
Ben & Sally - Making Disciples among Muslims
Every person should have the opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ.
Every person should have the opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ.
Muslim people are valued by God and need salvation through Christ Jesus. They have been mislead for 1,400 years about the identity and purpose of Christ. They need the opportunity to meet Jesus in the Scriptures and have God work in them by his Spirit.
There are about 400,000 Muslims in Greater Sydney. For many reasons, it is difficult for these Muslim people to simply approach churches or Christians to hear the gospel and enter the kingdom.
These reasons include their own suspicions about immoral Christian behaviour, lack of awareness about true Christian beliefs, fear of the judgment of God, community pressure, and simply not knowing any real followers of Christ.
Despite this, Christ will build his church, growing the kingdom in the hearts of people from all nations!
He graciously uses his people for this, sending them out, as Christ first sent his apostles to make disciples of all nations.
Ben and Sally have been sent to share Christ with Muslim people. This is not simply about making invitations to church. It requires sharing the whole counsel of God in comprehensible ways in relationships of trust.
And it requires persistent discipleship of seekers and new believers, as the Spirit takes hold of their hearts, to bring them to maturity in Christ. Believers from Muslim background will be the best missionaries to their own peoples, as they grasp the depths of God's love in Christ, and are trained and supported.


Preparing Overseas
Ben and Sally have been working among Muslims since 2010, in the south-west of Sydney, and with some time in the Middle East. While overseas, they were immersed in Arab Muslim culture and the Arabic language, along with their three kids, in order to be better servants of the gospel among Muslims in Australia.
This experience made especially clear to them that it is only by the work of the Spirit of God that anyone comes to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This pushes them to dependence on him in everything.
And their time overseas equipped them with language and cultural insights which help to build connections with Muslim people, and genuine trust.
Evangelism

By God's power, they work to make disciples of Christ among people from Muslim background. This work includes face-to-face evangelism among the 400,000 Muslims in Sydney. These Muslims come from a huge variety of backgrounds. But they all need to know the love of God, and the power of God in Christ Jesus to save them.

It means sharing the gospel in ways that bear truth witness to the revelation of God in the Scripture, and show the particular relevance and importance of Christ Jesus to people from their backgrounds. It means not simply bringing them into church structures, but taking the gospel to them, on their own turf.
It means caring for them, welcoming them, living alongside them, and speaking the truth about every aspect of life and faith.
Discipling
As people come to faith in Christ, they need close discipleship, to help them grasp deeply the truth of the gospel and it's power in their lives. They also need support to heal from their past. And they need support to make wise and godly decisions about relating to their families and communities.
For some, they will join new gatherings of believers. These fledgling churches need feeding and encouragement. Leaders need to be trained. Believers need to grow, serve and share with others, including those from their own background.


Training and Recruiting
Ben also works in supporting and training other missionary workers, through the Ministry to Muslims network (MTM) at the Department of Evangelism and New Churches. These gospel workers include experienced missionaries as well as workers who are themselves from Muslim background. MTM workers have incredible reach into Muslim communities across Sydney.
n addition, Ben works with the Church Missionary Society to recruit and train long-term workers among Muslims through the Mentac apprenticeship programme. Mentac is a two year apprenticeship for believers who want to pursue gospel ministry among Muslims.
As well as overseeing Mentac for CMS NSW/ACT, Ben mentors new trainees, who are either pre- or post-Bible college study. Through this apprenticeship, Mentac has seen 14 new missionaries go into long-term service in Muslim-majority countries since 2012.
It’s difficult to overstate what Ben and his ministry has meant to me. He appeared in my life after he returned from a lengthy period of overseas cultural and language training, and it was just at the right time. He has not only offered support and empathy in a ministry that is fairly new and out-of-the-box, but has guided and honed my thinking and practice as we both engage and love Muslims with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is a great leader, collaborator, and pray-er. I know that God is using him and his ministry to bear much fruit!
Samuel (surname withheld), CMS Missionary in the Middle East, former Mentac Trainee
Partnership
Ben and Sally are entirely dependent on God for fruit in their labour, through the prayers of his saints! And they are entirely dependent on God's provision through financial supporters to continue serving in these ministries.
They are deeply thankful to those individuals and churches who are with them in this ministry.
Ben and Sally would like to invite you to become partners with them in the work of the gospel among Muslims in Sydney, and beyond.
Prayer
Ben & Sally communicate regularly with their partners, reporting on what they are seeing God do in their ministry, and requesting prayer. They would also love to pray for you as you partner with them.
To join their prayer partners, please sign up at the bottom of this page.
Financial Support
The financial support of Ben & Sally's partners covers their living and ministry expenses, as well as other employment costs like superannuation and workers' compensation insurance costs. Ben’s stipend is administered by the Anglican organisation Evangelism and New Churches (ENC).
To contribute to their ministry please go to the ENC donate portal.
Training
Ben and Sally also love sharing the fruit of their ministry with others. If you'd like to ask about training in cross-cultural ministry, sharing the gospel with Muslims, Islam, evangelism, or welcoming Muslims to church, please contact Ben.
The diverse Muslim population of our city is large and growing. There is great opportunity and great need. Muslim people do not have natural connections with our churches, and there are unique challenges in their communities to the spread of the Gospel.
We have commissioned Ben and Sally to serve in making disciples in the Muslim communities of Sydney, a work to which they have committed the last 15 years. Our prayer is that Ben’s ministry and leadership in evangelism, discipleship, and training will continue to be a key work under God to the spread of the Gospel. They have our full support.
Please partner with them by upholding them and this ministry in prayer, and through financial support. May the Lord use them and many others to sow seeds for the harvest—and bring it in.
Kanishka Raffel
Archbishop of Sydney
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