MENA (MNN) — As the one-year mark of the Israel-Hamas war approaches, how has the turmoil across the Middle East North Africa region affected local churches?
Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says first that God is at work for His glory. But candidly he shares that he hasn’t been able to see positive trends in gospel advance in the past eleven months.
MENA Leadership Center partners with more than 132 ministries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. (Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)
“I know that the sovereignty of God is over all. But what is happening today is people are going through suffering, loss, uncertainty,” Sharaiha says.
“Maybe in the coming few weeks, months, years, we will see the impact of this on the people. But I would say that actually, I’ve seen the opposite: I’ve seen the church in the Middle East, especially the evangelical churches, going through lots of questions.”
Theological discussions about current events and about biblical end times have led to division in churches.
“There’s a split actually now on the the concept of eschatology: are you ‘dispensational’? Are you ‘covenant’? How do you handle this replacement theology, the whole thing?” Sharaiha says.
He continues that while there’s nothing good about the division itself, one good thing coming from it is that people are asking questions.
(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)
“People are now more aware and more tuned to whatever is happening [in the news]. They are trying to read the Bible to see some of the prophecies. They are questioning, ‘God, are You a God of mercy, or are You [a] God of war?’” Sharaiha says.
“I think that there is a path for people to go, in a journey where they are asking the right questions. But the whole thing is [a] really big mess right now. [At the same time,] I think that God will work in those messes more than anything else.”
You can stand with brothers and sisters in Christ today through earnest prayer.
“Pray for the Church with a capital C in the Middle East and North Africa — especially in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq. The uncertainty is great, the questions they have [are] great, and the unity is being compromised,” Sharaiha says.
Learn more here about the MENA Leadership Center’s mission to build up the Body of Christ.
“Pray for the Church to be united, that they go back to the Bible, they go back to Jesus. We can definitely disagree on eschatology, but we cannot disagree on love. We need to love each other.”
Header photo is a representative stock photo courtesy of Abyan Athif/Unsplash.
