In my mind there are three great international issues that Christians need to be aware of, to address and to be prepared to respond to.
The first is the rise of China as a superpower. With its unprecedented economic growth China is poised to compete with the United States for economic supremacy, as well as supremacy in other areas. When Richard Pratt was here at our missions conference he said that our grandchilden, and maybe even our children will need to know Mandarin Chinese.
The second is the issue of immigration, legal and illegal, from south of the border. America is being reshaped in many ways because of this and Christians need to be able to respond, not only politically, but spiritually.
The third major international issue facing us is the rise of Islam. Again, Christians need to know how to respond to Islam not only politically, but spiritually.
With that in mind, over the next several weeks we will be posting videos by Jay Smith, a British believer who works with AnsweringIslam.org and who regularly engages Muslims in public and private dialogue. He has begun posting short 5 minute(ish) videos on YouTube dealing with issues raised by Islam, and we will begin posting these videos with the hope that they will help you to understand Islam better and be prepared to respond to it from a Christian perspective.
Here is Jay's explanation of the project he is engaged in:
A couple of Christian film-makers ('Quirky Motion' Films, http://www.quirkymotion.com/), after seeing me down at Speaker's Corner, approached me with the possibility of filming an entire series of public challenges to Islam, as well as rebuttals to their challenges of Christianity, and then housing them on 'YouTube', where they could be used to engage Muslims publicly, as well as employed by Christians who need answers to some of the more current challenges we are facing.
We decided to call these short videos 'Pfander Films', in memory of the great CMS debater of the 19th century, Dr. Carl Pfander.
I filmed my first 10 episodes (from 1 - 10 minutes each) on Thursday, and the first three have now been put on-line, at 'YouTube' for you to view at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PfanderFilmsThese include my introduction, a five minute clip on 'Jack Straw and the problem of the Hijab', and a clip concerning 'Who is going to represent Islam in Britain now?' We have purposely chosen these first ones to represent topics currently in the news, and have made them look amateurish, as they then tend to generate more hits.
Feel free to go up and look at them, respond to any of them, as YouTube permits you to freely post either a text or video response, or respond to the Muslims who are commenting on the clips. It's a great way to get involved in evangelism from the comfort of your own home, a sort of 'arm-chair' missionary, and it won't cost you a cent.
Our next post will have Jay's first video and we will try to post his newer videos about once a week as long as they are available.
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