Nine Steps to Leading Change in the Middle East
The Philos Project
It’s really hard to be a Christian and watch what’s happening in the Middle East right now.
Images of radicalism, violence, persecution, and poverty have become so rampant that the redeemed heart cannot help but hurt. Many want to intercede on behalf of those who are suffering, but few understand the region and even fewer know how to engage it. Faced with spiraling injustice, some just throw up their hands. Maybe God wants it this way, they think. Maybe those people will never change.
It’s not true. The Middle East can change. And Christians are precisely the ones who should lead it.
But change doesn’t start with agendas; it starts with self-preparation. As King Solomon wrote, “Zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins.” God may be tugging on your heart, pointing to the Middle East, and saying, Go. But before you pack your bags and hop on a plane, take a second to go through this list and make sure you’re up for the challenge.
- Assess yourself.
True change stems from the power of the gospel, especially as it is manifested in your own life. Is Christ the king of your heart? Are you ready to follow where he leads? Do you feel his agape flowing inside you?
You cannot influence another part of the world for Christ if your own spiritual life is in disarray. The Middle East has too many gray areas, too many hard choices, too many temptations to venture there without the proper armor.
- Get out of the mirror.
The American church, like American culture, can, at times, become self-absorbed. Apathetic and indifferent, we can retreat inside our digital worlds and ignore anything that happens beyond our news feed. Rarely do we think about events outside this country, and almost never do we ponder how the US should interact with the wider world.
This is a total abdication of our responsibility as salt and light of the earth. The church of Jesus Christ is a transnational body with a transnational message, and although nations are designed and sanctioned by God, there is no reason our moral sympathies should end at our shores. Before you consider working on Middle Eastern issues, ensure that your worldview is sufficiently selfless to accommodate concern for others.
- Care. Genuinely.
It seems obvious that anyone wanting to impact the Middle East for Christ will care about the people who live there. But the truth is that many don’t. Some seek fame, some seek mystery. Others pursue the advantage of one people group over another, damning the rest to misery.
Ironically, Christians active in this field frequently forget their faith’s preeminent virtue. Change makers need to go beyond simple explanations and abstract arguments and seek to understand the real people on the ground – all of them. Where they come from, what they want, what they’ve gone through. If you don’t care to know them, you really don’t care about the region.
- Study. A lot.
The most common error I see in those wanting to impact the Middle East is laziness. I don’t mean laziness of action, for they are quick to act and speak. I mean laziness of mind. They rarely want to read books and grapple with the tangled history and culture of the region. God told them to go, so they do. But they are often ignorant (“People are people and all people are sinners and that’s all I need to know”) or overconfident (“I once saw a History Channel documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I’m pretty sure I know how to solve it”). The best leaders are diligent in pursuing knowledge and meek enough to admit their deficiencies.
Young Christians who feel God’s calling to this part of the world should consider majoring in a Middle Eastern field or taking at least one upper level college course. The most industrious will also study a regional language, whether Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, or Persian, in order to personally connect with those they wish to help.
You simply cannot impact the Middle East unless you are ready to spend long hours in study. Diligence, diligence, diligence.
- Know what you’re working toward.
People often ask me what I’d like to see happen in the Middle East: what’s the vision? I tell them I want to see a Middle East that is quiet and free, where residents live peaceable lives together with their families and nations, freely practicing their faith, and where the life-giving message of Jesus flows unobstructed.
The central task in achieving this goal is procuring security of body and mind. Without that, there isn’t much else to talk about. Security of body means exactly what it sounds like: suppressing violence and establishing rule of law. In other words, justice. Most Middle Easterners live in mafia-like cultures and lack the basic assurances of life that would allow them to look past their tribe or village to consider something higher. Only when basic frameworks of security are in place can real change happen.
Security of mind means creating free spaces of thought so that people can pursue the ideas and worldviews that compel them most. Right now many are told what to think and punished for thinking otherwise. You don’t have to be a Christian to see the crime in this policy, but being a Christian lets you see it as a crime of the highest order. God made humans to be free moral agents, and we should defy all those who would try to deny that.
In conjunction with security of mind comes religious freedom, the most important value we can promote abroad. As Christians, our desire is to see the gospel move unhindered so that those who it touches can embrace it without fear. At this point, the Middle East is one of the most gospel-poor regions on earth. Since the final hope for humanity is found in Jesus, it's vital that we lobby for religious freedom both here and around the world. Once this freedom is in place, incredible things will follow.
- Avoid illusions.
Many people dream of “bringing peace to the Middle East.” Well good luck with that. There are few things more harmful to profitable work than heady idealism aimed at impossible ends. Wise leaders know that we live in a fallen world and that real peace will only come at the end of time. Christians must therefore manage their expectations about what is achievable and what is not. Nations are imperfect. Treaties are flawed. War is inevitable and is sometimes even necessary to protect the innocent.
Promoting human rights and minimizing violence is noble and important, but Christians should not be surprised when results disappoint. Only the cross offers eternal hope and peace. Beyond that, Christians should expect incomplete solutions and be okay with that.
- Be discerning.
The longer I live the more I see discernment as the leadership quality par excellence. When God offered Solomon anything he asked for, Solomon asked for discernment. “Give your servant an obedient heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil” – and it was a prayer that pleased God.
There is such a thing as good and evil, and Christians should be able to tell the difference. Those brimming with radical love often toss out the distinction between virtue and wickedness, lumping everyone together as “people who need Jesus.” But although the New Testament does teach that everyone needs Christ, it doesn’t teach that love should abolish the difference between right and wrong.
Right now there are nations and groups actively seeking to dominate the Middle East, suppress the gospel, and kill those who stand in their way. Christians who enter this rough neighborhood without discernment won’t be helpful to the oppressors or the oppressed. They must be wise as serpents, identifying wrongdoing and hating it just as much as God does.
- Think short-term and long-term.
The most common reaction to what’s happening in Iraq and Syria is to send food and blankets to distressed refugees. But although we should thank God for Christians who give, we also need to brainstorm long-term solutions to the underlying problems. What will happen to these refugees in the next twenty years? Fifty? Hundred? What will the Middle East look like in 2115 if God allows the world to last that long? What can it look like?
The most important thing to keep in mind is that we in the West cannot bring change singlehandedly. Lasting change can only come from those who live there. Our task is to connect with these people, these communities of virtue who share our fundamental values of liberty and justice for all peoples, and do what we can to help them fight against violence and bigotry. It is inside these communities that the real future of the region lies.
- Think church solutions and state solutions.
Most Christians approach the Middle East as people need food or people need Jesus. But while humanitarian aid and evangelism are two important ways for the church to engage the region directly, they are not the only ways.
Christians who desire long-term change must also consider political solutions. Now the word political is often used to mean partisan, and that’s not what I mean. What I’m talking about is employing the full extent of American law, defense, and diplomacy to secure justice in the region. Religious freedom is a fine idea, but it doesn’t work unless safeguarded by law and force of arms.
The United States is the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, and our ability to influence the Middle East is still unrivaled. We need to leverage that influence judiciously in order to support communities of virtue and challenge those who would seek their destruction.
The church shouldn’t try to assume the state's prerogative in managing foreign policy – our scriptures say that those powers are reserved for the king alone. But the moral content of our faith and the duties of democracy demand that we bring a Christian conscience to big questions of American engagement overseas. Provided that we speak respectfully, not tying our positions to personalities or parties, we should speak loudly and without fear.
Individual Christians should also consider government careers to lead change from within. For who better to implement American policy abroad than those guided by the Holy Spirit? For some reason churches see political vocations as carnal and unrelated to kingdom goals; I beg to differ. Demarcating the roles of church and state is essential – the two institutions are designed for very different tasks – but I believe that some of the most important change in the Middle East can only come about at the hands of government. There are some things the church just can’t do.
As we wait for the restoration of all things, we are called to bear witness to the power of Christ and the values of his kingdom. And it’s evident that the Middle East needs that witness now more than ever.
If God is calling you to this troubled part of the world, whether in ministry, humanitarian development or public policy, The Philos Project wants to help you prepare for that career. We offer several training and service opportunities designed to give you what you need to become a well-rounded, spiritually-grounded change-maker in the region.
Together let’s take up the cause of the oppressed, confront the oppressor, and use the advantages we enjoy for the benefit of the nations. Especially for those who live in the homeland of our faith.
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