Dr. Jeferson Chagas has served among Muslims since 1996 and served in China from 2005 to 2015, including among the Hui. He also has over 20 years of experience working with gospel workers to equip them in the areas of intercultural communication and understanding Christianity in the majority world. Dr. Chagas holds a PhD in World Christian Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas and has served as a seminary professor in the US at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and in his native Brazil. Currently he is a missions consultant at First Baptist Conroe in Conroe, Texas.
Chinese house churches must deliberate on how to be genuinely Chinese and truly Christian. Both the concepts that are overemphasized cause distortion. It takes constant navigating to be “in the culture but not of it.” Authentic Chinese Christianity will result from keeping both ideas in healthy tension as Chinese house churches negotiate between indigenizing and acting as pilgrim communities.
In AD 781, during the reign of Mahdi, the third of the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad and spiritual and temporal head of the Muslim religion, Timothy and the caliph convened for a two-day dialogue in Arabic with portions in Syriac. The fraternal dialogue format with the caliph was in the form of questions and answers.
Sharing the gospel with Muslims, including Chinese Muslims, takes a lot of cultural sensitivity. “The First and Last Sacrifice” is one method of sharing the story of Jesus which incorporates references to the Quran, Arabic names, and Islamic concepts to reach Muslims for Christ.
Engaging with Chinese Muslims requires building relationships through intentional, informal, and interactive conversations. Following Jesus' example with the Samaritan woman, we can find points of contact, steer discussions towards spiritual matters, reveal their need for salvation by confronting their sins with compassion and humanity, share the gospel story, and invite a decision to follow Christ.