Media Evangelism to Muslims: a case study of Handeni Town, Tanga Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Media is a vital tool in evangelism which enables the message to pass from the sender to the receiver. However, it has been used in evangelism from the time immemorial. Even though media has played an important role in evangelism, still Handeni Church has not managed to use it effectively to pass the message of salvation. Therefore, this study focuses on evangelizing Muslims in Handeni using media. The study was based on the following objectives: identifying the challenges facing the church in evangelism and identifying the strategies to be used by the church in evangelizing. The researcher used case study design by applying both qualitative and quantitative methods. Both primary and secondary sources of data collection were used to study the population of 60 respondents, out of which 41 respondents were used as sample in the study. After the study, the researcher conducted seminars in order to implement the findings of the study and, after implementation, the researcher concluded the study. The study revealed that using the following strategies can be used in evangelizing; using house to house evangelism strategy, dialogue which was supported by 63.4%, mixing Quran and Bible verses as supported by 60.9% and distribution of books that was supported by 75.6%, electronic media whereby 68.3% supported the use of television, 65.6% supported the use of radio. In the pretesting, the percentage of people who had fulfilled Islamic taboos and culture was 19.5% out of 41 and, in post testing, it increased 63.3%. The number of people who engaged in home church was 4.8% in pretesting and increased up to 24% in post testing. The percentage of respondents who used and were able to use Quran and Bible verses was 7.3% and increased up to 60.9% in post testing. The percentage of people who distributed books was 19.5% in pretesting and increased up to 63.4% in post testing. In pretesting, the percentage of people who participated in interfaith dialogue was 7.3% and increased up to 43.9% out of 41 in post testing. Recommendations were supplied in conclusion by the researcher.