q8, because the landlords fear outcry from the government or other locals.]
3. Churches don't reach the unreached people---they only get in the way.
It is true that many "international churches" have the reputation of
being irrelevant, tepid communities more interested in replicating their
culture back home than in penetrating the indigenous people with the
gospel.
It's also true that many nominal Christians scandalize the
indigenous people by living more in step with Hollywood than with Jesus,
thereby confirming the common Muslim perception that Christianity
equals worldliness. But that's just more reason to move out
here---to reform existing congregations or plant new ones: Preach the
Word, administer baptism and the Lord's Supper, exercise church
discipline, love one another, and reach out with the gospel.
The church is the ordained instrument for reaching the nations, and
any missions strategy that forsakes the existing church is misguided.
Don't think of frontier missions as only one-to-one, cloak-and-dagger
evangelism. No, the church is already here, publicly making inroads
among the local people. Local assemblies are already meeting in places
like Doha, Dhahran, and Dubai, and many churches in this region are
looking for pastors. The church is the means, or as Charles Bridges put
it, "the mirror that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine
character. It is the grand scene, in which the perfections of Jehovah
are displayed to the universe."
When Samuel Zwemer came to Bahrain in 1890, he first established a
church---consisting of the believers on his team---and began reaching
out to the locals with the good news. That church still gathers today,
and local people of Bahrain are becoming eternal beneficiaries of the
faith-filled work of Zwemer and the generations that followed.
We're looking for faithful, humble men and women to come and join us
in the effort to penetrate the region with the presence and power of the
gospel, and we're holding out the local church as the bridgehead for
operations. But these churches desperately need to be reformed, new ones
need to be planted, and this will take the investment of many lives.
Pray with us. Come and join these churches, strengthen them, support
pastoral training here, plant your life in Arabia for a few decades.
Come and plant a church or reform an existing one. Even in frontier
missions contexts, the church remains "the manifold wisdom of God" (
Eph 3:10).
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