“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength... Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus
At a time when worshipers are massacred in their places of worship and hatred fans the flames of fear, followers of Jesus the Messiah are called to express the love, respect, and dignity that God bestows upon all people. Peacemakers Confessing Christ International shares steps designed to remove fear, and build trust and friendship in a context of hope, caring and peace.
Discover below how PCCI partners build life-giving relationships with their Muslim neighbours through witness, peacemaking, hospitality, and dialogue.
We envision communities of Jesus the Messiah's followers who, by abiding in Him and embodying who He is, cultivate peaceful relations with their Muslim neighbours and bear witness to God's ministry of reconciliation in Jesus the Messiah.
Our mission is to build a network equipping Christians
around the world for life-giving relationships with Muslims through hospitality, dialogue, witness, and peacemaking.
Our core values include faithful witness, embracing Jesus as Savior and Lord, answering questions, and being gentle and respectful to all. We are committed to building genuine relationships based on friendships with Muslims, becoming involved in the community, sharing love and compassion.
Our goal is to establish new partners, teaching, modeling and commissioning them to embrace these commitments.
Jonathan Bornman
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Matthew 28:18-20
The goal is to faithfully bear witness to Jesus the Messiah
our Lord and Savior.
With gentleness and respect, we bear witness to the good news of
salvation, forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation that God
offers in Jesus the Messiah. We seek to do so in ways that are
faithful to Jesus and respectful of each person’s dignity, culture, and freedom of choice.
We commit to:
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Reflect and honor the spirit and values of the Messiah.
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Be true to the gospel as revealed in the biblical Scriptures.
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Communicate God’s deep love for all.
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Depend on God’s Holy Spirit to reveal truth and transform lives.
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Reject all forms of violence, imperialism, bribery, intimidation, coercion, vilification, misrepresentation, and deceit.
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Listen and respond thoughtfully to the questions, objections, and witness Muslims are commanded to share with Christians.
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Be honest, sincere and willing to suffer for the pursuit of justice and truth.
A Muslim says
“The propagation of Islam to all people is a religious duty which must be undertaken by all true Muslims by following the good example of the Prophet who was sanctioned as ‘Mercy for all mankind.’”
Dr. Badru Kateregga
A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue
(Herald Press, p. 107)
A Christian says
“The gospel is a like an African stool with a seat and three legs: the seat is the life and teaching of Jesus; the legs are the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of the Messiah. The salvation that Christians proclaim is centered in these four dimensions of the life and mission of Jesus the Messiah.”
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian. Muslim. Friend (Herald Press, p.162)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9
The goal is to build a community where all people live at peace with
God, each other, and the natural world.
One of the special commands of Jesus to the church is
peacemaking. A near synonym is reconciliation. From the
very heart of God comes a call to reconciliation, and the
center of that calling is the cross.
On the cross Jesus stretched out His arms absorbing the violence and hatred of this world and offering forgiveness, not retaliation. Thus, it is by the cross and in the way of the cross that we find peace with God, our fellow humans, and even creation.
“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians1:19-20).
A Muslim says
“As Muslims, we believe what the Qu’ran (3:113) teaches us about believing Christians and requires us to look for those Christians whose lives are true representatives of those values. I have known and respected Dr. Shenk and his team, who are wholeheartedly dedicated in building bridges of understanding between Muslims and Christians.”
Dr. Sayyed Syeed
President of the Islamic Society of North America
A Christian says
“Wherever the walls are going up, the mission of the church is to seek ways to partner with the Holy Spirit and the people of peace in bringing down those walls. We need to repent of any inclination to be wall-building dividers and commit to being peacemaking bridge builders.”
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian, Muslim, Friend (Herald Press p.146)
"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2
The goal is real relationship and open friendship, loving and caring for all people.
We both give and receive hospitality. It always takes more than one party, as you can't do hospitality
by yourself. In a world filled with conflict, hospitality
feels scary. “Can I really open my home to a stranger?”
God commanded the ancient Hebrews to care for the stranger living among them as if the person was native born (Leviticus19:34). Hospitality is commanded and illustrated in the biblical stories. Hospitality requires opening oneself to the “other.” Among many Muslim peoples of the world, hospitality is a sacred obligation and a trust that must never be broken. Perhaps more than any of the other dynamics, this is where Christ followers and Muslims are closest.
In her video interview below, Pamela Obonde tells about friendship with her Muslim neighbours by sharing the fruits of her garden. Together they provide for their families by planting, cultivating and sharing the fruits of the harvest.
A Muslim says
“... nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, ‘We are Christians."
Qur’an 5:82
A Christian says
“... every Muslim should have a Christian friend and every Christian should have a Muslim friend.”
Dr. David W. Shenk
Christian. Muslim. Friend (Herald Press p.19)
David W. Shenk
"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect... 1 Peter 3:15
The goal is for Christians and Muslims to
understand each other and to compare the best
of Christian faith with the best of Muslim faith.
All too often we compare our best expressions of faith to the worst expressions of the other’s faith. For example, a Christian might declare that Christianity produces people like Mother Teresa and Islam produces the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi. Let’s compare the best with the best.
Obedience to Jesus sometimes produces the likes of theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer and Islam sometimes produces an Al-Ghazali. The business leadership guru, Steve Covey said, “Seek first to understand rather than to be understood.” When the church meets the ummah, we must seek to understand what the ummah finds so valuable in their community. Then a beautiful conversation can emerge, true dialogue.
A Muslim says
“The circle of concordance among religions is greater than that of their differences, leaving no place for solitude or isolation, nor any other option than living together on this earth, laying the foundations for dialogue as God desires. This is also the essential call of the initiative ‘A Common Word,’ as is made clear from the verses in the Qur’an and the Bible which show that Islam and Christianity share two very important values: loving God and loving one’s neighbor.”
Prof. Dr. Ali Jumâa
Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt
A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue
(Arabic edition)
A Christian says
“Every week ten to twenty elders from my clan would come to our home for discussions and food. Martha oversaw the cooking. We ate and fellowshipped and conversed vigorously together. In that way our covenant of peace was renewed each week.”
Ahmed Ali Haile
Teatime in Mogadishu, (Herald Press p. 79)