A Place of Hope and Help for Muslims! Friends for Life is an outreach ministry to the growing international community in Minneapolis. Our cities in America are fast becoming our new mission field. Globalization has brought internationals from around the world who have taken up residence within the shadow our own church steeples. Hundreds of thousands of people formerly beyond the reach of the church in so called, closed countries now reside on our very doorstep.
We the local church must rise to this new challenge to equip ourselves and step through this open door. With growing political unrest and increasing economic instability, this may indeed be God’s hand at work, bringing within our reach, those formerly beyond it.
World events are clearly drawing toward a climax, the missionary force is unquestionably declining, our world population is definitely exploding, October 31, 2011, our world population crossed the 7 billion mark, we went from 6 billion to 7 billion in just 12 years. Current population trends according to the UN’s projection say the world will reach the 8 billion mark by 2024 and the 9 billion mark by 2042.
Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, we have more than 150,000 Somali Muslims, 50,000 Hindus, 40,000 Ethiopians, 85,000 Hmong animists to name a few of the larger ethnic groups.
The Twin Cities are home to several synagogues serving the Jewish population, which is concentrated in the western Minneapolis suburbs of Golden Valley, St. Louis Park and Minnetonka. There is also a strong Indian community and in 2006, the first Hindu temple opened in the Twin Cities suburb of Maple Grove. A recent influx of immigrants from Laos and Northern Africa has brought many more religions to the area. There are more than 50 Islamic mosques or religious organizations in the area. There is a temple for the religion of Eckankar in the suburb of Chanhassen known as the Temple of Eck. In addition, Hmong and Tibetan Buddhist communities exist in Saint Paul; a Hmong Buddhist temple opened in suburban Roseville in 1995. There are several pagan and Buddhist groups. The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been called Paganistan due to the large numbers of pagans living here. There are an estimated 20,000 pagans living in the Twin Cities area. The Old Belief Society opened a temple in North East Minneapolis in 2010.
What is true in Minneapolis and St. Paul is true of every major metropolitan area in the US and that is even more the case in the larger metropolitan areas. Our communities have changed and it is time for the church to change and adapt to meet this challenge. The world is at our door literally and the people in the pew a new breed of missionaries that need to be trained to reach their world.
It is our hearts’ desire to develop a working model here in the Twins Cities and the tools and resources to help churches in the US to do the same.
Below you’ll find our website link to our ministry home page; we invite you to check it out. Feel free to contact us or join us for one of our outreaches.
www.Friends4LifeOnline.Com |
