Bringing Light to Darkness: How the Jenkins Center Equips Christians to Love Their Muslim Neighbors
Since its founding, the Jenkins Center has provided and produced resources to help Christians boldly, respectfully, and relevantly proclaim the gospel to Muslims.
You have most likely met one of the nearly 2 billion Muslims worldwide. Perhaps you have Muslim friends, but all of us have Muslim neighbors. As stewards of the gospel, we must love our Muslim neighbors by presenting Christ to them. Since its founding, the Jenkins Center has provided and produced resources to help Christians boldly, respectfully, and relevantly proclaim the gospel to Muslims. Two personal testimonies from friends of the Jenkins Center may help you see the Center’s heart.
Sharon has always been burdened to reach the lost. Through Nabeel Qureshi’s testimony, she saw that Muslims have been coming to Jesus by God’s grace and she desired to learn more about Islam. Before coming to the United States from India, she had several Muslim friends and coworkers in need of the gospel. At Southern Seminary, Sharon attended a Jenkins Center event where Dr. Kashouh testified that Muslims are turning to Jesus in Lebanon. She reflected: “I came to this event just like any other event, but I left that hall with tears in my eyes and a burden in my heart. The conversion stories shared by Dr. Kashouh are still fresh in my memory.” Encouraged by the Jenkins Center team’s compassion for Muslims, Sharon has consistently attended academic lectures, missionary conversations, and evangelism training to learn how to love her Muslim friends.
Amos has a different story. Coming from a context in Nigeria where Christians face immense persecution and confusion regarding Boko Haram’s ideas and work, Amos analyzes and writes to clarify misconceptions and spread awareness about Boko Haram’s ideological foundations. Distributing this knowledge allows people to understand the group’s history, worldview, and followers. You can find Amos’s work on the Jenkins Center blog. The work that Amos produces through the Center ultimately aims to serve Christians and point Muslims to Jesus.
These stories reflect what the Jenkins Center strives for: helping Christians cultivate a heart for Muslims by rigorously studying Islam, genuinely cultivating friendships with Muslims, and clearly sharing the gospel. The Center accomplishes these goals by examining and critically assessing Muslim texts from a Christian worldview, helping Christians become more familiar with the world of Islamic studies, supporting the research and writing of scholarly pieces, and connecting the Center’s friends with opportunities to serve Muslims locally and globally.
The Jenkins Center firmly stands upon biblical values: the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, and Jesus is lord and God. Muslims need to believe in the gospel, and the Jenkins Center helps train the local and global church to bring people to faith in Christ by trusting in the Lord through prayer. You can find the complete list of values on the Core Values page. Additionally, with Matthew 4:16 as an inspiration, the Jenkins Center prays that people dwelling in darkness will see the light of Christ.
Join the Jenkins Center in loving Muslims as Christ does by coming to events and Tea Time (at the Center) every Tuesday and Thursday from 11:15-11:45 a.m.