Missionaries Taking About Church Too Much

"Let me give you an example of how the above paradigm influenced us. When we moved into our
village, Aamadu Suleyman was the imam of the village mosque. He was an old man, about twice
my age at that time. He was a godly man, wanting nothing more than to do the will of Allah. We
became good friends. I used to visit him two or three times a week in the afternoons. We had
discussions on religion and he taught me about the inner dimensions of Islam. Eventually, we
read Genesis and the whole of Matthew together in Fulfulde. We talked about Islam and
Christianity, Christians, churches, being Christian, etc. and etc. This went on for a long time, but
finally one day he said to me, “Laare, let’s not talk about this anymore, please stop trying to make
me become a Christian.” I was deeply disappointed. And then three months later he died,
suddenly, unexpectedly. I bitterly mourned his death.
But it wasn’t until many years later that I finally really “heard” what he had said. He had not said,
“Please stop telling me about Jesus”, but rather “Please stop trying to make me become a
Christian.” Evidently I had talked too much about religion, about Christianity, Christians and
churches to the point where Christ had been overshadowed, overshadowed by Christian religious
identity."

Larry Vanderaa