Why Ethnic Ministry?

Last summer our team went to do a book table in a Muslim populated area. There are approximately 90% of Muslims living in the area. During this time local Muslims gathered around the team. Many were shouting, “Don’t teach the false religion among us. Go and preach to Christians. This is our area”. This is one of many towns that have become a stronghold for the Asian communities. Churches have closed down because of a migration of locals from the area.

OM Lifehope Ethnic Ministry Team is committed to share Jesus with those in the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Chinese communities who have not heard the gospel. Chinese Ministry is part of the ethnic work and has a separate team focusing to share Christ with Chinese.

Reaching the un-reached

We believe that every person on this earth has a right to hear the clear Gospel once in their lifetime in a language he or she can really understand. Our focus is on the most unreached communities living in UK.

There are 1.5m Muslims, 0.6m Hindu, 0.3m Sikh and 0.2m Buddhist living in UK (Census 2001). More than 60% are from South Asia . The OM Lifehope Asian Team has a goal to reach these un-reached communities with the Gospel. Seed sowing is a vital part of evangelism. Since the start of OM Lifehope formerly known as OM LUKE, the Asian team has distributed Gospel literature to thousands of Asian homes in Britain. The work is continuing by giving out literature, gospel portions, Bibles, copies of the Jesus videos/DVDs and other evangelistic materials.

Door 2 Door Ministry:

This is an effective part of the ministry as many long-term contacts have been started from Door 2 Door work. The Asian Team is reproducing the Jesus DVD to distribute to Asian homes. The DVD contains eight major Asian languages including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi. 

Book Table Ministry:

The team is also involved in a regular book table ministry in Birmingham city centre. This is a unique work focusing on the Asian living in Birmingham. The team has evangelistic literature for Asian communities focusing on the Muslim community. We have met some contacts at the book table who are now worshiping in different churches. This is a place where people can come and ask us questions regarding Christianity. We also use this ministry to train people for apologetics.

Discipleship:

‘Door 2 Door’ and ‘the book table’ ministry has helped the team to build long-term contacts, especially those who are seeking the truth. The Team members regularly visit many of them to encourage them and to study the bible. “Visiting an Asian home is always fun as they are open to talk and build friendship, but more than that they never let me go without eating a nice curry ” a team member commented. Making disciples is the uphill task of ministry among ethnic minorities, and there are no short cuts. Instant results are rare and setbacks are common as the team answer questions and help contacts to understand the truth of the gospel

Developing People to reach people:

OM's role in the body of Christ is to motivate, develop and equip people for world evangelization and to strengthen and help plant churches, especially among the un-reached…

This is a great opportunity to learn how to share Christ with ethnic minorities. There is a regular training programme in which team members learn to reach Asians in a sensitive and effective way. Those who wish to go to Asia for future ministry also join the basic training with OM Lifehope to understand about the culture, belief and evangelistic approaches.

Raising Awareness:

When Christians catch the vision for reaching ethnic minority communities, things start to happen. The OM Lifehope Asian team has developed a training course for raising awareness about the needs of the least reached people in Britain and how to reach them. As church members become aware of the needs of ethnic minority communities many want to reach out, as training helps them to overcome barriers of fear and prejudice.

Relevant worship and Community:

One major challenge for any evangelist is helping a contact to become integrated into the local church. This is often more difficult when the contact is from a different cultural and religious background. For a Muslim, stepping into a western church might be like entering a different world - normal behaviour for a western Christian could be uncomfortable for the Muslim background believer.

The Asian Team is working with Asian Churches to explore ways of developing a culturally sensitive environment for seekers and new believers from the ethnic minority communities. In the future OM Lifehope could be involved in encouraging or planting culturally relevant churches.

How can I join?  Contact your local OM Office