In our Perspectives class, we are in the "Strategic" section, and we are considering cultural challenges to the spread of the gospel. On Monday night, we had a "Muslim experience" as our "activity" for the evening, being introduced to how a service in a mosque might be conducted.
One part included women being separated from the men, ritual preparation (washing), and women covering themselves appropriately...
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| One of my friends in class and I with our heads covered, before we went into the meeting |
In the meeting room, women sat separately - in this case, in an area where we really could not see what was going on. We sat/kneeled on the floor (those who could not were provided chairs). (The men also sat/kneeled on the floor, but they were in an area where they could see the speaker.) The speaker oriented us to what was expected from us as if he was a Muslim leader of a mosque.
After we broke from the activity, he asked for observations. As we shared various ways that we felt "uncomfortable" (sitting on the floor, being very close to each other, and, for the women, feeling like we weren't really "part" of the meeting), he encouraged us to think about how Muslims who come into our churches would similarly feel uncomfortable.
This reminded me of a slide that I took a picture of a few weeks ago:
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| The speaker shared about taking a Muslim woman to church with her. These were comments from the Muslim woman - that church attendees did not show reverence, respect, honor. |
From my point of view, Perspectives is about making you "think" and, to some extent, to make you a bit uncomfortable with your point of view, or at least to be willing to consider other points of view (other perspectives, as it were!). I *really* appreciate all that the coordinating team is doing to make this a great class!
