212. Aila Tasse – The Challenge of the 21st Century

In this episode, Dave and Aila Tasse explore one of the great missional challenges of the 21st century: how followers of Jesus engage with the growth of Islam. Drawing on his own journey from Islam to Christ and his experience across Africa, Aila shares remarkable stories of how God is drawing Muslims to Jesus through dreams, visions and ordinary disciple-makers.

Responding to the Growth of Islam

As Islam (as well as Hinduism and Buddhism) continue to grow and spread across national boundaries, what will it take for the good news of Jesus to reach people on a global scale?

Dave and Aila discuss:

The growth and global influence of Islam through population, migration, politics, business, education and community life.
Why multiplication and disciple-making movements are needed to make a significant global impact.
How some younger Muslims continue to identify culturally with Islam while privately questioning or disengaging from the religion.
The important difference between Islam as a religious system and Muslims as people created and loved by God.
Why we should respond with prayer, love and engagement rather than fear.

Aila reminds us that behind the clothing, beliefs and religious identity are people—souls who need Jesus. He encourages focused prayer for Muslim communities, asking God to reveal people of peace, including those who may remain within their existing culture.

The Lausanne Movement’s State of the Great Commission Report highlights how church-planting movements are contributing to the growth of the global body of Christ. This offers hope that God is using movements to bring change where traditional churches are declining.

Stories of God at Work

Aila also shares remarkable stories of God at work:

A committed Muslim dreamed that Jesus told him to believe. Aila shares this personal story of how this man was later sent away for Islamic training and became a respected Sharia scholar and leader of imams—but he has never forgotten the dream.
After years of resisting Aila’s witness, his mother encountered Jesus in hospital. She was given a candle and told never to walk in darkness again, but to walk in the light. Her testimony later helped lead Aila’s father and other family members to Jesus.
A woman suffering from severe mental illness was healed after encountering “a man in white.” She later recognised Jesus through the message of local disciple-makers, received a song through her encounter and became a church planter.

These stories remind us that God cannot be confined to our expectations. He is using dreams, visions and overlooked, ordinary people to reach families and communities and begin movements.