Working with Muslims at Home

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

It was a Wednesday afternoon late in 2010 at a youth center operating in a former warehouse in a small Minnesota town.

As snow fell outside, young men played air hockey and pool; some sipped coffee at tables; others were working at computers, and still others were reading literature in the center’s small library.

They all came together after a while for prayer given by the youth minister of the nearby Christian Reformed Church.

For the uninitiated, it was difficult to see that the youth center was a welcoming place for young Somali Muslims living in the area. They mixed with Christian young people at the center, having fun, making noise, doing what teenagers do.

Many Somalis moved into the town in recent years to work at area factories.

The CRC congregation decided to welcome them in various manners.

"If you show an interest, the young Muslims will reciprocate," said the youth minister. "Fear may be there for some people, but I don't feel threatened in any way."

The outreach in Minnesota is one example of the type of ministry that congregations in the Christian Reformed Church in North America and individuals are exploring as a way of building relationships with Muslims in North America and around the world.

Here are other examples.

Muslims from abroad and other immigrants were bent over notebooks and speaking in soft voices with their mentors at tables one recent evening inside a large CRC church in the Midwestern U.S.

It was the night for English-as-a-second language lessons at the church.

Immigrants from a nearby apartment complex and elsewhere come to the church once a week to learn the language of their newly adopted country.

The church also offers a special Sunday service for immigrants from many countries, at which the preaching is in English, but basic, simple language is used. The immigrant group will meet at times with the larger congregation in the main sanctuary for the Lord’s Supper.

The church has also provided a garden space for those who live in a nearby apartment complex.

Then there is a Christian Reformed Church minister who has a congregation of Muslims on the streets of a city in North America. For several years, he has visited with Muslims in coffee shops, parks, convenience stores, open-air markets.

He meets Muslims where they are and tries to show them as much by example as by words his love for Christ. He talks to Muslims on street corners, and inside of mosques. He tutors them along with his wife.

"The idea is you go where they are and don’t make them come to where you are," he says. "You talk to them about any and everything. You get to know them.

"My love for Muslims is pretty strong, and I hope they can see that in me. I try not to be pushy or to be a phony. I’m there as, I hope, a living, breathing example of the love and grace we have in Jesus Christ."