Review of Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale

 This is a story that more Christians need to know.  Even though the church has always interacted with Islam since the 7^th century, our interactions have rarely resulted in anything even remotely resembling a Jesus movement within that group.  But today, this is beginning to change in a small but not insignificant way.

  Despite the atrocities of a few, the chaos in the Middle-East, the “sabre rattling” rhetoric of unbalanced leaders, and the retrogressive policies of the Taliban, God’s Son Jesus Christ is reaching out to Muslims and drawing them in to a relationship with Himself.  So reports Jerry Trousdale, a pastor and Christian disciple-maker, in his book Miraculous Movements.  Admittedly, the majority of the stories in this book occur in sub-Saharan Africa as opposed to the heartlands of Islamic culture in the Middle East, but there is a significant movement happening in the world today where Muslims are being touched by Jesus and are leaving Islam to form their own communities of Christian faith.  This book outlines the experiences of many different missionaries (usually African) who have been called to reach out to Muslims.  Though the stories are diverse, they often start with key people in the Muslim community encountering Jesus in a dream and receiving instructions from Him to study more closely the Qu’ran’s passages about who He is, or sometimes a direct command to listen to a Christian teacher’s message.  Other stories feature a “power encounter” where the Gospel is preached and then confirmed with a undeniable miracle which opens the heart of the community to learn more about the Gospel.

The stories of this book are quite riveting and the claim is made that over 500,000 Muslim background believers have come to faith in this movement of God.  That might seem like an exaggerated claim, but in comparison to the world total of Muslims, this is a calling forth of holy remnant more than religious conquest.  Beyond the testimonies, I greatly appreciate the style of mission work that is being advocated in this work.  Instead of Gospel messages and a call to immediate conversion, missioners go out and tell stories to their listeners over a period of time that include the entire scope of the Bible from Creation to Christ.  The Bible is studied and discussed with an eye to the principle that “if this is a book from God, how should I respond and live by what I am learning?”  It is a longer, more holistic approach, but it results in disciples as opposed to merely converts.  While I’m not certain such an approach would work as well in our fast-paced, media saturated, and secularized culture, it seems to be well suited and bearing fruit in the regions it is being practiced in.  The author does advocate that Christians in the west not indulge in hatred of Muslims (even though the specter of terrorism is real) but rather devote themselves to intercessory prayer that this movement would increase and the Lord would call out more laborers into the harvest.  An exciting and informative read and truly an invitation to pray that is compelling.