On Being Missional (And Not) With My Muslim Friends: Summer Camp Series 4

Getting Muslims to go to camp is one thing.   Getting them to follow Jesus is a whole other thing.   It seems like a humungous jump, a God- sized miracle.

These are not the young men I am referring to. But they are amazing too.

Conversion is up to me?

The crazy thing is, I’m not even convinced that conversion is my job.   Sure, I play a part in the story.  We are, after all, God’s instruments.  The church is to be His hands and feet on Earth.  We are called to love unconditionally, as He does.  But I am not feeling the pressure of converting my four friends in the span of seven days and six nights, in between zip line rides and pool Olympics.  No mam.  I told my friends as much too. 

In a conversation on the front end of the trip, “I won’t be putting pressure on you to convert up there or make you feel weird or embarrassed.  More than anything I want to know you more and make memories together.   Sure, it’s important to me that you hear about the Jesus I follow. You probably know him as ‘Isa al Masih,’ from the Qur’ ran.”

They nodded. I continued, “We will be talking about him and about our lives every night up at camp.   I just want you to be respectful and honest.  But I am not about putting the squeeze on you.”
With the look of relief, “We got you, Coach.”

God is The Transformer

It is still God who still holds the patent on transformation folks.   His Spirit does the work of changing hearts.  It’s not us.  Carl Medearis, author of Muslims, Christians and Jesus, is helping me think through this tension.   After years of ministering, working, and living with Muslims in the Middle East, Medearis shares that “…I stopped making it my mission to ‘convert’ anyone to the things I thought were important.  I learned that by following the Holy Spirit and being obedient to the teachings of Jesus, I could watch God save a person.  I learned that it is the Spirit’s responsibility to bring people to himself, not mine” (143).   In another place, he shares, “…we are not even here to “build the kingdom” but rather to obey the king.  Kings build their own kingdoms.  And Jesus can surely build his.  We are involved in the process because we follow him” (35).

UrbanLife’s Congruent Core Value

Because I am investing resources into relationships with Muslim friends, it helps that my boss and my board are fans.  A core value at UrbanLife is agendaless-ness with youth.  Youth are not and should not only be loved and mentored and invested in, if it’s probable or likely that they will follow Christ. Agendaless-ness – We are committed to building friendships with people in the inner city without an agenda or purpose. If we love people so that they do something or go somewhere (i.e. our church or program), we have ceased to love them and have moved into manipulation. We have hopes, dreams, and visions for what our friends can become but if none of those ever get realized, the friendship remains.  Jesus loved us before we first loved Him.  He loves and pursues and invests in even the most rebellious and apathetic.  See Prodigal Son Luke 15.  So at UrbanLife, we know that many will not turn to Jesus in our time working with them.  We know that, like my four Muslim friends, following Jesus might mean upending a lot that is currently stable in their lives: family, culture, friends.  That’s a big ‘ask.’  And this kind of movement may require a Paul-like experience of God that is so powerful, it cannot be denied.  I’m not off the hook.   But that part is definitely God.