In This Issue: Top Ten Gifts for the Mobilizer on Your List
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Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.
Top Ten Christmas Gifts for the Mobilizer on Your List
By Shane Bennett
Well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it? At least if you live in America, it’s crazy consumer time as we slide up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
Around our house this Christmas, we’re thinking about gifts for each other that will increase productivity. For example, what sort of gift will help this particular child accomplish what God has in mind for them? Is “increase productivity” subjective? Sure. I can just hear our son: “Dad, a PSP (PlayStation Portable) will help my hand/eye coordination so that I’ll be able to excel at basketball so I can lead sports-oriented short-term mission teams to unreached peoples.” (That’s not a direct quote, but you get the idea!) This seems like a good idea to me, with two caveats: (1) Buying your wife (or your “I-hope-she’ll-become-my-wife-someday” person) a gift in order to increase her productivity in an area that is chiefly a concern of yours may be a really bad idea! Check carefully about what productivity she may want to increase. (2) Another valid basis for gift giving is simply, “Hey, I think this might make you happy.”
Imagine you wanted to give a gift this Christmas that would increase productivity for the mobilizer on your list – or the one inside you! What will help your fellow mobilizers accomplish the work God has laid out for them? What are mobilizers hoping to find under the Christmas tree this year? Read on …
1. Mileage. If you can tune up a mobilizer’s car and thereby increase her gas mileage and thereby lower her gas bill so she can direct more of her money to good causes, great! Good for you. But what I’m talking about here is frequent flyer mileage. Have a mobilizer friend who needs to get to a meeting or conference? Or someone who could use a visit to the people group they’re focused on, or maybe a trip back to where they come from to visit dear parents? Nothing says “I love you” like, “I’ve got 25,000 miles you can use whenever you want for wherever my airline goes.”
2. Case of “Operation World” books. Assuming your mobilizer friend already owns sufficient Bibles and works primarily with people likewise equipped, this book remains one of the best mobilization tools to have and to give. William Carey Library has a great bulk deal on this classic.
3. Beach ball globe. Maybe you (or a mobilizing comrade) specializes in helping children gain a vision for the whole world. Blow up globes (maybe “inflatable” is a better term given the world we presently live in!) are the E ticket!
4. GPS unit. Given the places mobilizer are apt to go – the mountains of Morocco, a market in Madras, the Grand Mosque in Mecca (OK, wishful thinking there!) – the odds of getting lost are pretty good. Lower them for your friend by hooking him up with a GPS receiver. If you’re really flush, hook him up with one that hooks up to a new Treo cell phone.
5. Subscription to “Missions Catalyst.” We can all agree that this gift will do nothing to highlight your economic studliness, but it will demonstrate your keen insight into the world of mobilization! Plus, we would love to add a few hundred subscribers by the end of the year.
6. The private cell number of that pastor your mobilizer friend has been trying to connect with. OK, so this is a long shot, but sometimes the best gifts don’t cost a dime. They consist of taking some time, and in this case, playing the role of gatekeeper. How great would it be for your friend to look in his stocking on Christmas morning and find a note that says, “Lunch with me and Pastor ‘You-know-who’ next Tuesday at noon.”
7. Ethnic cookbook. Your international student friends are coming over in 30 minutes and you discover you’re out of macaroni and cheese. At the same moment, a long lost fact from your Encountering the World of Islam class comes bursting into your cerebral cortex: “Muslims don’t eat pork or drink alcohol.” What do you do? Consult the book, “Cooking Around the World All-in-One for Dummies,” if you had the foresight to request it for Christmas.
8. MacBook. Let’s face it, mobilizers are some of the coolest people around. Shouldn’t they be packing the coolest laptops available? Plus, we want our mobilizing colleagues to spend their time researching people groups, writing blogs, and sending e-mails, not trying to recover from virus attacks and other assorted malware!
9. iPod. Yes, this is the Apple computer section of the list. iPods are great for music, and music is great for glorifying God. That might be enough, but there’s more: With the Web stuffed full of missions-oriented podcasts, downloadable news, sermons, and books, an iPod may increase faith, knowledge, and productivity.
10. Refreshing retreat. Sometimes even the most resilient mobilizer needs a rest – a time to rebuild, recuperate, and recalibrate. Maybe someone you know would reap a blessing from a three-day respite in a remote cabin. Give a mobilizer friend a chance to renew vision, reconsider goals, revisit dreams, and reaffirm their reasons for ministry. This is a present that won’t get regifted!
(OK, this is really the “Top Eleven Christmas Gifts for the Mobilizer on Your List.”)
11. Gift certificate for Authentic Media. Some of the best current missions books are being published by Authentic Media. One great example is the latest by our own fearless Managing Editor, Miss Marti Smith. Check out Through Her Eyes for an example of their (and her!) work.
For what it’s worth, let me end this column with my blessing for you this Christmas and into the new year: May God deepen your character, increase your influence, and grow your love for Jesus and those who don’t yet know him. May he fill you with peace, courage, and joy as you celebrate his birth and step into a new year of hard work and great adventure. And may the new year hold new life for each of us and for many, many who have yet to taste of Christ’s goodness.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.