Near East Christian Council Inquiry on the Evangelization of Moslems: Report

Nine-tenths of non-Christian people in the Near East are Moslems, the Near East is the home and the base of Islam. Hence the concern which has prompted this inquiry. Feeling that missionary work among Moslems has not produced the results that ought to be expected from so much sacrifice and labor, the Near East Christian Council has undertaken to study the causes of the relative sterility of this field, and to discover if possible ways of making these efforts more effective.

Part I is an effort to state, in very brief compass, some creative suggestions which have grown out of this Inquiry. For the form of this statement of findings the writer is alone responsible, as he was asked to conduct the Inquiry. But the many hours of earnest study that have gone into this Inquiry, and the thoughtful letters that have embodied the results of that study, are the joint contribution of a large number of busy and earnest people directly engaged in the effort being studied; the aim of this report is to make available for all some of the fruits of this sacrificial effort. Whether or not they shall be so accepted depends on whether in the light of practical and prayerful thought and experiment, these suggestions prove to be sound and worthy of application. But I think it is only fair to say that if the findings thus presented are valid and right, there must be some definite and perhaps radical changes in the attitudes, methods and thinking of many Christian workers whose main business is the presentation of Christ to the Moslem, and who either have not yet thought these things through, or have felt in duty bound to follow the traditional lines of presentation. It would be a sad miscarriage of all this costly effort if this report is merely read with approval or disapproval and filed away. Its most fervent purpose is, after calling attention to what is wrong with present methods, to stir Christian workers to press on till they themselves discover the actual paths that can avoid that wrong.

Part II. Limitations of space and of the patience of readers have dictated the selection of a few quotations from the very large amount of available material. The effort has been to present samples of all the various lines of thinking, but no effort has been made to indicate the proportion of answers showing each trend. As a matter of fact, the answers that have pointed out objections to the new suggestions are quoted in much greater detail than the very much greater number of replies which indicated general agreement. Nor have I tried to decide which is the best statement of any point of view, but have rather selected the briefest.