DC Keane: ‘There’s Nothing Magical About Missions.’
D.C. Keane sent hundreds to the mission field and wrote a book about Frontiers. These are his thoughts on Christians in Missions.
The following is part of D.C. Keane’s 2022 interview with Rashidah on Crescent Project’s podcast. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Rashidah: How and why did you become involved in Muslim missions?
DC Keane: In junior high, I knew there was something in the Bible about somebody going somewhere and telling somebody something. But as I looked around, it seemed everybody knew as much as I did. So I thought that whatever the command was, it must have been fulfilled.
But when I was 15, I heard the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ and I realized, wow, there is something to tell people! And I thought I should start telling people.
In college, I read three mission biographies: J. Hudson Taylor: God's Man in China, a biography of CT Studd, and Through the Gates of Splendor, which is the story of Jim Elliott. Those stories awakened me to the fact that there are peoples and places in the world who have no access to the gospel. They never got the invitation. So my roommate and I decided that that's where we wanted to go.
Fast forward to Urbana 1987. One of the speakers said, “Missionaries to Muslims are one in a million – one for every million Muslims.” I didn't know anything about Muslims or Islam, but I knew that wasn't right. And so I offered myself to God at that point and said, “Send me to Muslims.”
One of the speakers said, “Missionaries to Muslims are one in a million – one for every million Muslims.” I didn't know anything about Muslims or Islam, but I knew that wasn't right.
I was starting to learn how to share the gospel with Muslims while working as a college pastor in Davis, California. Then the 9/11 attack on the United States happened, and I thought, what a hopeless act. These people need the gospel. Within a week, my wife and I contacted Frontiers and told them we wanted to go to the Muslim world.
Frontiers looked at what we had been doing as a college pastor and said, “Would you consider mobilization?” And I said, “What's that?” I'd never heard the word! My first impulse was to say no, but my wife and I prayed and felt God directing us to take the role. It seemed like a good opportunity to multiply ourselves into the Muslim world. Ralph Winter always said, “Send a hundred people in your place.” And so we thought we would try that.
Rashidah: Can you talk about your work as a missions mobilizer and your travels to the Muslim world? What have you seen God do, and what changes have you seen over that time period in missions?
DC Keane: As a mobilizer, the biggest thing I have seen is the transformation that happens to Christ followers who give up the trinkets, the stuff of our own culture, and move to the edges of the kingdom.
I've seen that they seem to get a better understanding of the Bible as they're engaging in the Muslim world, with Muslims who live in a culture that's much closer to the biblical culture. They get insights into the scriptures that are amazing. And I've seen them grow in love, in faith, in hope, in courage.
The biggest thing I have seen is the transformation that happens to Christ followers who give up the trinkets, the stuff of our own culture, and move to the edges of the kingdom.
Several of the people I interviewed were moved by Isaiah 49:6, where God says through the prophet,
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations, so that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”
These are people who were captured by that kind of spirit that says salvation has to go to the ends of the earth.
It is amazing to gather in a room with these people and worship with them. They don’t have large-group worship opportunities on the field. To see how vigorously they worship God, and express love for him, and cry out to God that he would fulfill his promises, is an incredibly humbling experience.
Zechariah 8:20-22 says,
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.”
Won't that be a great day! And people reaching the unreached are giving their lives to the vision described by Zechariah.
So the transformation of the people who go to the field is incredible. But we've also seen the transformation of Muslims who find Jesus.
One worker was in Africa meeting with village elders. They started reading the Bible together, and when they got to the third chapter of Genesis, these elders stopped and said, “Wait a minute. If man and woman are created this way, as it is portrayed in the Bible, we should stop beating our wives. We should treat them with honor.” That's amazing. That's the transformation that comes when they encounter the scriptures.
These elders stopped and said, “Wait a minute. If man and woman are created this way, as it is portrayed in the Bible, we should stop beating our wives.”
We’re starting to see large numbers of Muslims turning to faith in Christ, which is incredible. The people who started Frontiers would hardly dare imagine what is now happening; it was kind of a distant hope, but it's starting to happen.
We're still waiting for the transformation of the Muslim world as a whole, but these are the kinds of things we've seen in the Muslim world.
Rashidah: Why did you decide to write your book, Uncharted Mission?
DC Keane: There was the idea that somebody ought to write the history of Frontiers, and I thought, what if we wrote the history of Frontiers in such a way that it would describe the calling to unreached Muslims?
I wrote it because there are still not enough workers in the Muslim world. There are still hundreds of cities of Muslims with nobody trying to reach them, and we still need more workers. So I wrote it to try to find workers who will go.
There are still hundreds of cities of Muslims with nobody trying to reach them, and we still need more workers.
I love what Crescent project is doing in equipping churches to reach Muslims here. That is so, so important. But there are millions of Muslims who are never going to come here. And so I firmly believe we need to keep sending as well as reaching here.
Rashidah: You interviewed over a 100 people for your book. What are some of the insights that you learned from these interviews?
DC Keane: I think the biggest thing is that the missionary calling is not magic. It's not some mysterious thing that falls on misfits and they go do mysterious things.
It's not like that at all. It's cultivated. There are things that a church, or a pastor, or a mobilizer can implant into people, and then maybe God will grow them.
For example, the Perspectives class was huge in Frontiers. Frontiers would not have happened without Perspectives. So many people took perspectives and it rocked their world. And they said, “I gotta do something about this.”
The missionary calling is not magic. It's not some mysterious thing that falls on misfits and they go do mysterious things.
And that's where it struck me. There are things like Perspectives, or certain parts of scripture, that are like seeds that go into the soil of your heart. And even if your heart is not good soil, it can actually become good soil. You're not stuck being a certain type of soil, because there's always repentance available.
Classes like Perspectives moved people, but also scripture. Romans 15:20-21 has been very influential for many people. Paul says,
“It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’”
People have been moved by reading stories of missionaries who'd gone out and, and they could see themselves in these stories. Statistics are motivating too. Sometimes statistics are kind of downplayed, but they're actually meaningful, because statistics represent people.
When I heard that missionaries to Muslims are one in a million, you could take that as a dry statistic, or, with some sanctified imagination, you can say, “Wow, what's it like for someone to live without ever hearing the gospel? What's their family like? How do they treat their wife and their children? How do they treat each other? How do they do business?”
Let your mind creatively consider the implications. If they've never heard the gospel, they’ve never heard that God loves them. That Jesus came and died to redeem them, that he rose from the dead to save them from the grave.
With some sanctified imagination, you can say, “Wow, what's it like for someone to live without ever hearing the gospel?”
Imagine what it would be like to live like that. Sometimes it’s hard for me to do, because I grew up in a world where the gospel was prevalent. But I’ve visited a few places and seen the struggles that people have, the fear of death – it’s crippling to people who have no hope beyond it.
And so the calling to reach the unreached is cultivated by scripture, by stories, by statistics, and by supportive people. Nobody figured this out on their own. They all had people who encouraged them, who supported them. That's another reason I wrote the book: to offer some encouragement to people to step into their calling.
Some people take Perspectives and say, “I gotta go to the mission field.” And others take Perspectives, and it doesn't move them the same way. Not because they're rebelling against God or anything like that. It’s just that they're not moved by the same things. But very few people are moved if you don't plant these seeds. William Carey said, “God uses means,” and God uses means to call people, and He uses information. I think Ralph Winter said, “God can't move you on the basis of information you do not have.”
So I wrote the book to try to surface those people who say, “Wait, you mean to tell me there's no Christian trying to establish the gospel among these people? Well, that's not right. I gotta go.”
Rashidah: Any final words to share with our audience?
DC Keane: I would just say if God is nudging you in this direction, move in that direction and pursue it, and find out what he's calling you to. You can do it.
And look for those places where the gospel is not being preached. You can have a role to play in those areas. If you read Uncharted Mission, you'll find out that these people were not perfect, to say the least. They're human beings like you and me. And if you're inclined in any way in this direction, explore it.
Contact me. I'll help you, and there's lots of people who'll help you. But don't let it pass, if God is awakening you to this great need, this great adventure.
If you read Uncharted Mission, you'll find out that these people were not perfect, to say the least. They're human beings like you and me.
Rashidah: There are people in our audience who may be at various stages of Muslim ministry – maybe just exploring the idea of it, or they're involved in it and need encouragement and continued guidance. Or there are some who have no passion yet, but God wants to work in their lives in this way. Would you be willing to close us in a word of prayer for our audience?
DC Keane: I would love to.
Thank you, gracious God, you are the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort. You draw near to the broken hearted and you save those who are crushed in spirit.
And we think of people around the world: Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, whoever – who are facing these kinds of things. They are crushed in spirit because of their sick children or their unfaithful husband, or whatever it is, and yet they've never heard that you are the God who comforts.
They've never heard that you were the God who cares for them. You are the God who loves them. You are the God who will walk with them through whatever hardship comes their way. And so God, we pray that you would raise up workers for your harvest field. We know that when people hear your word, many will respond.
And so I pray that you would raise up workers, even from this audience, who will say, “I have to go, I have to go where the gospel is not being preached.” Because there are people there for whom Christ died and they don't know it and they will never guess it. I pray that you would give them the encouragement they need, that you will bring people alongside them who can help them because this can't be done alone.
I pray that you will continue to bless the work of Crescent project, the training they do, the care they give for people who have come to Christ. Father, I pray for your great blessing on this ministry. And I thank you that we are one in heart to see your name glorified, Jesus, among all Muslim peoples.
Amen.
D.C. Keane, a missions mobilizer and sending consultant, helped recruit 900 missionaries to the Muslim world in his 11 years as mobilization director for Frontiers USA. His new book, Uncharted Mission: Going to the Final Frontiers, explores the call to missions and the history of Frontiers through more than 100 interviews.