The Next Phase of Salaam

Over the years, Greg Sinclair has met many types of people who share his passion for ministry to Muslims.

He’s met church members who are unsure how to interact with the growing number of Muslim immigrants. College students who have Muslim friends. Youth program leaders who have a growing number of Muslim children in their neighborhood after-school program.

As the project manager for the Christian Reformed Church’s Salaam Project, Sinclair connected with all these types of people, among many others.

Now he is taking some of the strongest ministry connections that he made in the last three years to the next level with Salaam’s second phase of ministry—Salaam 2.0.

As the name suggests, Salaam 2.0 is a re-focused version of the Salaam Project. More specifically, Sinclair will focus efforts on some of Canada’s largest urban areas—Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, and Calgary.

“The time is right for the Salaam 2.0,” said Sinclair. “Muslims are settling in Canada and they are our neighbors.”

And the number of those neighbors grows every day.

In fact, there are 500,000 Muslims living in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. That number is predicted to rise to 2.1 million by the year 2031. 

One of the most important connections that Sinclair has made came through a woman named Fran. What started as an invitation to pray with a group at Fran’s home led to conversations about her involvement with the Canadian Network of Ministries to Muslims (CNMM). 

Moving forward, CNMM will be a key partner with Salaam 2.0, says Sinclair.

“As I got to know CMNN and the work they are doing, holding seminars, teaching in churches, and even using the same curriculum, I realized that a partnership with them made so much sense,” he said.

One of the reasons this makes sense is CNMM’s existing network of interdenominational trainers who have experience in Muslim ministry. Still, this comes with a new challenge.

“Now the challenge will be to bring the CRC into that wider conversation,” said Sinclair.

One of the areas where the CRC already has a unique ministry to Muslims is in Mission Montreal, a collaborative effort of Christian Reformed Home Missions, Christian Reformed World Missions, Diaconal Ministries Canada, First CRC Montreal, Classis Eastern Canada, and a partner ministry called Christian Direction.

As part of Salaam 2.0, Sinclair will be working with this existing ministry to share ideas about Muslim outreach not only in Montreal but all over the world.

Together with Mission Montreal’s Chad Pollito, Sinclair has taken part in monthly calls with people involved in Islamic contexts in Oman, Lebanon, Egypt, the United States, and Bangladesh.

“Together, we get dialogue going about practices that are working well and how we can we use them in other contexts.”

In all of his work, Sinclair says the key is opening doors for conversation.

“I’m always impressed that people of other faiths are very happy to talk about religion,” he said. “But I think sometimes we are afraid to talk to them because we don’t think they want to talk to us . . . Our fear causes our witness to suffer.”

The next steps for Salaam 2.0 will include continuing to help
Canadian CRC congregations engage their Muslim neighbors.

Sinclair said Salaam 2.0 will equip members of the CRC in Canada to engage their Muslim neighbors through:

• Dialogue – Proactively seek to develop relationships with Muslim brothers and sisters.
• Witness – Living lives of joy as examples of Christ’s love.
• Peacemaking – Salaam 2.0 will provide a voice for peace between Muslims and Christians in Canada and around the world.
• Hospitality – Salaam 2.0 will help to bring down barriers to hospitality.

If you of your church would like to be a part of this growing network, contact Greg Sinclair at [email protected].