Once a year, I take a second to ask you to thank Marti Wade, the kind, gritty, wise, long-suffering, and gracious publisher of Missions Catalyst. She’s better than I deserve, better than we deserve.

If you’ve appreciated the News Briefs, Resource Reviews, calendar info and Practical Mobilization articles, please take a moment to reply to this email with a quick “Thank you and God bless you, Marti.” I’d appreciate that. We want her hand on this particular plow for a long, long time.

Cheers,
Shane

In this issue:

1. Rubbing Shoulders with Visionaries
2. Making Thanksgiving Count for the Kingdom
3. Focusing on Goals for 2020
4. Subversive Mobilization: What’s on Your Christmas List?

You’ve heard the saying, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” In other words, if you’re going to get smarter, get around people who are smarter than you. Of course, for some of us, pretty much anyone will suffice!

Similarly, I’ve been sensing lately a need to be around people who have more vision than me. Surely, I’m not the only one whose vision for the nations is prone to flag from time to time. Am I?

Last night I was on the phone with a ministry partner who shared about a trip to North Africa. It had profoundly changed him, he said: “What I saw convinced me a whole Muslim people group, not just ones and twos, could be won to Christ.” That was straight dopamine for me. After a few minutes buddy-breathing on his vision, I hung up the phone happy!

I’m wondering how to get around big-vision people more consistently. As mission mobilizers, we’re often scattered about and maybe even prone to isolation. Without regular reinforcement, given the blows our faith will doubtless take, we may falter or plateau.

So how can I—I mean we—get in proximity to people of great vision? Here are some ideas. But I’m hoping you have some that are even better. Let me know!

1. Go to mission conferences.

We list many of these on the Missions Catalyst events calendar and will soon be adding a host of 2020 events.

• Upside: You can hang out and ask great people great questions while they eat breakfast.
• Downside: Pretty pricey.

2. Text visionary people.

I guess you could call, too, but that just scares me! Ask them how you can pray for them. Ask them to tell you about their vision or tell you about something they’ve found encouraging lately.

3. Crash a Perspectives class.

Offer to host the instructor or drive them to the airport.

4. Read visionary books.

Start with the Bible. Read fiction and non-fiction as well as magazines and blogs. Missions Catalyst Resource Reviews can give you some leads. Reading James Bryan Smith’s The Magnificent Story recently did wonders for my vision. It increased my hope and desire for God’s kingdom.

5. Borrow vision from related disciplines.

Get coffee with local pastors who are killing it. Take entrepreneurs and successful farmers to lunch.

What do you do when your vision dips low? Let us know.

Here in the US, our most American holiday is right around the corner. Thanksgiving presents a chance not only to re-calibrate our own gratitude meter, but also reach out to people we’ve considered connecting with but haven’t been able to trip the trigger.

Thanksgiving is innocuous, non-partisan, and safe. Even the most mild-mannered can break the social ice with, “What are we thankful for?” The more intrepid can follow up, “Who are we thankful to?” It’s a ready-made opportunity to get more comfortable talking about God. And should a sermon threaten to break out, there’s football, board games, and more pie.

If this idea is intriguing but intimidating, check out my super-short Five-Step Plan for a Killer International Thanksgiving Dinner. This will get you going in the right direction. Fill in the details by ransacking this beautiful and ridiculously helpful site with ideas for cross-cultural hospitality, The Serviette. These guys give the body of Christ a wonderful gift. Enjoy it.

What does the coming year look like for you? Will you be expecting great things from God and attempting great things for God? (Hat tip to William Carey!) Recently when people have asked how they can pray for me, I’ve been sharing a desire to know God’s plans, purposes, and dreams for me and through me in 2020. I’m feeling ready for fresh direction and big challenges.

Being prone to both delusion and sloth, I know I’d best get in league with like-minded buds or that vision could all be for naught. I need people to dream and scheme with, to push and be pushed by. Maybe many of us need people who’ll ask, “Are you doing what it takes to get done what you’ve determined to do?”

Toward that end, a good friend and I are beginning this morning to read through Goals! How to Get Everything You Want—Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. I hope reading this book together will culminate in some pretty serious goal setting next month.

If you want to set great goals but struggle with motivation to actually do so, check out this brief article on the brain science behind goals. Apparently setting your mind on challenging goals that also capture your heart actually rewires your brain to accomplish them!

And as mission mobilizers we need big, biblically sound, do-it-or-die-trying goals. The harvest is indeed plentiful, the laborers yet few. God is inviting the likes of you and me to rally, equip, and release laborers into his harvest.

If you’d benefit from sharing your goal journey but don’t have a pre-formed fellowship with which to do it, shoot me an email. I’d be happy to hear what you’re hearing from God, dream with you, and cheer you on to completion. And I wouldn’t hate having your input on my goals!

In past years the December edition of Practical Mobilization has consisted of Christmas lists “from” and “for” mobilizers. Basically: What might you get a person for Christmas to increase their passion for God’s purposes? What do you get someone whose life is devoted to mobilizing others?

Please weigh in on this year’s lists and thereby make them the best ever. Take a jolly minute to go to this Google doc and drop some good ideas in each column. Bonus points if you include links.

To encourage participation, your good buds at Missions Catalyst will buy one gift from each list for a lucky contributor. (Please include your email so we can tell you the good news!) To be clear: I’m hoping the list will have gifts with a wide range of value, but honestly, you’re more likely to get chosen if your gift tends toward this, rather than this!

Mobilizer, You Matter.

By Shane Bennett

Mission mobilization is a little goofy. It’s weird enough simply to care about missions. What kind of person is so into Jesus they want him to be followed by people who’ve never heard of him before?!? But mobilizers? Well, being “into missions” is not enough for us! We’re compelled to persuade our parents, our kids, our church friends, and the kindly doctor who sells us contacts that they too will be happier and more fulfilled when they dedicate their next breath—and all the rest—to God’s glory among the lost and unreached.

I tend to think God looks on us kindly, maybe bemusedly. That’s nice. Other people? Maybe less so. Which is not so nice.

Of course, it’s hard to make any money as a mission mobilizer. So maybe you have a day job and are working your mob magic avocationally. Good for you. If the old adage is true about the candle that burns twice as bright burning half as long… well, we’re happy to have you while we do.

For me, having purpose is a key catalyst for mobilization motivation. I honestly believe it matters. And I believe you matter.

But sometimes you question that. And sometimes it’s just so tiring. And then that one person said that one thing and you thought, “This is what they mean by ‘the straw the breaks the camel’s back!’”

If you can’t relate to that right now, no worries. You go straight here and here. If it feels a little familiar, though, can you spare a couple of minutes for me to show some care for you? Offer a little encouragement?

I’m only asking for about five minutes of “you go, girl,” and “you’re a rock star.” The whole enterprise won’t grind to a halt if you take a minute to catch your breath and sharpen the saw (hat tip to Saint Stephen).

Stuff to Remember

1. You’re making a difference.

Is this hard to imagine sometimes? I get that. An hour or two spent on Facebook when you were planning to file your 501(c)(3) paperwork or call a few pastors. Whole days when you honestly wonder, “Is all this effort really accomplishing anything?”

Can I give you some Bible? You have treasure in your jar of clay and you were made to accomplish good stuff God prepared in advance for you to do. God lives in you and smells good through you. You have no idea how much God is doing with your one wild and precious life!

The story of my life is peppered with little cameos. Someone walked onto the stage, breathed life into me, and walked off. Others, known to God alone, sought good for me from their knees in the darkness of their prayer closet.

You, likewise, are having effect you may not see. Don’t give up.

2. God will provide.

Don’t give up! God knows what you need. I can personally attest that not all mission advocates are killing it from a financial perspective! If you are, good.

If you’re only barely ramen profitable, hang in there! I’m with you. It’s hard. Get some financial coaching and see if God may lead you to some green grass and quiet streams.

3. You’re probably not disqualified.

Maybe you messed up and you think you’re disqualified. I can relate. Of course, I don’t know you, so maybe you are disqualified. But probably not. If the Bible is any indication, God’s capacity for using flawed individuals is pretty strong. And you and I both know effective mobilizers who have at times made us cock our heads in wonder like German Shepherd puppies.

4. God wins in end.

If there’s anything I’m pretty sure of it’s this: God’s going to win. Although writing this short piece last week worked a minor epiphany in my mind: This victory will “probably not exactly be the way I currently understand God and winning, but God will win. And you and I are invited to hasten that victory.”

Stuff to Do

1. Take a breather.

If you mobilize for missions on top of your day job, good for you! I hope you have capacity and inclination for vacations. Are you a professional mobilizer? (That is a thing!) Try this: Submit a budget proposal to your supervisor for enough funds to cover a week-long retreat. I hear that voice in your head! Your church or ministry doesn’t do that. (Maybe you could help them start doing it if you subtly implied you were considering jumping ship to my new org, Healing Nations!)

There never seems to be enough time or money to take the breaks you need. I get that and am a prime example of falling short in this area. Honestly, though, I’ve never heard a colleague or friend return from a deliberate retreat and say, “What a waste of time. I was bored out of my head!” Get the rest you need.

2. Up your forgiveness game.

Forgiveness is the leaven of our lives, the wine of The Way. Can I invite you to renew your commitment to receive and extend it? Be encouraged by this recent, stunning example of forgiveness by Brandt Jean to his brother’s killer. (Haven’t seen it? You may want to grab a Kleenex while the video loads.) This is the kingdom of God: Realizing we need forgiveness and humbly, gratefully accepting it. Then with the sweet taste of it still in our mouths, offering it freely to those who wrong us.

To not offer forgiveness, as the winsome Anne Lamott says, “is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” Jesus said God won’t forgive us if we don’t forgive others!

3. Press on in the face of adversity and betrayal.

About a year ago, a couple left the church I attend after a relentless and perplexing campaign against me and the organization I worked for. It was troubling, time consuming, and painful. Maybe you’ve recently felt the surprising sting of betrayal. I’m sorry if you have. We’re people and it happens. But God’s got your back.

David Murrow recently shared on his blog, “Betrayal is not a sign that something is wrong. Instead, it’s a sign that God is at work. Almost everyone in the Bible was betrayed. Abraham. Joseph. Moses. David. Paul. And of course, Jesus… And who betrayed these heroes of the faith? Not some stranger. Someone close. A fellow traveler who shared their faith.”

If it hasn’t happened, it probably will. May God give us each grace to act like Jesus when the time comes.

4. Link up.

Finally, mission mobilization can be a lonely enterprise. You’ve poured your passionate guts out before, haven’t you, only to have someone say, “Uh, yeah. Cool. But who do you think will win the World Series?” I’m excited to know who’s going to win the World Series, but I also need people in my life who care about the nations, especially the unreached. You probably do too.

• If you’re feeling a little isolated, visit a Perspectives course. Your kind of people hang out there.
• Maybe join one of my friend Jeannie Marie’s Virtual Community groups and interact with people who are figuring out where they fit in God’s great world.
• If Muslims are your jam, you might like to be a part of my Muslim Connect tribe. Subscribe to the super short weekly email here.
• Maybe you just need to share your story and get some prayer. I set up a Facebook group for feedback and mutual care specifically related to things in this article. Visit it here. Like the page to stay connected for its (likely 2-3 month) duration. We’ll talk, empathize, pray, and dream. Mostly we’ll realize we’re not alone. If you have a business card with some form of “Mobilizer” on it, please, please, please share a picture!

Mobilizers matter. You matter. Keep up the good fight. We’re with you. A crown of glory awaits, as do sisters and brothers from all over the world. I for one am happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. I am honored to be your friend.

Ten Ways to Appreciate
Your Pastor

By Shane Bennett

How are your plans coming together for Pastor Appreciation Month in October? You have a pastor or two, right? And you appreciate them? So, what are you waiting for?

Missions mobilizers ask a lot of our pastors…

• Preach about the Great Commission.
• Read these missions books.
• Raise the missions budget.
• Make our thing the main thing.
• Go to Pakistan for a month with me!

I think we can agree: it’s time to give back a little.

Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:17, encourages us in this. “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”

Likewise, the author of Hebrew advises, “Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s Word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).

Maybe you think pastors should be appreciated all year long and Pastor Appreciation Month is simply a retail gimmick designed to pad the coffers of greeting card companies and Christian book sellers. You may be right. It seems to have originated with Focus on the Family in 1992, and they clearly sell Christian books.

But personally, I can use a little reminder, a focal point for expressing gratitude to my spiritual leaders. And Lifeway, more of a stuff-selling company than Focus, doesn’t mention buying stuff until halfway down their list of gift ideas for Pastor Appreciation month.

If this little reminder has caught you flat-footed, don’t worry. I have a list of ideas for you to consider for your pastor.

Top Ten Pastor Appreciation Gifts

1. Live peacefully with each other.

Paul’s no dummy! On the tail of his admonishment to the Thessalonians to hold their leaders in high regard, he tells them to “live in peace with each other”! Hands down this is the best thing we can give our pastors!

2. Write a thank-you letter.

Collect pen and paper, envelope, and stamp. You’ll feel quaint and nostalgic, but the effect will be intense. Thank your leaders in general for the time they spend, the effort they make. Thank them specifically for ways their lives have blessed you. The more specific, the better.

3. Take out a thank-you ad in the local paper.

This might not work if your local paper is the LA Times, but if you have neighborhood rag, a big, splashy Thank You! might be cool. If you submit artwork consisting of everyone’s signatures, even better.

4. Give them a custom bobble-head doll.

Oh, yeah, this is a thing.

5. Send them to a conference.

Google “pastor’s conference” or ask around. Let them choose from a selection of three or four, then take care of the details. If you send their spouse along, you’ll get triple the effect for double the price!

6. Give them a shot at ax throwing.

A gift certificate to a local ax throwing venue, like the one owned by my friend in lovely Bluffton, Indiana. can be a great stress reliever! If you’re feeling cheeky, include a copy of the church photo directory with your presentation.

7. Offer them baby sitting or elder care.

Whether your pastor’s date night preferences run to the latest Kendrick Brothers film, food adventures, or getting fresh ink, someone probably needs to watch the kids. Or perhaps stay with an elderly parent. A thank-you card bearing a promise of a free night of babysitting might be a home run.

8. Appreciate their spouse.

Give some kind words in a simple card. A fistful of Kohl’s Cash. Jerky of the Month subscription. Whatever works. Many pastors could only hope for half their productivity if it weren’t for their spouses. Appreciate the pastor by appreciating their partner.

9. Give them time with Tom.

N.T. Wright, the most popular British Christian scholar (double-initialed or otherwise) since C.S. Lewis, has begun to offer courses online! Nothing says thank you like a gift of time with Tom. If your pastor doesn’t care for Dr. Wright, you may want to look for another pastor. (Just kidding. Mostly.)

10. Pray for them.

I’d like to camp on this one for a bit. Praying for your pastor has some distinct hidden benefits. It’s free, for instance. And as long as you do it privately, there’s no concern for whether they liked the gift or not!

Seriously though, there may not be a better gift to give your pastor, unless it’s #1 above. Ed Stetzer put this way:

“What better way is there for you to uplift your pastors and church leaders than through approaching the throne of grace with confidence?

“The Lord hears the prayers of his people, and the Lord cares for the leaders of his people. Take time regularly, each day even, to pray for the men and women on your church staff. Pray for their emotional well-being, their physical strength, their spiritual wellness, and any specific needs you know. This is definitely the simplest and perhaps most impactful way you can support your church leaders.”

What to Pray

A pastor friend of mine says this is what he’d like his church to be continually praying for him:

• For my sermon preparation every week. Unless God opens my mind to his Word, I’m dead in the water.
• For wisdom! We need God’s guidance to lead his people, his church.
• To finish well and finish strong. Too many men are failing and falling out of ministry.
• For my wife and kiddos, that my marriage would be strong and that my kids would love the Lord their God with all their heart soul mind and strength! They get this right, everything else will take care of itself!

You likely know additional, specific ways to pray for your pastor and church staff. Sometimes the trick is actually doing it.

This October I plan to ask for some Sunday morning platform time in which we’ll invite the church to gather around our pastor and his wife to pray for them. Our relatively diminutive size is an advantage in this context. We’ll actually pass a mic around and let whoever wishes to lift up a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving. The size of your fellowship might prevent that.

Wall of Prayer

I also love this prayer wall hanging at the back of one of the coolest churches in Southern California, a region replete with cool churches.

I’d love to see this on the wall of my church, filled with handwritten prayers for our pastor from fellow parishioners. Can you see your pastor and staff encouraged as they pull out and read the prayers of their people?

Prayer Calendar

Finally, I’d like to offer you this simple prayer calendar for our pastors and their families this October. I’m planning to make it available to my friends at church and invite you to print it out, slip in it the bulletin, post it around your fellowship, and share it as widely as you find useful.

Paul’s admonishes in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

Our obedience to this scripture will bring blessing to our pastors. And really, they’re probably only going to go to Pakistan with you if they’re doing pretty good at home.

Stop Yer Complainin’ and Do Something!

By Shane Bennett

I had a challenging, even upsetting, conversation after church a couple weeks ago. I had promo’d the upcoming speaker and mentioned the guy would be talking, in part, about racism. I may have mentioned that if you didn’t want to hear that, you might choose to stay home.

Afterwards, a friend asked to chat and expressed concern. One point led to another until he’d given me his socio-political view of life. When he paused after lamenting how divided our country currently is, I jumped in. “What’s the solution, Tom? What can be done?” He replied, “I don’t know. But I do know the socialism that’s being pushed on us these days isn’t going to make things better!”

Maybe not. But deep inside my brain a circuit fizzed, smoked, and blew. I can still feel my frustration. How often do we complain, complain, complain, but don’t lift a finger in an effort for positive change?

This pattern is not wholly illogical. Some problems are so huge, intractable, and deep-rooted that we throw our hands up and believe there’s nothing we can do but object. Other problems are our own that we project on others. And addressing some problems come with such high social risk that we back off. It’s safer to vent to like-minded friends than risk their disapproval by beating our swords into plowshares.

On the other hand, the Bible warns us about grumbling and complaining. Paul recounts for his rascals in Corinth how God dramatically responded to Israel’s grousing (1 Corinthians 10:8-11). Jesus was pretty straightforward when he told the Jews (and us), “Stop grumbling among yourselves” (John 6:41-51).

So, here’s the principle I’m trying to live by. Don’t complain about something that you’re not going to take productive action to change.

Just don’t complain
unless you plan to do something.
(Tweet this.)

For instance, I don’t complain a lot about certain policy issues. I’ve learned they aren’t my battle, though my opinion about them play a role in how I vote. But the things God has called me to act on? I’m going to squawk about them! Intelligently. And graciously. And I’ll do my best to take the action God gives me to take, which I assume will often include equipping others to take godly action. Toward that end, two things people complain about and some positive action we can take.

Instead of Complaining about Church

Have you ever been a pastor? I haven’t been a real one, but I’ve played around with some part-time roles and know some of how people, including me, complain about church. You may have far deeper familiarity, present pain or more serious grounds for concern. I get that.

But how often many of us complain about what’s said and what goes unsaid. About the choice of songs and the volume at which they’re played. About what’s not getting done, and then when someone steps up, how it’s not done right. We grouse about who’s there and who’s not there, how little the church does for missions, or kids, or the poor… along with pretty much everything the leaders say and do. At least we don’t complain about someone sitting in our pew any more. (We don’t, do we?) What positive, change-oriented action might grow out of our complaints?

Here’s one I’m thinking about these days: Pray for our pastors. Deliberately, faithfully. You may already do this. Kudos to you. I’d like to see a groundswell of prayer for our church leaders during Pastor Appreciation Month this coming October. A dear friend of mine says, “Maybe a good starting point is to pray about something for the same amount of time you complain about it!” I say, “Who has that kind of time?” But I do want to pray for my pastor.

I plan to put together a one-page guide to praying for pastors. If you’re game, I’d love to hear what you pray for your pastor or what you think should be prayed for them. Click below to the list. If someone has already said what you were going to say, feel free to put an “amen” or “I agree” beside or below it. The guide will be available in next month’s Practical Mobilization article.

Share your thoughts

Instead of Complaining about Refugees, Immigrants, and Other “Others”

I live in a beautiful part of Colorado. That describes pretty much the whole state! I haven’t been here all my life. Yet I can get a little chippy about new people coming here. Also, about Texans speeding on the interstate (sorry, y’all!). And in my nation and maybe yours, I hear many complaints about outsiders moving in.

Without getting deep in the weeds about border security, who’s an economic migrant and who really needs asylum, and the degree to which someone must look and sound like me in order to qualify as “integrated,” can I suggest four positive actions we might take or kindly propose these to others who seem particularly stressed about these issues?

1. Have a conversation.

So much could happen if we simply asked some good questions and listened to the answers. Last week, an insightful and influential website, The Denison Forum, published an article I wrote on this topic of starting conversations. It would be great if you could give it a little boost simply by clicking through to it. If you comment, I’d be over the moon! The Denison Forum might be a good way to get some of what we all think out to a wider world. The article is about Muslims in particular, but the ideas would work with anyone somewhat different from you.

2. Have dinner with a refugee family.

Check out the Bridge Experience. I think you have to live near Lancaster, PA to experience this, but what a fascinating idea: They train refugee families to host local residents in their homes for dinner. Refugees make some money and the locals get to experience the refugee’s culture. I’d love to see this idea popping up all over. Want to try to make it happen where you live?

3. Watch films about the immigrant experience.

A high-quality movie about an immigrant or refugee experience can make a lasting mark on even a hardened heart. Going to the trouble of screening one at your church may have amazing results.

I love both The Good Lie and The Visitor.

If you have ideas for films that will open our hearts to immigrants, as well as ideas about how to get people to come out to see them, please share them below or on our Facebook page.

4. Take your kids to hang out with new neighbors.

I’m looking for three intrepid youth groups to visit (“invade”?) an American refugee community with me next summer. We’ll listen, play, and serve. Basically, we’ll stop our grousing about others and discover God’s up to amazing work in and through all sorts of people. Email me to learn more.

Thoughts?

Do you have another issue which is easy to complain about, but hard to take action on? Let the Missions Catalyst tribe take a crack at it! Comment below or on our Facebook page.