A "crash course in Islam for Christians' is Colin Chapman's description of a package of course resources published by CMS and released at its recent NSW Summer School.

Colin Chapman is a British writer, teacher and missiologist who lived and taught for many years in a number of Middle Eastern countries. He has become known for his extensive knowledge of Islam and his desire to see Christians engage with Muslims positively, rather than avoid them out of fear or hostility. As Christians, we hope that out of this contact, there will be opportunities to bring the good news of the truth about Jesus to people who have not understood what we know about him.

For nearly fifteen years, Chapman has taught a course called Cross and Crescent, in order to equip ordinary Christians to do just this. CMS (NSW) made the most of Colin Chapman's visit to Sydney last year by recording him as he taught his course in Ryde, and this has been packaged with an Australianised version of the course notes.

The resource is designed for use in small groups without the need for an expert on Islam. It consists of a workbook, a set of DVDs and a promotional DVD. The workbook is in five sessions and includes a leader's guide. The DVD set contains input by Colin Chapman to be used as part of each of the five sessions. The promotional DVD is suitable for use in church notices to promote the availability of the course involving five 90-minute sessions. The material has been well tested in the Sydney context. At $20 per DVD set and $5 per workbook (the promo DVD is free) through [url=http://www.moorebooks.com.au]http://www.moorebooks.com.au[/url], it is really good value.

Sometimes our approach to Islam is simply through a "what they believe and why it is wrong' approach. The Cross and Crescent course does teach what Muslims believe, but goes further by showing aspects of Muslim practice, the various faces of contemporary Islam, and ways into relating first-hand with Muslim people, including how to handle common Muslim objections to Christian faith.

Has there ever been a more important time for Australian Christians to understand modern Islam? It is important for Christians to keep sending evangelists to Muslim countries, but as more Muslims come to this land, we have a God-given opening to reach out to them, and we must equip ourselves for this task.

Greg Anderson is the head of the Missions Department at Moore Theological College