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Jesus in Turkey

After 550 years of decline, a bloodied church is being reborn.

Protestant missions work began around 1820. There are now more than 30 Protestant organizations operating nationwide. In 1999, the Izmit earthquake, which killed 17,000 and left 800,000 homeless, led Christian agencies to start new relief work, and they eventually began working alongside independent Christian fellowships. These fellowships, along with new growth in traditional Orthodox congregations, have created a 3 percent annual growth in the country's Christian population, about three times Turkey's overall population growth rate. Following the Malatya murders, Christianity Today traveled to Turkey, meeting church leaders from throughout the region.

Tasting Forbidden Fruit

In so many ways, the story of Turgay Ucal, a pastor of an independent church in Istanbul, embodies the promise and peril of Turkish Christianity. On a weekday afternoon, Ucal sat down with CT to describe his journey to faith in Jesus Christ.

Ucal (pronounced u-CHAAL) grew up in Old Town, Istanbul. He told CT that as a high school student he took a leap of faith, almost literally, out of his comfort zone. In Turkish life, generations of families live together with unlocked doors and few secrets. One day, he strolled down a cobblestone street, past some decaying buildings. He walked back and forth to make sure no one he knew was around—and slipped into a Catholic church.

At the time, Ucal was deeply curious about what had happened to Jesus when, as the Koran says, he left this earth still alive. "The Koran said Jesus didn't die," Ucal recalls, "and I asked, 'Why? What is in the Bible?'—I wondered."

Turkey's religious landscape is not simple: sharply partisan politics, strident nationalism, and disputed history make it a complex scene. Secular nationalists who are Muslim in private practice fiercely oppose public religiosity. They see Christian converts as tools of Western powers that want to undermine Turkey's sovereignty.

In the 1960s, the era in which Ucal grew up, Turks in Istanbul were exploring many forbidden fruits. Coca-Cola and Pepsi factories opened up. Turkish kids tasted hot dogs for the first time, despite the warning that hot dogs might contain donkey meat.

Others, like Ucal, drew close to Christ.

Thirty years later, the church started by new believers has achieved new maturity and public acceptance. The independent Turkish church now comprises almost 100 congregations and more than 100 house fellowships.

Turkish Christians of Muslim backgrounds have anchored the leadership of the church around their own new identity—and by portraying Jesus Christ as a Turk. This helps resolve a crucial conflict in Turkish minds, that only Muslims can be truly "Turkish."

Leaders have discovered that by the time a Turk of Muslim background enters a church, he or she is often ready to convert and is looking for reassurance. Ucal told CT that when he went to university to study Islamic literature, he even belonged to an Islamic youth group. But his ultimate purpose was to learn more about Jesus. "At the university, I saw the biblical background to what I was studying," he said. "The Bible became my fate."

He said Christianity offered a new balance of freedom in a disciplined context, transcending the stringent legalism of his upbringing. As a young man, Ucal had tried to be a good Muslim. "My family was Muslim. I prostrated myself to Mecca five times a day. I participated in 'The Light' [Nurcu], a Muslim youth group. I had a very structured Muslim mind."


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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 22 comments

David Sseppuuya

January 17, 2008  5:21am

I have travelled to Turkey twice from East Africa in the last five years, including last June, and I do fully appreciate the challenge of believers in that country in comparison to my part of the world. Testimonies like these ones give hope that the church will one day flourish again in the cradle of Christianity.

Sarah

January 16, 2008  1:05pm

This article was a wonderful reminder to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19) and of how there is NO GREATER LOVE than to freely give up your life for another (Jn 15:13). The analogy of Christian martyrs to Christ, Who gave His life to save ours, reminded me that I need to share the news of this love that allows a sinner like me to share in eternal life with Jesus Christ, God the Father, and His Holy Spirit, glorious and mysterious 'Trinity'! Praise the LORD!

ZT

January 10, 2008  3:53pm

I'm a Turkish Christian living in Turkey. Its not easy for any article to give the whole picture, this is a fair start but interviewing a wider range of people wld have been more effective. Also the murderers were nationalist extremists NOT Islamic radicals. GKC, welcome to the church, worldwide! Sure we have problems & need to mature, the issue is overcoming not avoidance (the latter will never be until Christ returns!). The church in Turkey is quite unique in that leaders from all church types across the nation come together 3-4 times a year to share and be united! We know its relationships that will get us through, not doctrines! GKC, you talk of grace but pour out judgement as if the brutal murder of these 3 gentle guys was discipline for us!! Most Turkish Christians have been believers for under 10 years, does your God rush to punish babes in Christ!? Can you pls have the grace to give us time to be renewed? Boy am I glad I look to God to discipline me and not to the 'religious'!

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