Two things are true of the Pakistani Church. First, locals are more open than ever to the Gospel message. Second, there are fewer and fewer foreign missionaries there to answer the call for answers.
According to Jonathan, a Christian worker focused in Pakistan, local interest in the Gospel partly stems from a growing disenchantment with Islam.
“A lot of this is because of some of the horrific things that have been done in the name of Islam by people claiming to be good Muslims,” he explains. “Al Qaeda and the Taliban and ISIS are sort of chief among them. And I think there’s this growing sense among many Muslims that… if this is what Islam is, I want nothing to do with it.”
But now that Pakistanis are more open than they perhaps have ever been, the local Church is underequipped to reach them. “Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country in the world; there are more than 200 million Muslims in Pakistan,” Jonathan says. Among those 200 million Muslims are “at least 12 of the totally unreached and unengaged people groups.”
And there are fewer and fewer foreign missionaries. Ongoing security issues in the region and challenges with visas and other paperwork have caused a large drop in the number of foreign missionaries in Pakistan.
Thanks to their origin in the lowest castes of Hindu society, Pakistani Christians have stayed quiet for generations. They looked to Westerners, who they perceived as better-equipped, well-resourced, and more respected, to spread the Gospel.
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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Alex Anhalt
CALL TO ACTION
- Pray for the young and under-resourced Pakistani Church.
- Ask God to move the global Church to support their Pakistani brothers and sisters.
- Thank Him for the courage of the Pakistani Church and the way they’ve risen to the occasion.
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