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That church no longer stands alone as a symbol in Egypt for seekers from a Muslim background. Its senior pastor said, "I think the Copts are now baptizing more than the evangelicals. Ten times, a hundred times more than us."

At a recent Sunday evening service, the senior pastor shared with the congregation the counsel he gives to "our friends who are not Christians" when they inquire. "I tell them: Say to God, 'Show me the truth.' We've never met any who did this and didn't come to know Christ." This kind of outreach is still out of the comfort zone of many Egyptian evangelicals. "They're advising me not to do so, all of the time," he said.

He reports that many inquiring Muslims say they've been visited by Jesus. "The most effective thing happening to convert Muslims to Christianity is visions and dreams," he said. "It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not the work of a man, a church, or an organization."

This approach also provides pastors their first line of defense against accusations of proselytism. Once, Egyptian authorities questioned a pastor about baptizing a woman who came to him after seeing a vision of Jesus coming through her door and window in Kuwait. "It's the problem of the police there," he replied to them. "They didn't guard the door or the window."

The senior pastor also identifies exorcisms, particularly by Coptic Orthodox priests, as a significant opening for outreach. "Muslims know if you want to get rid of a demon, go to church. Many of them, after being delivered, get baptized."

The biggest challenge comes after a Muslim begins to follow Christ. Nearly all churches in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world find it difficult to integrate converts from Islam into church life. And a few church leaders even question whether it's truly possible.

In the Al Maadi district south of Cairo, Paul-Gordon Chandler serves as rector of St. John the Baptist Anglican Church. Raised as a missionary kid in Senegal, he watched his parents work to bring Muslims to Christ, only to see these converts be cast out by their families and rarely accepted fully by local churches. So he began asking himself: Can a Muslim follow Christ's teachings and remain a Muslim?

Some years ago, Chandler discovered the work of novelist Mazhar Mallouhi. Chandler recently published Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road, which tells Mallouhi's life story. Long associated with evangelicals in the Middle East, Mallouhi describes himself as a follower of Jesus within Islam. Mallouhi's mission is to present Scripture in a form that Muslims can comprehend. One of his novels, The Fugitive, retells the story of the Prodigal Son in a modern-day Islamic context.

In his passion to discover how Christ walks the Muslim road, Chandler sees his own mission as two-fold: to learn from Islamic spirituality and to help Muslims comprehend a true picture of Christ. Chandler told CT, "I'm less interested in interfaith dialogue, but very passionate about interfaith friendships."

For Chandler, truth is his bottom line. "I love the quote from Saint Ambrose of Milan: 'All truth no matter where it comes from comes from God's Spirit.' The challenge is to build on the truth in the other."

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April 2008, Vol. 52, No. 4