Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Lord, now, indeed, I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone.
This song makes me nostalgic as I recall singing it alongside my parents in wooden pews, holding a Psalter Hymnal. These lyrics first meant something to me when I reflected on asking God to “melt my heart of stone.” I remember praying this verse as I was singing it, finally understanding the depth of this old hymn.
God melted the heart of stone of one man, resulting in the birth of the Crescent Project, one of the newest members of GACX. Crescent Project was founded 30 years ago by an individual born and raised as a Lebanese Christian during the sectarian wars dividing that country. He had great hatred towards Muslims due to the havoc experienced during the war. However, in God’s mercy, his perspective was transformed by God and he began to sense a profound calling to share the hope of Christ, particularly with Muslims. His transformation resulted in the birth of Crescent Project.
Today, Crescent Project has staff stationed throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, India, and Pakistan. In these areas, Crescent Project trains motivated Christ-followers to build bridges with Muslims. Their posture is to approach every context with a desire to learn from local church planters and support and accelerate what’s already happening. In their words, “we enter an arena as listeners and learners” seeking to find “brilliance on the ground.”
One of the most popular ways Crescent Project does this is by conducting training in local churches and hosting a master's level intensive course called The Sahara Challenge. The Sahara Challenge provides in-depth training for ministry to Muslims: it focuses on relationally working with Muslim communities and is led by experienced leaders and Muslim-background believers.
“What's amazing is we find great curiosity among many Muslims who may not be curious in a group or a crowd, but they're curious over a simple cup of coffee or tea. We're looking at a high relational approach,” elaborates Steven Helm, COO of Crescent Project.
If a natural disaster occurs in their active areas of ministry, Crescent Project also participates in relief efforts, seeking opportunities to compassionately serve Muslim needs in the name of Christ. For example, Crescent Project partnered with multiple Christian organizations to provide disaster relief to Kurds after the Turkey/Syria earthquakes.
Currently, the Crescent Project is working with churches burned to the ground by Muslim activists in Pakistan to help those churches reimagine church life and worship without a building. In a beautiful example of Christian unity overcoming historic enmity, many of the ideas Crescent Project shares with Pakistani churches come from India. In India, most of Crescent Project’s church plants are “parish” churches composed of people from the immediate, local community. None of those Indian church plants have buildings. Instead, they meet in goat pens or under an awning or under a tree. Yet these “building-less” church plants are multiplying and have grown to nearly 150 new churches in the last two years. Walking with Indian and Pakistani churches through these challenges and helping them share ideas with each other has been a wonderful learning experience for Crescent Project.
As a ministry aligned with GACX’s mission and vision, Crescent Project would love to learn from GACX member organizations and walk with them through challenges and opportunities in the Muslim world.
“First of all, we want to find out what God has placed upon our partner organization’s heart, how they are impacting the world, and how we might find an on-ramp to partner together,” affirms Helm.
In addition to the opportunities mentioned above, two additional areas where Crescent Project hopes to partner with GACX members are digital outreach and training interns.
Digital outreach is a new and growing aspect of Crescent Project’s ministry. Although Crescent Project’s digital missionaries logged 40,000 hours of interaction with Muslims worldwide in 2023, they cannot keep up with the high volume of requests from Muslims curious to learn more about Christ. Crescent Project hopes to partner with GACX member organizations active in digital ministry in Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia to better reach Muslim inquirers.
Crescent Project is also looking to partner with GACX ministries to hire interns from member organizations to bring into Crescent Project’s three-month intensive internship program that trains Christian leaders to build bridges to Muslim communities. The Crescent Project currently has interns working in Northern Africa, Europe, and India and is interested in bringing on interns from Korea.
Are you interested in working with Crescent Project? Visit crescentproject.org to learn more.
Written by Brooke Helder, GACX Content Creator