Frequently Asked Questions
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Turkish World Outreach
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Who are the Turks?
Where are the Turks
located today?
What do they believe?
Why should we share the Gospel with
Turks?
Why don't the Turkish
churches reach out to their non-Christian brothers and sisters?
What is the need for Christian workers
in Turkey?
What can I do?
How can I learn more about sharing Jesus
Christ with Muslims?
Who are the Turks?
Turks are part of the Ural-Altaic language group and count Finns, Mongols, Koreans, and Hungarians as ancient relatives. Their earliest presence in history was in what today would be Mongolia, Siberia, and Western China. From the 7th through the 11th centuries, Turks migrated, conquered and settled much of the 35/45 Turkic window, as it is called today.
Where are the Turks located today?
Almost 90% of the world's more than 145 million Turkic speakers live along the "Silk Road," between the 35th and 45th parallels (countries stretching from Turkey through Central Asia into Western China). Many Turks, however, are located outside this 'window' - in Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and the U.S. While the names and linguistic dialects of these people differ, a Turk from Istanbul can make himself understood among Uyghurs of China. The Turkic languages constitute the fifth largest linguistic group in the world, after Chinese, English, Spanish, and Hindi. This means that millions of unreached Turks can be told about Jesus through a similar heart language.
Above picture thanks to Joshua 2000
Muslims in the Turkic world are predominately Sunnis (often referred to as
Orthodox Islam -sunna, the "path" or "way" of the prophet) but most would also
be considered followers of Folk Muslims, who practice an animistic form of
Islam. Millions of Turks also view Islam as a cultural tradition and not a
religious belief.
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Why should we share the
Gospel with Turks?
Muslims are coming to Christ, but the church has not been going to
them to tell them about Jesus. While the age of modern missions began
200 years ago, with William Carey going to India; missionaries didn't
start reaching out to the Muslims of Turkey until the 1960s, and to
Central Asia until 1990.
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Why don't the
Turkish churches reach out to their non-Christian brothers and sisters?
The Turkish church has been reaching out with a boldness not often seen in Western society; however, the task before them is much greater than their ability, given their small size. Most of their efforts must be placed in trying to legally establish their right to worship as they wish. Unlike most Muslim countries, Turkey has a constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. However, some in Turkey don't want a Christian church, and don't want any Muslims hearing the truth about Jesus Christ. So they harass and persecute those Christians who come from a Muslim background to try to get them to convert back to Islam, spread lies about what Christian missionaries do so they will be expelled from the country, and bring court cases against the churches so Christians won't have places to worship. Despite this harassment, the few Turkish churches continue to reach out to other Turks.
According to statistics from Operation World, 99.8% of the Turkic/Altaic peoples (which also include Mongolian people) are located in the least evangelized part of the world. This makes them the least reached mega-people group in the world. By way of comparison, only 27.4% of the total world population is unevangelized. Unreached peoples are defined as those where "there is no viable indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their own people without outside (cross-cultural) assistance." (Operation World, p. 759)
Unreached people have not only not been saved, they have not been given the opportunity to place their faith in Christ because no one has told them about Him. In Romans 10:14, the Apostle Paul asks,
"How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have
not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" (NASB)
Because Turkey, and the Turkic peoples worldwide, constitute the
largest unreached nation and people group, the worldwide church of Jesus
Christ needs to come alongside the fledgling churches to share Jesus
with their brothers and sisters. We can do this by praying for them;
going to them; supporting those who are going; supporting their efforts
to worship freely; funding radio, translation and literature ministries;
participating in postal evangelism, and becoming Christian pen-friends.
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What is the need for Christian
workers in Turkey?
Only three tenths of one percent (0.3%) of the people in Turkey consider
themselves to be Christian, and only three one-thousandths of one percent
(0.003%) are considered to be evangelical Christians. In Turkey, there are
110,630 non-Christians for every Christian worker. In the world in general, the
task of reaching the lost is much easier, as each worker has to share the Gospel
with only 20,332 persons. Based upon the ratio of non-believers per worker in
the rest of the world, Turkey needs at least five to six times as many workers
as it has today.
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Our challenge today is to mobilize the Lord's people to work together for the sake of reaching Turks with the Gospel. TWO invites you to be part of this outreach through:
How can I learn more about
sharing Jesus Christ with Muslims?
In addition to learning more through literature we offer, there are many additional web sites and educational resources where you can learn more about Islam, and how to minister to Muslims. Here are some we recommend:
In English
There are a number of educational institutions with courses on Islamics. Some to consider include:
Turkish-language Christian Sites include the following:
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