[From The Church Next Door: Local Christians Face America’s New Religious Diversity, draft manuscript by Dr. Paul D. Numrich. Please do not quote or cite without author’s permission.]

Chapter 5: Struggling to Reach Out: St. Silas Lutheran Church

Note: St. Silas and the individual names in this chapter are pseudonyms, at the church’s request.

[figure approx. here: reproduction of sermon series bulletin cover]

A year had elapsed since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Pastor Jack Fischer thought it was time to address a palpable concern within the membership of St. Silas Lutheran Church, a Missouri Synod congregation in suburban Chicago—anxiety over the unchurched in a new and unstable world. Pastor Jack prepared a sermon series that, in his words, would “anchor the general apologetic of their Christian faith.” He sought as much to sharpen his people’s understanding of their own Christian beliefs as to educate them about Islam. In the end he wished to equip them to witness for Christ to individual Muslims they might meet in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and elsewhere in daily life.

Pastor Jack titled the sermon series “Islam through the Eyes of Jesus,” a clever reversal of the approach to Islam that explores Islamic perspectives on Christ and Christian beliefs (such as, “Jesus through the Eyes of Islam”). Yet Pastor Jack felt anything but clever in preparing a Christian critique of Islam. He confided to us later that he was daunted by the complexity of the topic and that his bibliographic sources gave conflicting information. Moreover, as we shall see, he had an extended conversation with two Lutheran missionaries who themselves disagreed about key aspects of his opening sermon. “I grew a great deal during that series,” Pastor Jack told us.

The worship service on the first Sunday established Christ as the starting and ending points for the series. The organ prelude included the hymn “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” while a congregational hymn concluded with the lines, “I love the name of Jesus / Immanuel, Christ, the Lord / Like fragrance on the breezes / His name abroad is poured.” The lay leader prayed that God would remember America in its time of need and shared his personal burden for those who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, including the vast number of Muslims worldwide.

Pastor Jack introduced his sermon with a brief prayer asking God to help Christians find bridges to walk across in order to witness to Muslims about Jesus Christ. He offered disclaimers for the sermon series, admitting no expertise in Islam and granting his listeners permission to disagree with him. He said he hoped to avoid oversimplifying Islam, but he also made it clear that he cared little for political correctness.

Two key points stood out in this opening sermon of the series. First, Pastor Jack distinguished the God of Christianity from the god of Islam. “Allah is their god,” he said. This is not a matter of mere semantics. “Allah” is not simply the Arabic name for the God worshiped by Christians. These are two completely different gods, only one of which is the true God.

Second, Pastor Jack contrasted the two religions in uncompromising terms. Several times he characterized Islam as a “hostile” religion whose goal is that “everyone submit to Allah.” He cited 1 Timothy 2:1-6 in order to contrast the peace-loving nature of Christianity with the violent nature of Islam. “Islam evangelizes with the sword,” he explained, “Christianity evangelizes with a message, with the Gospel.” Islam’s founder, Muhammad, sowed seeds of deep hatred for Jews and Christians, whom he considered infidels, and Islam’s scripture, the Qur’an, instructs Muslims to fight infidels. “Jesus shed his own blood to advance the Kingdom of God among us here on earth,” Pastor Jack asserted, “Muhammad shed the blood of others to advance the kingdom of Allah, the Islamic kingdom here on earth.” This is why Islam soon came to be called “the religion of the sword.” He also cited the words of one historian, “Islam is intrinsically an intolerant, violent religion.” Pastor Jack acknowledged contradictory voices within contemporary Islam on this matter, with modernist Muslims emphasizing the peaceful passages of the Qur’an. But, he said, the fundamentalist Muslim voice dominates Islam today.

Pastor Jack closed with the following point, anticipating the main topic of the second sermon in the series: “Islam claims to have the truth. Christianity claims to have the truth. Different truths. Now, if you look at it objectively, theoretically we could both be wrong . . . . But we could not both be right.”

Rev. Wilton DeMast listened to Pastor Jack’s opening sermon with great interest. Not only did Wilt have more than 30 years of experience in Lutheran missionary work in Muslim lands, he had been asked by Pastor Jack to lead an adult discussion session on Islam in conjunction with the sermon series. Wilt was concerned about the content of this first sermon.

“I was a bit disappointed at what [Pastor Jack] presented,” Wilt wrote the next day in an extended email to a former missionary colleague who had taught Wilt a great deal about Islam. “After the service someone asked me what I thought of the sermon. One part of me said to lie and the other said tell the truth. So I told the truth gently. I said the sermon was a bit inflammatory. It would make the members tend to hate Muslims. I really don’t think this is the way to go.” Wilt thought he should talk to Pastor Jack before the adult discussion class. He did not wish to appear to subvert the pastor’s authority in the way he intended to present Islam to the group.

Wilt met with Pastor Jack later that week, along with a missionary associate. Wilt shared his concerns, as he described to us in an interview. First of all, Wilt thought Pastor Jack had gone “way too far” in focusing on the violent side of Islam. This was unfair without a comparable discussion of the violent side of Christianity, like the Crusades, certain racist groups in America, and South African apartheid. It is very dangerous to characterize Islam broadly as a violent religion, Wilt told us. All Muslims are not suicide bombers and terrorists. Christians need to know about the average, hard working Muslim majority.

Secondly, Wilt challenged Pastor Jack’s contention that Allah and the Christian God are different gods. Wilt sees them as the same God—Muslims simply take the wrong approach and end up with a different understanding of God. To say that Allah is a different God becomes very problematic in that it raises questions about the Jews and their understanding of God. Moreover, to say that Allah is a different God is problematic in dealing with Arab converts to Christianity, since “Allah” is the Arabic word for “God.” As Wilt put it, drawing upon his linguistic training as a missionary, “There can’t be two Allahs, Allah¹ of the Muslims and Allah² of the Christians.”

Wilt’s missionary colleague at the meeting found this latter point unacceptable, siding with Pastor Jack that Allah cannot possibly be the God Christians worship. But Wilt remained adamant, criticizing the false logic of the argument that, because Muslims understand God differently, therefore they worship a different God. If Christians are ever going to witness to Muslims effectively, Wilt maintained, they must enter into dialogue with Muslims from the premise that both faiths worship the same God. He cited the approach of Bible translators working with the language of the Moba people in west Africa, who use the Moba word for God, yennu, to translate the Greek word for God in the New Testament, theos. Wilt finds hints of Christian doctrine in Moba myths that can provide an entrée for conversation with potential Moba converts. Like the Moba’s understanding of yennu, Islam’s understanding of Allah contains dim perceptions of the one true God revealed fully in Christianity.

Excerpt from the Large Catechism, Martin Luther (1483-1546), founder of the Lutheran branch of Protestant Christianity:

All who are outside this Christian people, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites—even though they believe in and worship only the one, true God—nevertheless do not know what his attitude is toward them. They cannot be confident of his love and blessing, and therefore they remain in eternal wrath and condemnation for they do not have the Lord Christ. And besides, they are not illuminated and blessed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Coming away from this debate with Pastor Jack and his missionary colleague, Wilt decided to avoid the topic of Allah with his discussion group, presenting instead a kind of “Islam 101” overview of other key topics, such as the Qur’an and Islamic groups. He also shared personal anecdotes from his missionary work among Muslims. He summarized the objective for the session in this way to the group: “Why do this study on Islam? So we can understand where they [Muslims] are coming from and be able to witness about Christ to them effectively.” Clearly, Wilt and Pastor Jack agreed on the goal of saving Muslim souls. They differed on the proper portrayal of Islam and the best strategy in approaching Muslims.

Ted Rudriger also took a keen interest in Pastor Jack’s opening sermon in the series on Islam. Ted is on staff at St. Silas Church, with primary responsibility for the integration of new members into the congregation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he served as a language consultant for missionary work in a part of Nigeria surrounded by Muslim territory. The Biafran civil war broke out during that period, which included a brutal massacre of a tribal group by ethnic Muslims. Ted is quick to point out that the massacre was not attributable to Islam.

Ted was the lay leader for the worship service who shared his personal burden for the unsaved masses of the world, especially Muslims. He and Wilt DeMast compared notes after the service, both raising their eyebrows at Pastor Jack’s tone and approach in the sermon. Ted thought at the time that the sermon may have “inflamed” some people in the audience, and that Pastor Jack had been less tactful than he himself would have been. But upon further reflection, Ted was pleased with Pastor Jack’s forcefulness. Thankfully, in Ted’s view, this would not be another soft-pedaling of Islam like he had heard so often following 9/11.

We asked Ted whether Pastor Jack’s portrayal of Islam matched his own experience with Muslims in Nigeria. He found it “fairly accurate.” He acknowledged that some members of the congregation were upset by the grotesque and violent aspects of the sermon, but that is the reality of Islam, in Ted’s judgment. Some Muslims may claim they are a peace-loving people, he told us, but you don’t have to dig very far in the Qur’an to see the opposite. He granted that some Muslim groups may be less violent than others, but the bottom line is that they all believe “Islam will prevail worldwide.” Liberal segments of the Muslim community lull people to sleep, claiming, “We’re not dangerous.” Yet they have the same laws, the same Qur’an, and the same goal as all Muslims.

As to the debate over Allah, Ted explained: “The cutting edge is Jesus Christ. The difference between Jehovah God and Allah is Jesus Christ.” These are not the same God, he said emphatically. And we are not all going to the same place eternally.

The sermon series, “Islam through the Eyes of Jesus,” continued for four more Sundays at St. Silas Church. In the second installment, entitled “Why Can’t We All Get Along?” Pastor Jack picked up where he had concluded the first sermon, with the issue of competing religious truth claims. Modern culture today thinks that knowledge of God is a matter of personal taste and preference, Pastor Jack explained, that truth is relative, that there are no “right” answers, and that all religions are simply different paths to the same ultimate goal. But this is not the Christian view. Pastor Jack shared his surprise at the conversations he so often hears around the casket at funeral visitations, to the effect that “they’re in a better place now.” This may or may not be the case, Pastor Jack corrected. If they didn’t have faith in Jesus Christ, “they’re in a worse place now,” he said.

Islam and Christianity differ in fundamental ways, Pastor Jack asserted. Islam teaches that one is saved by pleasing Allah with good deeds, whereas Christianity teaches that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ. Islam claims that Allah is God and that Muhammad is God’s prophet, whereas Christianity claims that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Islam is based on the Qur’an, Christianity on the Bible. These are contradictory claims. Both religions could be wrong, Pastor Jack conceded. But Christians know the truth through the Bible. “And the Bible is not an opinion,” Pastor Jack proclaimed.

At one point in this second sermon, perhaps in consideration of his conversation with Wilt DeMast a few days before, Pastor Jack noted the Crusades as a dark chapter in Christian history, calling them an “evil thing,” even “a Christian jihad” (jihad defined here as a “holy war”). He admitted that there is no difference between the Christian Crusaders of the Middle Ages and Muslim terrorists today. Even though the Crusades occurred over a thousand years ago, Pastor Jack explained, and “we had no part of that,” Christians cannot justify them in any way.

In the third sermon of the series, Pastor Jack elaborated his contention that Islam and Christianity hold incompatible views of salvation. At its core, Islam believes that people must follow Allah’s laws in order to escape the flames of hell. Paradise, or heaven, is a distant hope in Islam, which believes that most people will not reach it. Christianity, in contrast, is about having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, not about following divine laws. The Ten Commandments, for instance, are not rules for getting into heaven but rather guideposts of good living in response to God’s salvation. Islam says that if you don’t measure up, Allah will throw you into the fires of hell. Christians escape the fires of hell through Jesus, not by trying to measure up. Pastor Jack ended this sermon with a thought that had been troubling him: Could it be that Muslims are more motivated to live good lives out of their fear of hell than Christians—who will escape hell—are motivated to live good lives in gratitude for God’s saving love?

Pastor Jack was absent for the fourth Sunday of the series, but the topic was continued with a personal testimony from a Pakistani Christian woman who was raised in the United Arab Emirates and attended professional school in Pakistan, both predominantly Muslim countries. She said she appreciated Pastor Jack’s sermons because she now understood the differences between Islam and Christianity, and she thanked God to be a member of such a “beautiful religion.” Muslims treated her like an infidel when she was growing up, showering her with epithets too embarrassing to repeat in church. Her parents warned her not to compare the two religions or witness to the truth of Christianity, for fear of persecution. Muslims are highly intolerant, she asserted. As to the claim by many American Muslims that Islam is a religion of peace, she thinks they are simply saying such things in order to avoid deportation.

Pastor Jack opened the sermon series finale with a Q & A exercise with the congregation. Question: “Do you believe that God loves Muslim people?” The congregation gave a consensus answer of “Yes,” which Pastor Jack confirmed. Question: “Do you think that Muslims believe that Allah loves them?” The congregation was unsure here, but Pastor Jack explained that the answer is “No.” He elaborated: “Muslims believe that Allah is all-powerful, he is great, he’s in charge of everything, but he’s remote, he’s distant, there’s no personal relationship with him, and there’s no love, there’s only fear of him. So Muslims live being afraid that Allah will eventually send them to hell to be punished, because their life was not lived good enough.” Ironically, Pastor Jack suggested, the god Muslims created doesn’t even love them, while the God they don’t know, the God Christians know in Jesus Christ, does. This leads to the most important point of the entire sermon series: “If Jesus Christ loves Muslims, then we should love Muslims.” Pastor Jack illustrated this point with stories of Christians showing love to Muslim neighbors and acquaintances, fulfilling Jesus’ injunction to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, as printed in worship bulletin).

Results of a survey of American evangelical Christian leaders:

· Nearly 8 in 10 disagreed that Muslims pray to the same God as Christians

· 81 percent thought it “very important” to evangelize Muslims in other countries

· 89 percent thought it “very important” to “insist on the Truth of the Gospel” when talking with Muslims

[www.beliefnet.com/story/124/story_12447_1.html]

It is difficult to assess the impact of this sermon series on the members of St. Silas Lutheran Church. Pastor Jack received mostly positive direct comments, for instance thanking him for giving the battle cry for the army of good and for informing the congregation about current world events. Other than the disagreement with Wilt DeMast, Pastor Jack received negative direct comments from only two people. One, who had received multicultural sensitivity training in the armed forces, took exception to some of Pastor Jack’s characterizations of Islam. The other, a father who had heard about the series secondhand, almost pulled his child out of the church’s preschool over it. He blamed all Muslims for the September 11 attacks and thought that the United States should never have let Muslim immigrants into the country. He wanted nothing to do with the notion that Christians ought to love Muslims. Perhaps most satisfying to Pastor Jack was the fact that the principals identified in this chapter maintained their collegiality throughout the sermon series despite their differences of opinion.

St. Silas Church has not made religious diversity a programming priority. The sermon series on Islam was the church’s most systematic and intentional effort ever on this issue. A far more central concern for this church has been ethnic diversity among Christians. A predominantly German-American congregation for most of its history (est. 1857), in recent years St. Silas entered into a yoked institutional arrangement with a Hispanic Lutheran congregation drawn largely from the changing neighborhood around the church. The relationship between the two congregations was strained at times, but it forced the white members of St. Silas to examine the relative claims of cultural identity and the Gospel. Ted Rudriger, who takes an appreciative approach to Christianity’s varied ethnic expressions, explained that “Cultural differences are good, but without Christ, we are not doing anyone a favor by supporting cultural differences. We need to find a way to accommodate culture, but with Christ as a part of it. Culture can be preserved, but we all need the Savior, Jesus Christ.” When we asked Ted whether the congregation’s multicultural experience offered transferable skills with regard to Muslims and other non-Christians, he responded without hesitation. “Very definitely. What we learn as a congregation in terms of worldview, leadership, and sensitivity to cultural differences is invaluable. But we need to stand firm as a congregation, as a carrier of the Christian faith. Scripture is very clear about how salvation is attained.”

Wilt DeMast agreed. But he admitted that it has not been easy for St. Silas Church. Wilt summarized the congregation’s attempts to carry the Gospel message across ethnic and religious boundaries with the phrase that serves as this chapter’s title: “Struggling to Reach Out.”

Controversy over “A Prayer for America”:

Rev. David Benke, president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Atlantic District and pastor of a Brooklyn church, participated in “A Prayer for America,” a public event held at Yankee Stadium just days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. His presence on the program with Christian and non-Christian leaders provoked a controversy within the denomination, primarily over whether Rev. Benke had violated denominational bans on “unionism” (with other Christians) and “syncretism” (with non-Christians) in worship. Rev. Benke was suspended from his ministerial and administrative duties in June of 2002 but reinstated by a denominational dispute panel the following May.

For More Information

A. L. Barry, “What about . . . Islam?” (Office of the President, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, 1999); available online at www.lcms.org/president/aboutlcms/whatabout/islam.asp or in print format from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO, phone 800-325-3040.

POBLO (People of the Book Lutheran Outreach), a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod mission initiative toward Muslims, is headquartered in the Detroit area, which has the largest residential Arab-American concentration in the country. See www.poblo.org.

The Zwemer Institute of Muslim Studies conducts research on Islam and trains Christians to evangelize Muslims. The Institute is located on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seminary. Contact the Institute at 6600 N. Clinton St., Fort Wayne, IN 46825-4916, phone 260-452-2245, email zwemer@ctsfw.edu. Concordia Seminary’s Web site is www.ctsfw.edu.

Ergun Mehmet Caner and Emir Fethi Caner, Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2002). Pastor Jack Fischer considered this the most helpful source on Islam in preparing his sermon series.

www.islamanswers.net. A Muslim Web site recommended by missionary Wilt DeMast.

The text of Rev. David Benke’s prayer at the “A Prayer for America” event in New York City is available on the Atlantic District’s Web site, www.ad-lcms.org/Assets/News&Events/DrBenke/PrayerForAmerica.htm. For denominational coverage of the controversy, go to www.lcms.org and type the word Benke into the search function.

For Discussion

1. Pastor Jack Fischer and missionary Wilt DeMast differed in their starting points in evangelizing Muslims, Pastor Jack stressing the contrasts between Christianity and Islam, Wilt using commonalities as the entrée to conversation. Which approach do you think is a more effective evangelization strategy?

2. Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? Do Jews as well, and Hindus, Buddhists, and others? What are the implications of this issue for Christian relations with non-Christians of various faith traditions?

3. Do you think Pastor Jack gave an accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims in his sermon series? Do you think others in this chapter did? What is an “accurate portrayal” of Islam and Muslims? Pastor Jack’s bibliographic sources gave conflicting information—how do you explain that?

4. Pastor Jack told us that one of his greatest lessons from the sermon series was, “If Jesus loves Muslims, then I probably should also.” How would Jesus show love toward Muslims today? Do you agree with the individuals in this chapter that the most important way of showing love to non-Christians is to bring them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ?

5. Can you distinguish the core claims of the Gospel from cultural expressions of Christianity in your congregation? Do you agree with Ted Rudriger that appreciation for cultural variations within Christianity and sensitivity in approaching adherents of non-Christian religions go hand-in-hand?

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