The best way to get to know a community is to spend time experiencing it. Living it. Breathing it. Enjoying it. Dreaming the best for it. At City to City last year in New York they called these experiences “cultural moments”. A cultural moment is any time you spend getting to know and understand the community you are hoping to church plant in. They told us to try to have thousands of those moments, by meeting people, going to shows, walking the streets, before you try plant a church that you hope will be relevant for the area. I would just like to share two of my moments this past week in Newham, London. Both specifically about Islam.
Open but very closed!
The building right next to where our church plant meets is a community centre called the Flanders Centre. Every Friday lunchtime as I am nipping out for a bite, the Flanders centre is flooded with hundreds of Muslim men for prayers. It’s always a fun experience walking past, having the occasional brief chat with them as they go in or are handing out leaflets. This week though was a little different.
In London at the moment we are experiencing fantastically hot weather. So as I left last Friday to go home the fire escape doors were open to the Flanders Centre to let fresh air in. So I could see what was going on in the hall. More than just see, I could hear. I could hear a man singing. Well I soon realised he wasn't just singing. He was actually preaching. His singing was interspersed with talking, in what I assume was Arabic. You see, the singing was him actually quoting the Quran. I stood there and watched for a few minutes not understand a word of what was spoken but at the same time learning plenty about this culture on my doorstep.
I was amazed by the level of Quran knowledge the preacher had (he could probably recite the whole book). I was impressed by the number of men in the congregation. Yes, I know women are not allowed but still how many churches do I know in Newham with more than 50 men? The Islam this guy was preaching was obviously attractive to them. However, I think the overwhelming feeling I came away with was how closed this meeting was, even with open doors.
I couldn't understand what was being taught. I have never been invited in. Never even greeted with a smile I walk by. For a faith that is supposed to reach outsiders it didn't seem that interested in anyone who isn’t like them.
As I started to walk away I thought, “They may not be interested in stepping closer to me to share Islam but I need to take steps closer to them in order to share Jesus.”
"To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law." 1Corinthians 9:20
Closed but very open!
Yesterday we dedicated a little boy into our church family and afterwards we went to the park for a picnic. I had to take my son home for a quick nap before we went to the park. When he and I finally got there, none of the people were where we said we would meet. I knew they would still be around but because it was so hot I decided to take a break in the shade before I started looking for them. So I sat down with Gabriel.
About 20 meters away was a group of young Muslim girls aged around twentyish. All but one of them ran off to look at the fountain. To my surprise the last one walked right up to me dressed in a full hijab. Covering everything but her face. She had a very warm smile. The first thing she said to me was, “Hello, you have a really cute son. Do you mind if I sit with you both for a while?”
You have to pause and understand the enormity of this question. Muslim women usually are not allowed to talk to men, especially one their own, even in a public park. What was I going to say? “No at all, please do” I replied.
She sat down and glowing with smiles at my son, who was looking grumpy but cute as ever. It didn’t take long for her to break him down and eventually her smile caused him to beam back. She openly talked about her new found interest in babies. She is getting married in a month and was fascinated by marriage and children. We talked about the joys of marriage, parenthood and in laws. Waiting to have children or having them straight away.
I congratulated her on the coming marriage and said “Marriage and children are a wonderful blessing from God!” So that started her asking about my faith. We must have talked for about 10 minutes before her friends and mine both turned up around the same time. So we said goodbye.
As I was walking away she shouted back. “Don’t forget you sons football!” As I turned around she had pulled up her hijab to even cover her smile. But I could still see that she was smiling.
A very different experience from the first. The face of Islam we often see in the west is closed and distant but that doesn't mean all Muslims are cold and distant. This girl was born and grew up in the Newham. She is a second generation British Muslim. She grew up without fear of British people or Christians. If the first experience left me feeling pushed away this one was the exact opposite.
It was a helpful reminder to me not to judge a person by their hijab. In many ways we were exact opposites. She a Muslim girl, me a western Christian man. But behind that veil was a person who was interested in similar things to me, who was scared of the same things as me, we may be different... but maybe not as much as first appears.
As I walked away I thought, “I can relate to Muslims for Jesus. Because behind every hijab there is a person not too different to me.”
Final thought
"Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility!" Ephesians 2:13-14Remember as Christians we do not need to be afraid of other cultures no matter how different they seem. We have a perfect Saviour who stepped into our fallen human world. No matter how far away any culture any appear from your own it is no comparison to how different Jesus was to this world.
Jesus didn't worry about being effected by us...
Jesus loved us and sacrificed the comforts of His home in Heaven to step into our shoes to bring us a Gospel of reconciliation...
Reconciliation that not only bridges the gap between us and others but bridges the impossible gap between us and God!
