MIDDLE EAST — Pray with us that the service continues to grow and that God will guide us so that we change our methods to reach more people without changing the message.
The Middle East is a place that is in many ways defined by its religious traditions. What days you work, what clothes you wear and what foods you eat are all decided by the traditions of your religious community. The Christian church is also defined by those traditions. You know from looking at someone if they are a Christian and possibly what kind of Christian. These traditions also dictate when Christians should meet, who should be at that meeting and what should be said.
Unfortunately there is another tradition here—Christian decline. In 700 A.D., when Islam conquered the area, this country was almost 100 percent Christian. By 1900, that number dropped to 30 percent. In the last century the numbers have plummeted. The combined Christian population here is now about 3 percent.
Obviously, changes have to be made. When my wife and I took the church three years ago we had a congregation of eight to ten people meeting on Sunday morning. In the time since, we have shifted our focus. Our first step was to start home groups. Most people couldn’t attend the Sunday morning service because Sunday is the first day of the work week here. Imagine trying to build a church in America that meets only on Monday morning! Also, most Muslims and Jews are not open to attending church. They would face pressure from their communities if they did. But we can invite them to our house.
We are now running five small group meetings a week, helping with another one, and still having our worship service. We have home groups for youth boys and girls, women, adults, and “believers”. Our adult/believers group is the most mixed. If you drop by our house on a Wednesday night you will meet Messianic Jews, Christian Arabs, Europeans and Americans. Our youth Bible studies are our most active.
It’s all a lot of work. We spend a lot of time cleaning the house to get ready for guests, cooking and then cleaning up after the meetings, but it’s worth it. We are now reaching between 50 and 70 people a week in small groups.
Our latest change is to move our worship time to Saturday night. We have already seen increased attendance from this move. Pray with us that the service continues to grow and that God will guide us so that we change our methods to reach more people without changing the message.
Names removed for safety purposes.
(Source: Church of God World Missions)