Not only is it the biggest challenge for Christianity in our generation, it is the fastest growing challenge. Islam is even the fastest growing religion in the United States. In 1907, there were 230 million Muslims in the world. Around 1990 there were close to 800 million Muslims in the world. By 2010, there was 1.6 billion Muslims. Islam doubled twenty years. According to Pew Research Reports there are close to 1.8 Billion Muslims as of 2015.

While Islam is the biggest challenge, only one percent of all Christian missionaries go to do direct ministry among Muslims. That’s one missionary for every 420,000 Muslims! That’s equivalent to having about five churches and 150 pastors for all of North America.

Most people do not reach Muslims because of fear. That fear often takes three primary forms:

• First we fear suffering. There is a strong fear of violence and suffering when most people consider engaging Muslims.
• Secondly, we fear the questions Muslims will ask. Muslims are typically trained and prepared to talk to Christians and ask very aggressive questions. Most believers do not feel confident enough to answer those questions.
• Thirdly, most believers do not feel like they understand Islam enough to challenge it directly and therefore are afraid to engage Muslims.

Though the issue seems to be Islam, what these fears really expose is that many of us are not really true disciples. True disciples love Jesus wholeheartedly. Because they love Him above all, they do not fear what any man can do to them and that means they refuse to fear Muslims. Instead, as disciples of Jesus, they are a faithful witness of the gospel in all the world. In other words, Islam itself is not the actual reason why we do not reach Muslims, lack of discipleship is, and the ultimate solution to mobilizing the church to reach Muslims is to disciple people to follow Jesus.

As is easily seen by the rapid increase of radial Islam and the construction of Mosques all over the earth, Muslims are being aggressively trained to spread Islam and confront Christianity. Because Islam is both aggressively confronting Christianity and because it holds doctrines that directly and aggressively confront the most essential tenets of the Christian faith, it is imperative that the entire church is trained to be a faithful witness of the gospel to Muslims. Every believer must have a basic understanding of how to confront and evangelize Muslims because of Jesus’ deep love for them.

i2 has the vision, resources, and ability to make a significant impact in equipping more Christians to effectively evangelize Muslims. We are uniquely positioned to become the change agent for the global body of Christ to fulfill her call to the Great Commission among Muslims in the coming years.