In preparing for a new session that I will be teaching in our pre-field training, I have been struck by how prominent the theme of offspring is in the Scriptures. Barry Danylak in his book, A Biblical Theology of Singleness does a great job of showing how this motif is developed throughout the biblical revelation.
Beginning with God’s command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28) and continuing with God’s promises to Abram that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth (Gen 13:16) and the blessings of no childlessness in the Mosaic covenant (Deut 7:14, 28:11), it is clear that children were the marks of God’s blessing in the Old Testament. Offspring carried on your name and gave you some hope for life after death. To be without children meant not experiencing God’s blessing and having no hope for the future.
In the last number of years, many books have been published about how to engage and do evangelism among Muslim peoples. But few books address the specifics of how to help new believers from Muslim contexts grow in their faith while remaining in their Muslim communities and families. Given that some claim that up to 90% of converts from Muslim backgrounds reconvert back to Islam, discipleship and support of these converts is clearly a critical need in mission work among Muslim peoples.