How to evangelize a Muslim

From what I have been told and what I have experienced in dealing with the Muslims is that the missionary will have to make sure God is with him. That means that each time you speak, you need to let the Holy Spirit speak through you. Saying something at the wrong time can completely kill the opportunity to witness to them. It is important to present the truth of the Word of God at the right time.

I will attempt to give some helpful hints on how to win Muslims to Jesus, from what I have experienced, from what I have learned, from other missionaries, and other former Muslims that have been saved by the grace of God.  It will almost never happen the first time you talk with them.  Actually you have to be very careful (that would be hard for some people I know) in what you say or you might not get another chance. Here is a list of some things that will help:

1.  Learn and respect how they live. The Africans have many customs and it really touches their hearts when you learn how to fit in. For instance, I always watch what they do. I usually let one of the preacher boys go first into their yards and I do what they do. They shake hands a certain way and as they shake hands they do a semi-bow which is a sign of respect. I don’t always understand what is going on but I am always watching what the others do and try to do the same. In the Northern part of Togo it is very rude and very offensive to cross your legs or show the bottom of your feet.  Also never shake or eat with your left hand, as that is offensive because their left hand is their dirty hand.

2. Gain a Friend. Respecting their culture leads to the most important thing in winning a Muslim, friendship.  The Muslims will not be won by one visit by a stranger. You have to develop a friendship with them. It will not be a friendship that is an “I will see you once in a blue moon” type of friendship, either. By respecting what they do I have made many Muslim friends.  Many missionaries do not care about creating a friendship with the Muslims and this is what hinders their ministries.

3.  Present the truth.  I would not recommend saying that Mohammed is a liar the first time you talk with them as that will be the end of the conversation. Present Jesus to them and show them that the Bible is the Word of God. They use and believe much of the Old Testament, and you can use that to present Jesus. They also believe that Jesus was a good man and a wonderful prophet. You will need to learn what to say and when to say it. Do not attack what they believe at the beginning but plant the seed of the Word of God in their heart. 

4.  Show them a changed life.  A month and a half ago, a young man named Wedson and I were visiting is his village. He was a Muslim before accepting Christ and is now called to preach, in the Bible Institute, and on fire for the Lord. He was able to win his twin brother to the Lord a few years ago after talking with him for over two years. As we were visiting, we came across 7 young Muslim men between 20-30 years old. We sat down and did the customary things.  I then passed out tracts to each one and continued to explain why we were there. The leader of the group collected all the tracts and gave them back except for his. Then Wedson began to preach and tell them what God had done in his life. After 20 minutes, one of the men spoke up, (interrupting Wedson) and said he wanted those tracts and then all the rest of the young men said they wanted them too. Well, I preached for a few minutes after that and then we left. They were all amazed because of the change in Wedson’s life. A few nights later, one of the young men in the group stopped by the church and talked with Wedson’s brother and said that he knew we are telling him the truth and that he is coming to church Sunday.

            I had been having Bible studies with Wedson’s father for seven months. Each time, without an exception, he would say the same thing, “Thanks for the Bible Study but what you have and what I have are the same thing.” I tried to convince him but never could for seven months. Until one day God put on my heart to talk about the change that has happened in the lives of his sons. He told me that he thought that one of them would be in jail by now because of the drugs, drinking, fighting, and other things that he had started. When his son had trusted Christ, he left drugs and everything else that he was in to follow Jesus.  When I told his father about the change, he agreed with me. The father told me that he knew that Jesus was God because while his son was a Muslim he was always in trouble and his life was nothing but bad but when he trusted Christ his life changed.  The father is very faithful and has been many years to Islam but he told me that he knew Jesus had more power than Mohammed because he had never seen Mohammed change anybody’s life like he had seen Jesus change his two twin boys’ lives. He also told me for the first time that what I believe (the bible) is the truth. He has 4 wives and 22 kids. He said that he would permit any of them to leave Islam to follow Jesus but that he personally wasn’t ready yet.

            That is the power of the testimony of a changed life.

5. Ask the question. The question that I always ask after preaching to them is, “If you die today will you go to heaven?”  A Muslim will say “I hope. I want to.” Or they will say “Only God knows.” I look them straight in the eye and say that if I get sick today and die tonight I will go to live with my Savior for eternity. This always seems to convict their hearts because they have no hope or assurance of eternal life. 

            I can’t stress how vital it is for us to get on the battlefield now before these countries become closed and harder to evangelize. The biggest thing that we need to do to evangelize the Muslims is to get a burden, have compassion and show them true Christian love.  Jude 22 says, “and some having compassion making a difference.”  We can say that those who have compassion will make a difference but those who have no compassion will make no difference. Compassion will help us, motivate us, and move us to get the job done for the Glory of God. 

Keith Shumaker