e Algerian and Saudi Arabian Muslim Background Couple: Sabrina

and Saleem

A er a year-long friendship with Sabrina and Saleem, a newlywed Algerian couple living in the United States, more clarity regarding their origin emerged as a few families of Green Bay origin sat down over a birthday celebration, and many surprising connections developed. My hope was to build connection, but I did not understand fully what Sabrina and Saleem’s involvement with Islam entailed. However, they joyfully explained to us that although they were seculars with Su Muslim backgrounds, their families of origin in Algeria were Arabic and French speaking. en one of the hosts asked a follow up question regarding their parents’ town of origin, resulting in more layers of ethnic origin and cultures. Sabrina described her grandparents as having come from the mountain with a monastery on it and concluded there were Berbers with Christian roots. Saleem mentioned the in uence of Saint Augustine as a Berber who converted to Christianity.

Saleem provided the history of his family of origin as belonging to the noble ruling class of Mohammed from Saudi Arabia. However, growing up as a Su Algerian French-speaking Muslim gave him a broadening world perspective. He expressed concerns for his native land regarding today’s loss of work ethic among the Algerian natives as the current in ux of Asians coming to work in Algeria take up jobs. Chinese companies developing businesses in the urban areas a ecting job status and opportunities also bring concerns.

Following the wife’s story about her people’s family of origin revealed some commonality to build from; the family of origin discussion led to the husband’s expounding on the African church father, Augustine. e Augustine discussion led to a discussion of the African Bible commentary I had read. I shared that the article noted the lack of knowledge among Christians of the origins of the early church bishops primarily from African descent. I decided perhaps he would like the new African Study Bible which has extensive footnotes on the church fathers from Africa.

At the end of the evening, I asked the Algerian couple in private whether they had desire for a family and if they would like me to pray for them in that direction. ey gleefully agreed they would appreciate our prayers for a child. As they lingered, I o ered to pray for them before they le that cold winter Wisconsin night. ey graciously received the laying on of hands as they stood together; our host and I prayed in the name of Jesus for the divine intervention for a child.

I followed the prayer with a brief faith-building story of a couple that had spent forty thousand dollars twice for in-utero fertilization and had no success at age of forty one. One day she confessed she just could not let go of wanting a child. A er the commitment to pray for the blessing of a child, she had become aware of a dietician’s success in helping couples to conceive. I followed up the story with a meta-narrative stating that God could help them by giving them new wisdom like the couple in the story so that they would not have to use orty thousand dollars. A connection was made as Sabrina then responded with a story of a woman who became pregnant right a er the adoption of a child occurred. We all laughed at the common occurrence of such an event. e husband told my friend and I that we were welcome to call and set up more times for gathering without the formality of an event. e next day, the host decided the Algerian couple was ready to receive the French/English bilingual Bible and delivered it to their apartment.

Hybrids of communication strategies must be an option when the predominant culture is combined with subcultures. While the evening together brought much more connection than hoped for, it also showed me that one would not be able to presume a typical category of shame/honor culture for this couple, especially with the mixture of secular and Christian culture with Su sm.

E ective Storytelling through Meta-narratives

In re ecting on the ongoing use of storytelling throughout Christian history, one sees repeatedly that it has a natural t for discipling through Scripture and testimonials that convey biblical principles. However, without the plumb line of a high view of Scripture, the current use of storytelling among churches with a low-view of Scripture becomes another missional topic.

According to the description of narrative theology in the book Missiological Research: Interdisciplinary Foundations, Methods, and Integration, editor and author Paul Lewis (2016, 101) describes a movement

| 171 in the discipline of theology, as narrative theology in which focusing on believers’ life occurrences and events as expressed through the form of a story or narrative are connecting people within a community building process. While relationships are enhanced through the positive e ects of testimonies shared, some observe the contribution of testimonies among faith groups to counter biblical stances. A young professional (Interview with college graduate, December 16, 2018) suggests considerations that testimonials or storytelling has become the liberal device for justifying any agenda a person might want to a rm. Storytelling within a University of Wisconsin Madison’s Presbyterian campus dinner gathering encourages congregants to embrace all lifestyles since the Bible is not the nal authority in their theological positions.

Lewis (2016, 101) notes syncretism as a danger without a biblical worldview that lters through stories. e local church becomes the fundamental community that protects and perpetuates a person’s story within the Christian metanarrative which acknowledges that ethics, beliefs, and actions are motivated, informed, and undergirded by narratives. However, the church in some cases has a lowview of Scripture. Preparing for interreligious storytelling may require the provision of metanarratives on the front end of storytelling in order to prevent unbiblical narratives, resulting in syncretism; weak biblical exegesis and failure to appropriate biblical truths may result in misleading Christ followers.

While it is commonly understood that Christ’s parables and power encounters were key tools designed to stir transformations in perspectives during His discourse, Christ provided continual metanarratives, such as in the miracles performed to Korazin and Bethsaida in which He denounced cities for a lack of repentance upon the demonstration of power (Matt. 11:21–23 and Luke 10:13–15). Well intentioned churches may err on the side of multiple meanings connected to the storytelling of Christians and religious others.

Yet storytelling remains a form in churches and the ontological critique because storytelling rituals satisfy the disciple’s need for evidence of the unseen. Testimonials by those experiencing life in Christ are common evidences of the prophetic, wisdom, and divine, all of which creatively bring a word of intervention into people’s lives to reroute the trajectory of their life stories. e latest videography used in churches provides viewers potential metanarratives which communicate evidence of life changes in water baptisms, life groups of fellowship and Bible study, mission outreaches and worship times.

Conveying perspectives through storytelling in order to transmit the desirable thought processing for best practices is documented from social science research. e World Science Festival. included a panel of researchers discussing the Science of Narrative: Why We Tell Stories which cited a study done at Toronto University, Canada (Haselschwerdt 2017). Researchers observed MRI brain activity responses to storytelling as they overlapped with neural processing for social understanding; there was some connection between storytelling and gained social understanding measured by responses to pictures shown a erward. Storytelling changed people’s way of thinking, but that change in thinking was temporary. While storytelling may not be enough to permanently change people’s way of thinking, sustaining the e ect of social change through story continues to be explored. Storytelling may need the metanarrative around story in order to sustain social change.

Eric Aasland (2012) refers to the idea of a metanarrative statement, sometimes referred to as narrativization, which summarizes the intended meaning of a proverb or saying following its presentation. Aaslund (2016) also writes on discourse modalities and highlights the need for three aspects: a narrative, proposition, and wisdom. e objective of a story has a proposition, which is followed by a proverb. e proverb helps listeners to understand the purpose of the story clearly when they are given a concluding phrase of wisdom highlighting the moral of the story. In application of highlighting the purpose of a conversation and initiating prayer with the Algerian couple, I did not want them to misunderstand the Christian prayer for a conception. When storytelling is followed by a concluding statement in order to keep the listener focused on the gist of the story, it can be customized to more e ectively witness Christ in the type of culture receiving the story.

Contextualizing Storytelling and Metanarrative for Middle Eastern Culture

Jayson Georges (2017) provides insight into what anthropologist Eugene Nida (1954) clari es as the three types of cultures based on the three primary emotional responses of guilt, shame, and fear: (1) A guilt or Innocence response is found in the individualistic western cultures that view wrongdoing as a transgression of law requiring forgiveness to become innocent. (2) A shame and honor response is found in collectivistic Asian and Arab cultures that shun people who fail to meet community expectations and require restoration to avoid exclusion. (3) A fear and power response is found in animistic tribal contexts of Africa in which the people fear the unseen world of spirits, curses, and ancestors, sometimes using magical rituals to gain power over the spiritual world.

In the case of developing further communication with the complex hybrid mixing the Middle Eastern and African cultures along with the Berber and Su version of Islam, the Saudi-Algerian couple having lived in the United States, may require a more nuanced metaphor by which to connect them to faith conversation. Although one might default to the recommended Middle Eastern honor and shame perspective, commonly understood American metaphors might be more current. Georges (2017, 41-42) lists key honor/shame scriptures and narratives: e man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame (Gen. 2:25). Jesus endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2). Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame (Rom. 10:11). For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Some of the narratives that could be e ective include the narratives of honor: Adam (Gen. 2), Ruth and Naomi (Ruth), and Israel (Ezek. 16).

Sociological Hindrances to Hospitality

Contempt for the Middle Eastern diaspora, may contribute to the downfall of the American church. According to Richard Beck (2011, 41), being hospitable toward others requires the absence of disdain or disgust for others; if one sees the other as ‘unclean,’ one is likely to disengage missionally, seeing the other as a cultural contaminant or de cit. Beck cites contempt for others among the guests at the Corinthian church’s re-enactment of the Lord’s Supper.

e discipline of family social sciences provides insight into the detrimental e ect of contempt; John Gottman’s research (Carrere and Gottman, 1999, cited in Beck 2011, 110) observed the indicators of failing emotional intimacy predicting divorce from the rst three minutes of a con ict discussion. Couples who showed contempt or disdain (a sense of superiority over the other) during the con ict instead of just anger during the rst three minutes of a con ict were more likely to eventually end up divorced compared to those whose con ict did not include disgust for the other. Contemptuous attitudes are lethal to the most intimate relationships and could prevent relationships to the diaspora from developing. e ethno-centrism of the average American can cut short crosscultural communication when the questions of newcomers center around how they like America. Instead, at an American Society of Missiology luncheon 2018, Professor Eric Aaslund (Interview with Eric Aaslund, June 15, 2018) shared that he advocates for the use of questions to draw out one’s origin of family and home rather than focusing on the adjustment to the newcomers’ current location. In applying more strategy in the types of questions, (Slimbach 2002) cross-cultural conversations produced a depth in the range of responses with those of Muslim background. e results of strategic questions created a more rigorous exchange that allowed further open-ended questions that allowed dialogue over spiritual topics. e Western perspective is another hindrance to e ectively communicating with the Middle Eastern diaspora. Tom A. Ste en (2005) advocates for a non-Western approach to discipleship through the use of storytelling as the most natural, universal, and e ective means that exists. Ste en identi es the roles and tasks necessary to become an e ective storyteller in another culture at home or abroad. Even such a strategy of intercultural communication may fail to be applied e ectively if one does not abide in the Holy Spirit who works to e ect a transformative intercultural interaction. Storytelling must be adapted through various forms to be e ective including media, songs, videos, and movies in order to convey a story.

e Damascus Road Experience

e South Side Venture is a joint e ort of the greater Milwaukee area churches and organizations providing a sustainable disciple-making movement among the unreached refugee and immigrant population on Milwaukee’s south side. South side’s workers have moved into the neighborhood in order to be catalysts in building relationships. e language center connected with Southside gains community involvement

175 from ministry programs and church organizations who desire to reach community members who are not likely to enter a church. It is through teaching English and helping with formal legal documents of immigrants that relationship is built, eventually allowing room for sharing the gospel through an established cross-cultural relationship.

A er a teacher friend nished English classes with four Middle Easterners, we drove up to the predominantly Latino district to park in a nearby business district in the historic Mitchell Street down the street from the well-maintained Basilica. Aarya (Interview with Iraqui Asylee, January 9, 2019) hosted us at the former Salas’ Burgers which was now a Syrian restaurant, e Damascus Gate. Aarya helped us to be comfortable, clarifying the menu items in Arabic.

Much to the surprise of my Milwaukee hostess friend and her Iraqi friend, we were greeted by the bearded man we had seen in the news coverage, a Milwaukee physician who had been the primary investor for the restaurant. On the business card it states: “More than a restaurant: A mission and a vision.” e physician was sporting the restaurant’s waiter sta t-shirt, explaining his presence due to a day o for a personal minor medical procedure. He ordered platters of food for us, telling us they want Americans to also enjoy the Middle Eastern cuisine. He was very hospitable and had the young twenty-something chef come out to do a brief interview.

When the young Syrian woman approached us, the physician explained to her that I would like to ask some questions. I smiled the biggest smile I could muster in hopes she would embrace us with ease. I asked Riham (Interview with restaurant chef, January 9, 2019) some questions as to how someone like myself could help build community with the Syrian newcomers to the United States. I did not expect such warmth in response when the translating physician said that my smile simply showed her that I have kind intentions toward her, and she knew I could be an authentic friend. She also jokingly said we could help if we teach her husband English so he can run the business. Realizing the open door, I asked her what she missed most from her homeland, and she surprised me with what she considered her lost treasures; she was missing the simplest pleasures, such as talking with girlfriends a er school in her neighborhood and the camaraderie of those relationships. It was clear her childlike heart had not been ready to leave all that she had known back in her Syrian upbringing.

In seeing Riham’s loss, no further questions were pursued as to why she le her childhood homeland; stirring up further emotion would have been a cruelty at that juncture with the lunch crowd nishing their meals in the restaurant, and no one likes to talk about ISIS terrorism. e rest of the interview focused on her recipes for the delicious sampler of baba ghanouj and homemade hummus.

I returned later in the spring to reconnect with Riham and this time she hugged me and kissed me on each cheek. She prepared some delicious lentil soup and warm pita for me as an employee translated for me. One of the employees (Interview with restaurant sta , June 17, 2019) explained that his father, upon seeing the impending wartime developing in Syria, established residence and a business in Dubai, United Arab of Emirates. A er the employee explained his thesis for his master’s degree in civil engineering, he assured that very helpful toward the research process I explained. A sense of belonging occurred within the restaurant sta and clientele interaction with an exchange of emails. ey handed out a yer for a National Refugee Day event their restaurant supported. ey o ered to help with any future research needed.

LifeWay Research (Cook 2018) suggests the following three steps to engage Muslims: (1) Learn the culture rst by being their guest as Jesus did, putting oneself in their place, such as in a Mosque or Middle Eastern restaurant or cultural celebration and learning their stories instead of inviting them into your domain rst and telling them your story. (2) Show hospitality just as Jesus frequently gathered with others over meals. e key is to use your home and recall Henri Nouwen’s statement that hospitality o ers people “space where change can take place.” Engaging people in real life and in natural places gives them a context for the gospel. (3) Prayer is essential. If you currently do not know any Muslims, begin with prayer. Over the next few weeks, pray for one or two new Muslim friends. As you pray, expect God to answer that prayer by making you more aware of the people around you and providing you with the possibility of new friendships.

According to the homogenous unit principle, people choose to group themselves into groups of people similar to themselves and become unconcerned with those of other groups. Kra (1991, 154) advocates for churches to transcend their homogeneous unit and potential cliquishness through (1) implementing learning experiences with dissimilar groups, (2) leveraging the stronger opinion leaders to adopt and communicate new ideas to the others, and (3) using ethical and loving means to motivate church people to reach out and show integrity toward the recipients. Once a church attains or strives toward these goals to overcome the barriers to cross-cultural relationship building, it is essential to develop a means of communication that transcends cultures. ere is the issue of communicating with someone who uses nonlinear reasoning that requires an alternative response. An Egyptian scholar Sobhi Malek (Malek 2013, 278) re ects that western missions to Muslim people are sometimes thrown o by the challenge of Islamic logic, as it is non-linear. Islamic logic allows for apparent contradictions that make sense to Muslims but are illogical to most Westerners. is cultural feature points to the fact that in drawing Muslims to Christ, a practical religious experience is far more important than theological reasoning and rational argumentation.

Storytelling transcends culture and can be formally or informally implemented to communicate, as illustrated in a video produced by Fuller eological Seminary’s Studio (Fuller 2015) on various conversations, including vital community building topics of reconciling race using the dinner table for others to tell their story:

Story Table ‒ a space made for unheard stories relevant to the “pain points” or topics relevant in one’s community, borrowing its mood from the intimate space of the dinner table in which a small group of non-homogenous friends or strangers, the “storytellers,” gather along with invited witnesses or observers who also share a meal and listen to the stories of the storytellers. Stories are selected to speak to a theme relevant to what the community is facing without turning it into a platform for opinions, political views, or favorite causes. e stories are heard and carried away with the recognition of their sacred nature. (Fuller 2015)

Across the readings in missiology, missiologists advocate contextualization of the gospel to the Middle Eastern diaspora in agreement with Paul who used Greek mythology references to help the Greeks to understand the message in Acts. Learning from historical gures point to relationships over apologetics with the goal of transformative in uence. Few are trained to communicate about the Quran and the Bible with Muslim listeners and scholars while existing as true friends, such as occurred when American missionary, Samuel Marinus Zwemer, nicknamed the Apostle to Islam, stood on a literal wooden soap box in London’s Hyde Park (Zwemer Center podcast, 2015) on a Sunday a ernoon challenging a Muslim crowd. Engaging a crowd on the politico-theological stage le one vulnerable and on the verge of inciting a violent crowd while shouting over the hecklers. Yet, a er the debate, the Muslims and Christians went out for tea and lunch connecting relationally as friends. ere they listened and respected each other’s beliefs, asked good questions, and exchanged numbers to have meals together. Apologists may be able to defend the case for the Trinity, discuss the resurrection of Christ, and answer Islam on many dimensions; however, it was through the meal times and tea times in which friendships developed despite participation in the heckling crowd, according to Dr. Daniel Jonosik of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies.

Lack of involvement among neighbors all too o en inadvertently communicates superiority of holiness, exclusion, and hypocrisy in the mandate to love the neighbor as oneself. is trend exists in other parts of the world as well. According to a Korean Presbyterian pastor and seminary professor, (Lee 2015, 56) there is lack of desire on the part of Christians to see, hear, and care for their neighbors. Listening to one’s neighbor is not a technique; in order to truly hear the sigh of one’s neighbor in missional terms, the church must create listening eyes and hearts to pay attention to the sigh of the least of its neighbors, (196) not simply to ensure they receive a shallow understanding of salvation but rather to converse as part of where the Spirit of God is at work in their lives and neighborhoods.

Another strategic approach for engaging intercultural communication includes conversing about one’s perspective on current social injustices. O en refugees of war bring up the past injustices to self, family, and country. Matthew Kaemingk, theologian and ethicist, (Kaemingk 2018) encourages one to go beyond theories of justice to micro-practices of hospitality that focus on healing, listening, caring, reconciling, forgiving, and welcoming.

Kra (1991, 85) notes a key aspect in e ective cross-cultural communication; the priority for any communicator is to win and retain the permission of the receptors to enter their communicational space. Once given permission by the receptor to engage in a communicational transaction, one’s communication and intended cultural forms or symbols through which the message is communicated must be accompanied by an understanding of the cultural forms. Kra (1991, 81) references the receptors of Lystra following the healing of a man lame since birth: “ e gods have become like men and have come down to us!” was followed by the crowds wanting to o er sacri ces to the apostles in deifying them. is example provides a view of the sovereignty of the receptor despite the intended meaning to bring healing for lame man in order to bring glory to God. Paul and Barnabus had to go into the crowd to keep them from sacri cing in Acts 14.

A receptor (Kra 1991) may misinterpret the meaning of an event through religious lters that include cultural meanings and conventions learned in childhood, but also with variables including personality, traumatic experiences, education levels, special needs, drug use, physical health, and mental health along with how a receptor’s culture would interpret communication.

Another aspect in developing an integrated communication strategy for reaching the religious other from Middle Eastern Islam requires determining the context by the particular sect of Islam and any cultural beliefs practiced. Especially important are any beliefs or practices that may be destructive to their physical, mental, or spiritual well-being related to the practices of Jihad and other terrorist acts.

While there are ve majority Islamic sects (Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadis, Su s and Nominal Muslims), Sunnis are the majority of Middle Eastern newcomers and may be the majority of the predicted focus group in the research phase of this dissertation. Furthermore, many of the Muslims are nominal believers, and the imminent and radical changes in Islam during the twenty rst century may trend toward a post-Islamic era in which Muslims become secular.

Variations within the Islamic sects can be di cult to navigate unless one understands the whole spectrum of beliefs. One facet to the diaspora includes those Muslims who identify with the Islamic reform movement in which believers return back to the Meccan Islam rather than the jihad of Medina Islam that fueled ISIS and Boko Haram terrorist groups. Kra (1991, 67) speaks about a bridge over the gaps of language, life experience, and tradition; before one can witness to religious others e ectively, one must rst understand their worldview as well as the super cial or deep commitment they have to that view. Since they are the receiver or receptor, they actively decide their response to the communicated message, possessing the nal evaluation or interpretation whether right or wrong on the delivered message.

Secondly, the integrated communication strategy for reaching the Syrian diaspora, primarily of Sunni Muslim background, requires a multidisciplinary approach including (Kaemingk 2018, 300–304) navigating politics, psychology, discourse, anthropology, and theology. Listening to any trauma experienced as a refugee, hearing their places of pain and loss, helping them converse and process culture shock, all are steps to journeying with the diaspora through disillusionment over Islam or in a liminal state.

Once the friendship is mutually established, conversation may include (Global Initiative 2018, 134–35) (1) giving the written Word of God, (2) making positive statements of belief, (3) giving a personal testimony, (4) resisting the temptation to criticize Islamic faith, (5) trying to remove theological misunderstandings, and (6) remembering the primary issues (eternal life and current problems needing resolution). Appropriately placed, sacred stories or testimonies may be told in response to helping one to make more sense of a traumatic experience, act as a vehicle to deliver biblical principles that bring hope and peace in a storm of life.

Being informed of the di erences between cultures creates strategic approaches in cross-cultural relationships and storytelling orality through testimonies, biblical stories, music, or the arts. e six dimensions of cultural di erences include (Hofstede and Hofstede 2005): (1) power-distance, (2) collectivism/individualism, (3) masculine/feminine traits, (4) uncertainty/ avoidance, (5) long/short orientation, and (6) indulgence/restraint. One of the goals of Americans working stateside with Middle Easterners is to atten any superiority between the two cultures as well as put aside American individualism for a collectivistic approach when establishing a relationship, including an ongoing connection building.

Part of establishing a relationship in which each religious other may disrespect the religion of the other involves some attening of superiority in order for connecting. e intercultural communicator seeking to lead a Muslim to Christ (Moreau, A. Scott, Campbell, Evvy Hay, Greener, Susan

| 181 2014, 265) may nd it useful to appeal to shame, authority, and security in one’s story as their conversation partner values large power distance, honor, and collectivism. Furthermore, the rules for connecting with most honororiented cultures (2014, 273–274) require an ongoing social indebtedness rather than attempting to balance out or pay o any indebtedness, as the American individualistic society would be inclined to do. One should maintain a high interest in pursuing a patron-client relationship otherwise a lack of interest in staying connected may be communicated.

A former missionary to Pakistan and lecturer on Islam and Women’s Rights, Lynda Hausfeld (L. Hausfeld 2018) touched on women’s rights in the context of Islam’s underbelly, expressing the notion that one despises Islam in order to love Muslims. Hausfeld explains there is much to despise in Islam, including its institutionalized Halal prostitution of young girls under the guise of a temporary marriage license, provided courtesy of the Imam’s issued document granting a man the right to sexual grati cation services via sanctioned sex slaves when away from his wife on business. However, despite the contemptible religious practices that devalue, abuse, and harm women and girls and promote Jihad and the Dhimmitude system, the biblical mandate to make disciples of all nations remains.

From 2000 to 2013, there have been sixty-nine Muslim movements to Christ (Joshua 2019) from West Africa to Indonesia, encompassing forty-nine nations, compared to only eleven movements from 1980 to 2000. Contributing factors to these movements include disillusionment with Muslim extremism and violence, the representation of the gospel in a clear and contextually appropriate way, and the Holy Spirit visiting Muslims through dreams and visions.

Conclusion

e church must learn to be both a guest and a host in order to sit at the table with religious others. Once a church decides to sit at the table with the Middle Eastern diaspora in the United States, e ectively communicating the gospel to the religious others of a Muslim background will require some prerequisites. Not only must one overcome the sociological hindrances of disdain but also learn the keys to orality cultures, including contextualized metaphors that make sense to the honor/shame culture of the Middle Eastern diaspora when sharing gospel truths. Once these prerequisites are met, an honor/shame culture may eventually be reached through intercultural and interreligious dialogue between Islamic and Christian worldviews through storytelling whether it is through story, interview, music, art, or print. However, e ective interreligious dialogue will see the greatest in uence when one maintains a distinctive abiding in the power of Christ to witness through the Holy Spirit’s illumination during storytelling appropriated for the Middle Eastern perspective. e church must become aware of her ambivalence and hesitancy toward Muslim background community members and fully engage the Middle Eastern diaspora using a strategic orality approach. In his monograph on the diaspora of Muslims, former Assembly of God eological Seminary president and former missionary to Pakistan Mark Hausfeld states, “Today’s radical Islamic climate cannot be the Church’s excuse for abrasive, defensive responses, or for that matter, o enses” (2008, 3). Hausfeld further emphasizes the importance and attractiveness of the church to Muslims. (2008, 15–18) If the church includes a people of peace, a people of community, and a people of power rather than a people of war, individualism, and spiritual weakness, then Muslims will be drawn into the church.

Initiating an invitation to share one’s story in response to questions that focus on the other and their homeland and culture along with an invitation to share mealtime will facilitate an equitable relationship between oneself and the religious others. When equity exists between people of di erent worldviews, imperialististic attitudes are attened allowing a climate for contextualized communication in which a space is created for the possibility of a Gospel message or Christian witness.

Endnotes

1 All Scripture citations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New International Version.

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