Carl F. Ellis, Jr. was once what he calls “unchurchable,”
at least unchurchable by the religious system masquerading as
church. With a deep hunger for God and an ear for the encouragement
Malcolm X brought to young black men of his day, Ellis was on the
road to the mosque when Jesus interrupted him in the 1960s.
“One
of my objections to Christianity was that I had questions that the
church wasn’t answering,” Ellis recalls. “I confronted Christians
and tried to blow them away in arguments, but then I ran into
somebody who was able to answer my questions in a way I could
understand. Long story short, I surrendered to Jesus.”
Remembering his attitude toward the church, Ellis took his
approachable Gospel to the streets and began witnessing to American
Muslims in the days of civil unrest. He discovered that what Muslims
liked about Islam were really elements of Christianity, and what
Muslims hated about Christianity was merely religion.
Viewing Islam as a challenge to the Gospel, Ellis set out to reach
American Muslims with the truth about Christianity. He discovered
that, like him, Islam appeals to God seekers because it answers
their questions. He reports as many as 75 percent of American
Muslims his team reaches converted from Christianity because the
church “did not deal with their issues.”
“I find many Muslims across the country who have degrees from some
of the most famous seminaries in the nation, but some of those
schools are teaching liberal theology these days,” Ellis says. “That
causes confusion and gives ammunition to the enemy because the
Muslims come along and say the Bible is corrupted.”
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Ellis continued ministering to Muslims for the next three decades.
Then, in 1992, he launched Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Project Joseph,
a ministry seeking to equip believers with resources, tools and
techniques to reach Muslims and other non-Christian movements in our
communities. Ellis has also authored four books, including The
Gospel for Islam and The Changing Face of Islam in America and
travels across the nation teaching seminars.
While researching for the book The Changing Face of Islam in
America, Ellis and co-author Larry A. Poston discovered that
Anglo-Muslims became disillusioned with Christianity around the age
of 17 and converted to Islam by age 29. African-Americans, on the
other hand, became disillusioned with Christianity at age 12 and
often converted to Islam in their teenage years.
Both groups cited an emphasis on the universal brotherhood of man
and a focus on the present life as draws to Islam. While more
Caucasians are showing interest in this false religion, Ellis says
most American converts to Islam are African-American. Part of the
problem, he adds, is that Christianity sometimes comes off as a
white man’s religion and devilish propaganda mistakenly associates
Islam with African roots.
“African-Americans have developed cognitive theological needs, but
the traditional church has not met or addressed those needs. Islam
has a cognitive element and comes off as rational,” Ellis says.
“When we work with Muslims, we show them how the Bible addresses
their issues – and we show them cognitively. Since they generally
have Christian instincts, it resonates in their core and melts away
the deception.”
Ellis says American Muslims import Christian instincts into their
religion. For example, they tell him they pray several times a day
to enhance their personal relationship with Allah. But, he notes, in
Islam there is no such thing as a personal relationship with Allah.
Project Joseph is about sharing the information, skills, strategies,
and tactics Ellis has learned so that a great army of believers can
rise up and reach Muslims.
Ellis has learned that cultural core issues must be addressed to
breakthrough the Muslim mindset. Empowerment, he says, is one of
those issues. “Anybody in a subdominant culture will always want to
level the playing field,” he says. “Empowerment is a core cultural
issue among African-Americans. Other core issues are dignity,
identity, and significance.”
Ellis says African-American men want to know what it really means to
be a man. If you listen to gangsta rap, he says, you hear the
degeneration of women lying behind the quest for manhood. So, many
African-American men grab machismo as a cheap substitute for
manhood. But Ellis teaches them that the Bible addresses all of
these issues, and that the Gospel of the Kingdom is more than just
private fire insurance.
Armed with this information and the Holy Ghost, Ellis says it is not
difficult to address the core issues of Islam followers. The
problem, he adds, is many Christians he has encountered are
intimidated by Muslims so they don’t seek to build relationships
with them and earn the opportunity to speak into their lives.
Find books by Carl F. Ellis, Jr. at
www.TheVoiceBooks.com
 |
Free At Last? The
Gospel in the African-American Experience
By Carl F. Ellis,
Jr.
Learn More |
 |
The
Changing Face of Islam in America
By Larry Poston &
Carl Ellis, Jr.
Learn More |
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“My strategy is generally to develop relationships and I disciple
them through those issues. I disciple them into the Kingdom and
beyond,” Ellis says. “The microwave approach doesn’t work very well
with the Muslims. You have to develop relationships with the
Muslims.”
Ellis also organizes dialogues in local mosques by way of a
provocative introductory question like, “Are all Muslims terrorists,
because that’s the impression many people have of Islam?” Then Ellis
explains that a group of Christians would like to learn more about
Islam and share with them more about Christianity, since, he tells
them, Christians are also misrepresented in the press.
That strategy opens the door to a non-argumentative presentation
from both sides, followed by refreshments and fellowshipping. Ellis
says since the Word of God doesn’t return void, it is common for
Muslims to approach the local church, hear the Gospel message, and
surrender to Jesus. Ellis will do whatever it takes to reach
American Muslims because he has a passion.
“I know there are millions of people out there who are disillusioned
with Christianity as they know it. I want them to have the same
privilege I had,” Ellis says. “The biggest challenge to reaching
them is to get the church to wake up. I love the church with a deep
passion, but we need to wake up to the issues that are in the
streets instead of just adding more programs. I’ve found too many
preacher’s kids in the mosque.”
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Project Joseph is equipping the saints to reach out to American Muslims who are discouraged with religious Christianity.
