“So, first time to know about Christianity [was] from my friends at school and my neighborhood. I live near a Catholic Church and Christian [Protestant] Church in [part of Indonesia].…”

While on a short-term mission trip to North Africa with Anglican Frontier Missions during the fall of 2022, we were encouraged by the rector of our host church to explore further south where the population is primarily composed of the Berber people group. There was something there he wanted us to discover, and we saw the twinkle in his eye!

Two things got us interested in ministry to and among Muslims. One, studying church history and learning that so many of the places that were key in the early days—Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Antioch, Carthage—are almost entirely Muslim today. Two, I took a stripped-down version of a great course, Perspectives in World Missions, and learned that a large portion of the world’s Muslims do not have access to the gospel or a local Christian community.

What of the Nicene Creed (or the Nicene-Constantinopalitan Creed, for those who wish to be more detailed)?

What do Muslim believe? That there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet. That is the shahada of Islam.

I am an Anglican priest in Madrid, Spain. I often observe this practice of letting the practices of our tiny Protestant community be determined to a great extent by not doing what the Roman Catholics do. I understand the historical and contextual reasons for this practice. But in the long run it is not a recipe for fruitfulness. In the same way, the winsomeness of the Christian faith should be allowed to stand on its own.

Familiarity with history also allows for the recognition of self-worth and value for one’s local Christian community. It was striking to see how CMBs in North Africa were energized by hearing that their local bishop martyr, Cyprian, had made such a lasting and profound impact on Christian theology and ecclesiology.

I was recently interviewed for Escritorio Anglicano (The Anglican Desk), which is a Spanish blog for all things Anglican. The interview touched on various things—how I became Anglican, religion in Spain, and so on.

Over the years I’ve done a great deal of teaching on Islam and Christianity.… I note that there is one question that people almost always ask: what exactly is the shari’a? Where does it come from?

More Muslims have converted to the Way of Jesus Christ in the last four decades than in all the other years since the advent of Islam in the 7th Century. Something is certainly happening among Muslims and there is an openness in their society that was not there before.

Churches and ministries approach me with questions about ministry to Muslims and ask for our advice and help quite often. It is a part of our ministry I really enjoy. One of the most common questions is, how do we meet Muslims?

I’ve been an Anglican minister working for, with, and among Muslims now for well over a decade--much of that in Muslim-majority cities and countries. In the Muslim world there is no concern about integration.