Connecting God's People

Baptism of a Turk in Izmir

My friend and collaborator in Muslim in Italy, Francesco Maggio and I traveled last weekend to Izmir, Turkey (biblical Smyrna) to visit with Rev. Fikret Bocek. We succeeded in cementing a relationship between Italian evangelical churches and Turkish Presbyterians from a Muslim background in Izmir. That means simply that we now have at least one Muslim background expert in evangelism that will regularly travel to Italy each year to train local churches in outreach to immigrants and then help churches learn how to assimilate converts into Italian congregations. Tall order, but we now have the best possible people working on it. My role was to connect the two parties together. I’ll take it.

The state of the Turkish church
 Turks, as many of us know, face increasingly serious pressure from the growing Islamisation of the Turkish government and its citizens. Despite the pressure and risks, the evangelical Presbyterian church in Izmir continues to grow, primarily through adult conversion of Turks from both secularism and Islam.

There are two messages in all of this. First, they appreciate our prayers. Second, they exhort us to reach our own lost. If the church can overcome its obstacles in Turkey to promote Christ, so can we. There is another lesson in all of this. The Turkish church is repressed and weak, but it is potent in its gospel witness. God is using it to strengthen what once was the heartland of Christianity and home to the Reformation. That is God’s way for churches and it is God’s way for each one of us. He displays his strength in our weakness.