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Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding

Sounds of Hope (2008)

Christian Leaders Conduct International Dialogue on Middle Eastern Church
Crises.

AMMAN, JORDAN – In a strategic gathering of Middle Eastern, European and
American Christian leaders, westerners were given an inside view of the
Middle Eastern Church’s struggle in a war-torn land.

Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding’s (EMEU) Sounds of Hope II
conference was held in Amman, Jordan on Oct. 15-18. It was a time for over
70 select individuals from various ministries to hear from 11 speakers with
experience in the Middle East Church.

According to Dr. Ray Bakke, EMEU chair, the conference was held out of a
concern that ignorance in the West was negatively influencing the worldwide
Church. "We had people who are evangelical who thought that every Arab was a
terrorist or a fat oil sheik," he said.

EMEU’s purpose is to break down those stereotypes through direct dialog and
help to build relationships and understanding across different cultures. As
Bakke put it, "It’s not an organization, it’s a conversation."

Three aspects stood out for Tom Bower, an attendee from Iowa: exposition of
biblical material as it relates the Middle East today, a clearer definition
of the area’s political and economic issues, and "wonderful networking"
between Church leaders from across the globe and across the denominational
spectrum.

Speakers from Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq
shared on everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to America’s
role in the Middle East, to a loving Christian response to Islam.

Dr. Nabeel Jabbour shared his concern that, after September 11th, some
Christians would quit praying for and ministering to Muslims. "If that
happens it will be the biggest setback in the history of missions," he said.
"Muslims are about 1.4 billion people in the world. It’s predicted that by
the year 2020 they’ll become a quarter of humanity. If we consciously or
unconsciously omit them from the Great Commission it will become no more the
Great Commission; it will be the Great Omission."

Jabbour walked attendees through the different belief systems in Islam,
explaining that only a small percentage of Muslims are actually radical
fundamentalists, but it is the activities of this faction that make the
news.

John Sagherian, regional coordinator for Youth for Christ International,
said that young Muslims as well as nominal Christians in the Middle East are
asking the same question when presented with the biblical truth of
salvation: "So what?" He said that they need more than textbook answers.

"I believe the answer lies in our changed lives and our changed values and
our love for each other," Sagherian said. "They need to see Christians
living as Christians. And it would help if there were a revival in the West
and the Christian West really became Christian."

But the underlying frustration behind many of the messages given at the
conference was over the apathy of westerners toward the Arab Church.
Speakers said Christian Zionists have fixated on the renewal of the Israeli
state, while ignoring severe abuse of the Palestinian people’s rights.

"Our message to the Jewish people (should be) that it is in the person of
Jesus the Messiah that their hopes have been fulfilled, not in their return
to the land and in the creation of the state of Israel," said author and
educator Rev. Colin Chapman. "When I see how Jesus has already fulfilled so
many of the hopes and dreams of Israel (prophesied of) in the Old Testament,
I can see how. the followers of Jesus today can. both hunger and thirst
after righteousness, justice and be genuine peacemakers in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

While this conflict is extremely complex, understanding the issues involved
touches on a person’s biblical interpretation, theology, politics,
interfaith relationships and method of sharing the Gospel. "What is at stake
over this issue is nothing less than our understanding of God, our witness
to the Gospel and the credibility of the Christian Church," said Chapman.
"The stakes are very high."

Bakke told attendees about a conversation he had with a Jewish rabbi
concerning the current existence of modern Israel. "Every people, to be a
whole people, must somewhere in their history be stewards of power. We Jews
have always been victims of power. The state of Israel is our first
opportunity to be stewards of power," said the rabbi. Then with a tear
rolling down his cheek, he finished, saying, "If God is just, he will have
to remove us one more time for what we have done to the Palestinians in this
land. We are treating them the way the Nazis treated us."

Antoine Haddad, vice president of Lebanon’s InterVarsity Fellowship, said
that America has had a blind support for Israel, ignoring injustices the
Palestinians have faced. He said that this "created seeds for instability in
the Middle East region and led to wars and civil wars, dictatorships,
poverty, oppressive regimes – all of which have been negatively reflected on
the Christian presence in (the Middle East)."

And while the western Church’s response has been poor, Haddad says the
Church in the midst of the conflict has also reacted incorrectly: "The
response of Christians has been emigration, forsaking the cradle of
Christianity and forsaking their roots."

In Iraq, Archbishop Mar Avak Asadorian of the Armenian Orthodox Church in
Baghdad, is seeing a similar exodus in persecuted Christians.

"If the present state of affairs continue in the region of the Middle East
and Iraq, then the Eastern manifestation of the Christian Church – the
churches that saw the birth of the Lord and worshiped him in his own tongue,
giving millions of martyrs throughout 2,000 years – yes, these churches, are
already at peril," Asadorian said. "(This is) a matter not to be taken
lightly, otherwise we are going to lose the Eastern manifestation of the
Christian Church."

Although troubles facing the Middle East Church are plentiful, the stories
of faith and perseverance were equally abundant. "I had no idea that every
time I’d sit down I’d be sitting down next to a person who had the most
incredible story ever, and when I’d think I’d come to the most interesting
story I’d meet somebody else that would surpass that," said Cindi Steele,
who works with Orthodox Jews in Arizona through Make A Difference
Ministries. "I have enjoyed every moment of it."

Steele attended the conference with her husband and says she is thinking of
eventually bringing a club basketball team back to the Middle East to work
among the Palestinian people.

Speakers asked Christians everywhere to work to understand the religions and
politics of the Middle East in order to have a positive influence, to look
for ways to partner or offer aid to the Middle Eastern church, and most of
all, to pray for those who are hurting in the Middle East.

Lynne Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church just outside Chicago said that
she knows there must be some action after this dialog. She compared the
Sounds of Hope conference to her experience of going to Africa five years
ago to learn about AIDS. She left Africa asking the question: "How have I
ignored this situation? Why didn’t I ever let what I knew in my head travel
down to the level of my heart?"

She continued, "And now I’m going home with that same question that I left
Africa with: What’s happened this week is that I’ve seen the pain. I’ve
heard the anger. I think Christians in the Church in the West have shown a
lack of concern. By supporting global policies that have very much hurt the
Middle East as a whole we have betrayed our Christian brothers and sisters
here. What am I to do? That’s a prayer that I know God will answer, but not
easily; but I go home with that prayer."

The Jordan conference was the second Sounds of Hope event, the first being
held at Wheaton College at the Billy Graham Center in Illinois in 2006.

For more information, contact Sam Townsend or Leonard Rodgers, Executive
Director of EMEU.