Crescent Project Is An Example

For the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, CRC News has prepared aseries of stories about how the Christian Reformed Church and its members have responded – and what we have learned – in the last 10 years.

Joel Hogan, director of international ministries for Christian Reformed World Missions, says the CRC may use materials from the Crescent Project as it begins training congregations about how to share the love of Christ with Muslims.

The training will be done as part of the denomination’s new Advancing Ministry Among Muslims (AMAM) project.

The Crescent Project is only one of many programs and curricula available to help churches to respond to this issue. But it is one of the oldest and best known and can serve as an example of programs that are available.

Based in Indiana, The Crescent Project puts on seminars and workshops to train Christian churches and their members to tell the life-transforming story of Jesus to Muslims. The founder of the ministry is Fouad Masri.

One afternoon in 2010, Masri bustled into a coffee shop in Kalamazoo, Mich., for an interview. He was in town to speak about The Crescent Project at a local church.

Before answering questions, Masri turned on his laptop to check email and news stories involving Muslims and Christians around the world. As he clicked through websites, Masri explained that The Crescent Project works to replace fear with understanding and to build a sense of boldness and confidence among Christians who want to know more about Islam and to learn ways to share their faith with Muslims.

He said that the key mission of The Crescent Project is to build bridges that Christians and Muslims can cross to better communicate with one other. He also made it clear that The Crescent Project is not just about building bridges.

"We want to infect people who come to our trainings with the burden to reach people for Jesus . . . ," Masri said.  "We want to let Muslims know that we have hope worth sharing."

Masri, an ordained pastor, has been talking about Jesus to Muslims for more than 30 years. A native of Lebanon and the son of a Christian pastor, he says only a small percentage of the Muslims in the world have ever heard the full, Christian story of Jesus and his sacrifice.

"We teach people who come to our trainings that Islamic practices or rituals are different from Christian practices in that they are not driven by a relationship with God. Instead," he said, "Islamic practices are performed in submission to God."

Part of the problem is that the vast majority of Muslims have a skewed notion of what it means to be a Christian in North America, he said. "Many of the world's Muslims judge western Christianity by the television shows and movies that they see coming from America."

Some of this lack of knowledge and stereotyping, however, is disappearing. "Muslims are starting to hear the real message of Jesus. They are having dreams and visions, and they have crossed the bridge and are becoming followers of Jesus," says Masri.

Masri grew up in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The city was undergoing war between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel at the time. Exploding bombs and sniper fire were everyday occurrences. One of Masri's best friends was killed in the fighting, as were members of a family he knew very well.

After those deaths, he started to reflect on his own Christian faith. He wondered if he died in a similar explosion of violence, what would happen to him.

He left Beirut to attend college in North America. He returned to Lebanon for a time and then came back to the United States to attend Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

Out of his experience of living in a war-torn, Muslim-dominated culture, he decided to launch the Arab International Ministry, the forerunner of The Crescent Project, in 1993. Things went along smoothly, if somewhat slowly for the first few years.

Then came the terrorist attacks ofSept. 11, 2001. As the dust cleared and the body count mounted, Masri and his ministry were thrust into the spotlight.

From the start, Masri told audiences, reporters and newscasters that the 9/11 terrorists were driven by misguided politics and not necessarily by religion.

Masri said that the average church member has no idea how to reach out to Muslims. When many Christians think of Muslims, they think of terrorists or angry mobs filling streets.

They fail to see, says Masri, the longing in the hearts of many Muslims for a chance to get out from under the strictures of their faith. The many rules and strict moral code that Islam imposes can alienate that person from God/Allah.

"People say to me, 'Fouad all that you are trying to do is convert Muslims'. But our work is made up of so much more than that. I leave conversion in the hands of God."

In the past several years, Masri's organization has trained more than 16,000 Christians.

"You need to realize that your average Muslim is just like you or me. They care about their families. They want satisfying work and decent housing," he said. "Most of them are so busy living their lives that they don't have the time to destroy America, even if was something they wanted to do, which it isn't."

As he finished the interview, Masri said that the differences between Christianity and Islam boil down to one thing. "Christians have agape love, which is God or Christ's love for mankind, but those who believe in Islam don't."