In the 2001 census Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims represented 4.6% of the population of England and Wales.
This rose to about 7% in 2011 and is expected to be over 10% in the 2021 census. A conservative estimate is that people of these faiths will constitute over a quarter of the population of England and Wales by 2050 in only about 30 years time. Many inner city areas have seen church after church closed down, with some being converted into mosques or temples. What is the church doing to reach this burgeoning mission field on our doorstep?
Mission in Southampton
There are encouraging signs of many Iranian and some Afghan refugees turning to Jesus, but what about the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim people who have been living in the UK for decades? The largest single ethnic group in this category are Pakistani Muslims and one estimate is that less than 100 have come to faith in Jesus, out of a population of over 1 million, in the last 50 years.
In 1983, a mission to Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims started in Southampton. It began by gathering together believers from various churches who had a heart to pray for the salvation of these dear people. In any single church there were only a handful of people with this vision, but by joining up to pray and work together a viable number was formed to support and carry out the outreach.
Prayer and no appeals
As a faith mission, it was based entirely on prayer with no appeals or collections of money but, within six months of starting to pray together, God had provided a shop as an outreach centre. The shop had goods from developing nations and Christian books in the major subcontinent languages (not as important now, 35 years later, when most people can read English).
The full-time worker, Clive Thorne, lived over the shop and so was always available to talk to interested contacts and the shop provided a ‘neutral’ setting where people of other faiths felt safe to show an interest in Christianity.
An Asian Christian Fellowship was started in the same year for those who were already believers in Jesus and 30-40 or so began to meet together regularly.
By all means
Over the years, all kinds of ways of reaching the community were tried. The mission contacted every Asian door in the city at least a dozen times with Christian books, videos, a questionnaire or outreach magazines. It ran boys’ clubs, girls’ clubs and English classes and Clive would help boys with their homework and visit and befriend waiters in the local Indian restaurants.
There was an annual summer barbecue and Christmas party and often over 100 non-Christian friends and relatives would attend these and hear something of the gospel. Friends and relatives of Asian believers have been the most responsive to the gospel, as the interfaith barriers have already been somewhat broken down.
Constant conversions
In January 1990, God put it on the Mission’s hearts to pray for at least one Asian person to find faith in Jesus each month (within a week there were five!) and by God’s grace that has been happening ever since.
One Hindu family saw ten family members saved over a period of ten years from 1994 to 2004 and when a Sikh lady came to Jesus the change in her behaviour was so dramatic that all her children and their spouses began to ask questions about her new faith. All 11 of them eventually decided to follow the Lord also. After two years of meeting together every week to discuss the gospel, one of the strictest Pakistani Muslims in the city gave his life to Jesus, which shocked the whole Muslim community. The change in his life was so evident that one of his friends said: ‘I don’t agree with what he did in leaving Islam, but it has done him good.’
‘Christianity could be for me’
It was always a key factor having an Asian Christian Fellowship of folk largely from subcontinent ethnic backgrounds. One Hindu man said at his baptism that it was only when he visited the Fellowship and saw Asian people worshipping Jesus that he realised that Christianity could be for him also, as he thought that it was just a Western religion up to that point.
In 2006, the mission changed its name to Southampton Lighthouse International Church (SLIC) and opened an old church hall as the only place of Christian worship in the Asian area of Southampton amongst five mosques, four Sikh temples (three of them that used to be churches) and a Hindu temple.
Today the church has a congregation meeting in the old church hall of about 170, over half of whom are individuals and families that have come to faith in Jesus from Hindu, Sikh and Muslim backgrounds. However, due to fear of persecution from their communities (which varies from insults to being ostracised or even occasional threats of violence), about half of those we have seen profess faith over the years have not got strong enough to come to the church.
Bigger premises
In November 2009, SLIC felt they should pray for the Lord to provide bigger premises in the shape of the redundant Anglican church building next door which had been turned into an Afro-Caribbean social club. Just over seven years later, in 2017, it had been allowed to become derelict and SLIC was able to buy it. SLIC is currently in the process of repairing it, providing a new roof, new windows, flooring, electrics, plumbing, sound system, toilets and a foyer to combine the two buildings. It is estimated to take at least another £300,000 to finish the work.
Jesus through Asian eyes
Working with the Evangelical Alliance, an evangelistic booklet called Jesus Through Asian Eyes was written which gives bite-sized answers to 16 questions that Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhists commonly ask about the Christian faith. A discussion course called Discovering Jesus Through Asian Eyes which explores more of what the Bible says about these questions was also produced and is available from The Good Book Company.
These can be great resources in evangelism and in training Christians in what questions to expect when speaking to people from these faiths and how to answer them. Half or full-day seminars in how to use the booklet and course can be arranged at your church please use the contact details below. There is also a book called Light out of Darkness about the miracles that God has done in the first 25 years of the work, including ten testimonies of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who have found new life in Jesus.
