Note from the Network
January update
“We’re praying, believing and working for the gospel to spread through families and a whole community - for disciples to make disciples who make disciples. Why not here?”
This is a big prayer of one Mahabba group going into 2019. Remarkable things are happening in the wider Muslim world - more Muslims have come to faith in Jesus in the past 25 years than in the previous 14 centuries combined! Why not here in the UK?
These monthly newsletters have been highlighting the four Es that describe the Mahabba network. Each local expression of Mahabba is Encouraging prayer and Enabling and Envisioning all Christians to Engage in love with Muslims.
We seek to envision the Christian community - all Christians, churches, church leaders - for God’s heart and purposes for the nations to be caught, for the church to see and seize the opportunities he has brought to our cities and towns.
Envisioning is happening in many ways - inspiring churches with stories of what God is doing, helping church leaders to strategise, to see their vision fulfilled for Muslims following Jesus, and to equip church members through courses and resources like Joining the Family:
“Recognising that it’s important to find and serve alongside local church leaders who share the vision and are open to collaborate, I presented the vision of church based outreach to Muslims at the ‘Churches Together’ Leader’s Meeting in our borough. It was attended by more than 30 leaders of different churches who then launched a prayer initiative which meets weekly moving between various churches and has led to outreach to Muslims.”
“The Joining the Family course was superb – all the better for having equal numbers of Iranians and Brits! Some positive outcomes were – Brits seeing the importance of being family to BMBs, Iranians seeing church as theirs and beginning to take ownership of what happens, two of the Brits engaging with our Farsi-speaking fellowship and befriending newcomers. Others are asking when we are running the course again!”
“We are investing time in talking with church leaders and gaining local church ‘buy-in’. So far we have run training courses in three main churches.”
“I would recommend the Joining the Family course without hesitation as it helps us understand where those from Muslim background are coming from and this in turn helps us understand where and how we can help them grow in faith and integrate into the church.”
“In the coming year we want to pray for local churches to connect with our group and to see how we can serve and equip them in engaging with Muslims and making disciples.”
Let’s keep sharing the stories. If you are not yet part of Discourse, Mahabba Network’s discussion forum, do sign up here. It’s the place to be for sharing and learning from one another.
This is an amazing time to be alive and partnering in prayer to see God’s purposes for Muslims fulfilled. Let’s pray this will be a fruitful year for us all, beyond all we ask or imagine.
This is part of a series of regular updates from all involved with the Mahabba Network. They will be published here on the blog, but the best way to stay up to date is to sign up for our newsletter; you will receive a prompt when the latest one is available. Previous updates can be found here.
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