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Welcome to this issue of Equip for Ministry. Putting together these bi-monthly issues is one of our most enjoyable challenges at Christian Education and Publications. At times we wonder, given who we are in the PCA and our particular role in the great commission, are we touching on the right areas? Are we sensitive to the readers? Are we bringing together the most helpful and practical ideas and methods that Christians and Christian leaders should be aware of? Are we writing and thinking only for ourselves, preaching to the choir, as it has been said, we regularly ask? We know that we cannot be all things to all people in every issue but with our entire publication, training, and education ministry we are committed to helping raise up a generation of adults and youth who are self-consciously intentional in understanding and applying biblical truth to the challenges of daily life.

When I was a pastor, my philosophy of ministry was to preach and teach God’s Word to His people which required as much knowledge and involvement in their lives as possible. I found it challenging and helpful to know those people. It helped me in my preparation as well as method of ministry. It is not as easy to minister to strangers. The shepherd knows his sheep. But the shepherd also knows something of the environment in which the flock lives. “Knowing the Word and knowing the world” has been my motto because I believe we are responsible to bring God’s Word to this world in a way that promotes understanding, commitment, and discipleship.

One adjustment I had to make years ago when I became the Coordinator of CE&P was that I no longer had the ongoing geographic contact with the people. I do not always know the particular circumstances as I preach and teach in various PCA churches, and do not have the encouragement of seeing immediate results. The Adversary often tries to discourage us and convince us that we are not accomplishing much. I often console myself with Paul’s words to the Corinthians, that he plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.

What does this testimonial have to do with Equip for Ministry? Simply that in the past several months we have been encouraged from the responses from our readers. There is a book in the review section written by a PCA teaching elder. He sent me a copy with a letter thanking me for encouraging him (through writing articles in Equip and addressing those issues in other settings) to write the book. A missionary told me that he reads every word of the magazine and especially appreciates the book reviews. Another missionary shared that some of the topics in EfM challenged him to develop a biblically reformed approach to Christian education on the field. A ruling elder in an organizing church wanted to learn more about some of the things he was reading in EfM and traveled to Atlanta to discuss them. These are just a few examples.

Responding to questions and feedback, we have reformatted the Changeless Truths section. In Case You’re Asked… deals with doctrine without a lot of theological jargon. While we hope to encourage pastors, the immediate target audience of this feature is the adults and youth of the church. If we use technical terminology in that section, it is because we believe it is important to the topic at hand. We want to be sound, helpful, and encouraging. Christians need to know how to talk about their faith today without being intimidated and without apologizing.

We want to promote biblically reformed Christian education in all of our ministry at CE&P. I was deeply disappointment when a minister friend of mine said to me, “I am not doing Christian education in our church; I am now the minister of adult discipleship.” I had to ask him what the difference was? He should have known better. Christian education, at least from our perspective, is making disciples who think biblically. That effort requires the cooperation of the church, home, and school. In this issue we asked Robert Rogland, a teaching elder and member of our CE&P Committee who is involved in Christian day school, to write about that.

We have reviewed several books that we believe are extremely important and helpful in accomplishing our task-especially Chuck Colson’s book, John Frame’s timely and masterful book, and Nathan Lewis’ helpful, reader-friendly book. We have also included some information about a number of important events and resources that we believe you need to be aware of.

Please know that our objective is not simply to produce a magazine but rather to provide a publication that encourages you to think and live more like Jesus Christ. With that objective, we dedicate this and each issue to the glory of God.

Welcome to the first issue of Equip for Ministry for 2002. We are entering this new year with new and urgent challenges at home and abroad. We are making adjustments in ordinary, everyday procedures that we would have thought unnecessary a few years ago.

For those of us who travel, seeing armed guards in U.S. airports is a new experience, but not for our world neighbors. God has been good to North America, sparing us from difficulties that many countries have endured for years regarding terrorism, military presence, and basic concern for life. But now those things are here and we see daily reminders that our world is different.

Our culture continues to undergo change and flux. Nothing is the same anymore. Relationships are tense; the level of suspicion has risen and the level of trust has decreased. We are rethinking the concept of “Whose neighbor am I?”

Just last night on several news channels I heard discussions and interviews regarding Muslims and how America should proceed. In the late 1980s I wrote a book called Changing Trends In Missions, A shift in the mission paradigm. In the chapter “The Muslim Challenge,” I wrote, “How to evangelize and disciple Muslims has to be one of the most important issues in missiology today for the sake of winning some to Christ. From all I have gleaned from studies, limited contacts and interviews, the traditional Western ways are not, nor will they be effective in evangelizing the Muslims. Missionaries are struggling with this methodological question. What must I be and do for the sake of winning some to Christ?” (page 123).

Now fifteen years later, in light of recent events and the growth of Islam around the world and in America, how true that statement is! We cannot look the other way or bury our heads in the sand. Muslims and their mosques are springing up everywhere. We must understand this rapidly growing religion. We must be instructed (perhaps even a bit shamed) by the closing statements in the Equip Tip regarding Christians’ relationships with Muslims.

September 11, 2001 has made us more aware of the Muslim presence in our culture than ever before. Only the Gospel will slow Islam’s impact and growth in North America and around the world. One good thing emerging from the acts of war on that Tuesday morning is that God is getting attention. And we are to be his witnesses and ambassadors. It is hard to be an effective witness without talking or listening.

Relationships are not only the key to ministry in this postmodern world, but also to reaching Muslim neighbors. The lead article, an interview with PCA teaching elder Dr. Anees Zaka, puts this challenge before our readers and offers instruction, training, and resources to assist in the task. This is a dangerous task at the global level; many missionaries are unable to use their real names for safety reasons. Though we do not have exactly the same concerns in America, it is dangerous here as well because Islam continues to grow and Muslims are penetrating our culture, religiously, politically, and educationally.

I hope you will encourage your church members and families to read and study Islam. The Many Faces of Faith (reviewed in this issue), is a brief but valuable synopsis of key world religions. Several other resources that could help increase awareness, understanding, and ministry are reviewed as well: The Cross or the Crescent (a video) and Understanding Islam, What You Need To Know About Islam and Muslims. We also include George Barna’s Real Teens because of our focus to reach the children and teens of the millennial generation.

The Changeless Truths section takes on a slightly different look beginning with this issue. “In Case You’re Asked…” will set forth doctrines aimed at helping you to dialogue with others. The topic in this issue is “theodicy.”

Please share your copy of Equip for Ministry with your friends. I recently visited a mission station in another country and was encouraged to meet a PCA missionary family who thanked me for Equip, saying they read it from cover to cover. And at a recent Women in the Church meeting in the western region several people expressed their appreciation for the magazine. We want you to benefit from each issue. We deal with important topics geared to lay people. We attempt to keep relevant, helpful, and carefully selected resources before you. Our content, ads, and reviews are carefully selected with you in mind.

Enjoy this issue, but be challenged. Commit yourselves to more prayer and involvement in understanding our world and to be a shining light in darkness. Those of you in leadership and teaching roles, integrate the information into your church and community ministry.

This article was written a couple of weeks after the tragic acts of terrorism in the United States. The world, particularly the U. S. was stunned but not shocked by the awful acts of evil on September 11, 2001. We were not shocked because reports such as the CIA 2015 Report were warning of such an attack, though the time and specific execution were not clearly known. Now without a doubt the new form of warfare (terrorism) has been thrust upon us and the rest of the world. Things will never be the same, and they should not be.

The triune God and the Christian consensus that were ingredients in building this great nation (though we were never officially a Christian nation), have been increasingly dismissed during the twentieth century and replaced with a post-modern paradigm where God, if there is a god, has no resemblance to the God of the Bible and the Christian faith. Consequently, morals and spiritual values have taken a nosedive. Who is to say what is right or wrong, moral or immoral? Those are, according to postmodernism, non-definable, hence nonsensical concepts. Individuals, groups, and nations do not ignore, abandon, or redefine God without suffering the consequences. How the events of September 11 will play into all of this will be determined as time moves forward. They may be a wake-up call to truth and reality or we may simply continue the present pattern.

Americans are very religious. Gallup polls indicate that 95 percent of American people believe in God or some supreme being. We know from Scripture that man is made in the image of God, and therefore inherently religious. The Bible teaches that we either worship the true God or we worship false gods, whether they be physical idols that have to be nailed down, or other lifeless images, or even man himself. Built into the warp and woof of American history has been the belief in the one true God; yet, the framers of our Constitution chose to allow the freedom of the expression of one’s religion by a “chartered pluralism.” Of course when the Constitution was adopted pluralism existed generally within a Christian framework. In today’s setting pluralism has a far broader connotation. There are more than 150 organized religions in America, more than any other nation in the civilized world according to anthropologists and missiologists.

America’s landscape has undergone drastic change, and we hardly recognize it even from fifty years ago. With pluralism and the acceleration of global immigration have brought our nation to the brink of uncertainty about who we are. The American motto, E pluribus unum (out of many, one), once so proudly hailed has, in practice, been reversed to “out of one, many.” Christianity is waning; other religions are growing. The fastest growing religion in America is Islam. Muslims now outnumber Presbyterians and Anglicans combined. There are Mosques in every major U. S. city. The growth has come not only from immigration but also by marriage, birth, and conversion.

One statistic shows that Islam is growing five hundred times faster than Christianity on the world scene. Though Arabia is still its heart and Mecca and Medina its capitals, globally there are over one billion Muslims. Eighteen percent of the world population professes to embrace the Islamic faith. Think about that for a moment! Everyday over one billion people perform their Shahadah, their confession that “there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”

In the good providence of God, the tragic, wicked, and evil events of September 11 may have given us an opportunity to dialogue with our Muslim neighbors, especially in America, in a new way. There may be an opportunity of willingness to dialogue, to build bridges, to reach out towards those who embrace that faith. Many Muslims were grief stricken along with us over the loss of so many lives from so many different countries including their own countries of origin. Many Muslims have not embraced the radical fringes of Islam and are quick to want us to know that. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful blessing to see God working through us to turn that tragedy around as we seize the moment and take advantage of the possible open door to share Christ with those who we would normally shun or avoid?

Here are some suggestions to begin an action plan: Read a good book or use a video that explains the Islamic faith. Understand what Muslims believe. (We offer several books in the CE&P Bookstore, www.cepbookstore.com or 800.283.1357. In particular: Ten Steps in Witnessing to Muslims by Anees Zaka, Muslims and Christians at the Table, by Anees Zaka and Bruce McDowell, and Muslim and Christian Beliefs, also by Zaka and McDowell. Our Video Library also has some helpful videos, 678.825.1116.) Use these resources and look for an opportunity to reach out to those for whom Christ died. Seek to bridge into the lives of those whose religion differs from the Christian faith in order to care for them and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (The Heart of Evangelism, by Jerram Barrs, reviewed in this issue will be of great help.) The need for community has never been greater and the opportunity has never been more clearly set before us. We could be instrumental in changing the cry, “there is no god but Allah,” to “there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” Joseph, the patriarch, was on target when he said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil” (NLT).

I grew up in the church. More accurately, in the Sunday school. That was the requirement; worship services were optional.I was the kid every Sunday school teacher dreads. In the Kindergarten department I stood up when everybody else was sitting down, and vice versa. I talked when we were supposed to be silent. And when we were supposed to talk or sing I didn’t. It was so bad that at one point it was suggested to my mother that I might be retarded.

Somewhere around the fourth grade I was held back. I think I’m the only kid in the history of Sunday school who ever flunked. It was because my friend Jim McLean and I caused so much trouble. We had to be separated: he was put up, I was held back.I’m the kid who didn’t put his money in the offering. I bought candy on the way home. I’m the one who remembers the Junior Superintendent week after week going over the verse in James: “Be ye doers of the word and not hears only.” I had no idea what the lady was talking about. I first remembered hearing the gospel at the Billy Graham rally at age 15. I had attended catechetical classes and joined the church when I was 12.

Yet I’m committed to the Sunday school. Even though in many places it’s an anachronism. And for the most part kids like me don’t attend any more. Still it’s the one church program more people attend on a regular basis than any other. Sunday school and the worship service are bound together in the minds of many.

Some churches have focused on the small group or the house church but often the missing ingredient is the children. How are they nurtured? In places where children, especially older ones, attend Sunday school while parents are in worship, the missing ingredient is worship. (That’s become a significant problem where there are simultaneous Sunday school and worship schedules.) The children don’t experience God’s people of all ages coming together to enter the presence of God.But if Sunday school doesn’t do any more for others than it did for me, what’s the point? That’s a powerful argument.

What is needed is a fresh vision for that venerable institution. Maybe run it on a semester system with significant breaks so that there is a clear beginning and end. Perhaps use it as a means to mentor young people or develop high school students as mentors (which would give teachers and leaders a whole new area of responsibility).

I acted out in part because I felt horribly inferior. I wanted attention and chose the best way I knew to get it. By God’s grace things have worked out well for me. But it could have just as easily gone another way. I was on my way to becoming a bum.

Too many Sunday school teachers are going through the motions-not putting much into it, not expecting much to happen in the lives of those who come. That might be the biggest thing a fresh vision would address. We all want to be part of something significant. To think that what we are doing is worthwhile. And what is more important than to help set the direction of a child, or a teen, or an adult toward the Kingdom of God? Teacher it could turn your life upside down.