Over the years I have written a number of books that have been used by God to bless or encourage missionaries in their ministry. My heart’s desire is to explore some of the very basic fundamental principles that are common to most Muslim church-planting situations. In the course of doing so, the books were distributed around the world.
The original intent of the first editions of this book was to produce a guide or manual for missionaries planting churches among Muslims. Yet it wasn’t long before I began hearing back from missionaries working with other groups, such as Hindus, Buddhists, Animists, and post-modern young people. Requests for seminars came from many places outside of the Middle East such as Europe, East Asia, and North America (including First Nations people). It soon became apparent that many of the principles used for church-planting among Muslims were actually principles applicable to most cross-cultural church-planting situations. Many readers responded positively to the material on the effects of sin on human beings, and the worldviews that result. Many others expressed their appreciation for the materials that addressed the way God works and what God is doing as he moves across cultural barriers to bring people to himself.

Today we find ourselves living in a global community where it is important to understand many different cultural backgrounds and situations. Few missionaries work in a mono-cultural situation. The philosophies of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Post-Moderns, Agnostics, and many others influence those among whom we minister.
It is the aim of this book to explore a variety of very basic and simple principles that should be foundational to our ministry as cross-cultural church-planters. We start with examining ourselves as church-planters. In effect the church-planter is a messenger who bears the Gospel message into a target community. If the Gospel is to be heard, then the church-planter must gain a hearing. If the target community rejects the church planter as a valid messenger, then the ministry will go no farther.

Once the church-planter is accepted as a valid messenger, he must move on and begin to share a message that is culturally appropriate and understandable to his audience. If his message is not understandable, the target community may reject the Gospel, because they fail to identify the message as being a valid message for their situation.
However, even if the messenger gains a hearing and shares a culturally appropriate message, the Gospel may still be rejected if the church being planted is not a viable community of faith for that situation. Thus we will explore three primary areas in this book: The Messenger, the Message, and the Community.

As I mentioned, the original focus of this book was to act as a guide for those working in a Muslim context. Thus, many of the resources, examples, and case studies are taken from a Muslim setting. However this should not distract the reader from learning how God works with people across a variety of cultural backgrounds. Some of the pastors that reviewed this book in manuscript form shared with me that these materials have proven beneficial to them as they led established churches which were seeking to reach out to fast-changing multi-cultural communities. I trust that the principles shared in this book will also be useful to you and your ministry situation.

The questions to the end of each chapter are intended for personal reflection and team discussion. Many people find that working through questions helps them digest and absorb the material better. The questions are also intended to help you apply the material to your specific church-planting ministry situation.

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