Category: Practical Mobilization

Super Short Summer Survey #1

By Shane Bennett

The next three Practical Mobilization columns will be devoted to mining the collective brilliance of the Missions Catalyst tribe. Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes from your elongated days (or nights, friends in the southern hemisphere!) to share your thoughts. They matter.

Somewhere high on a long list of kindnesses God has extended me is the strong sense that there is much, very much, that I don’t know. Like how to manage money, for instance. This has never been natural or easy for me.

Recently, in an additional kindness, God connected me with a financial coach. (If you could use a financial coach, shoot me an email and I’ll connect you to my guy.) He is wise and Jesus-y, and he makes me do hard stuff. He says hard stuff like, “Shane, I want you to call every single one of your donors once a year.” Ack! That works about to three a week. So far, I’m batting about .800 for the month since he gave the assignment.

This has me thinking, though. How many of my donors really want to talk to me on the phone? If you call me, you’d better be bleeding out your eyes or offering me a speaking gig! But Brian asserts this is a component of my ministry. Calling donors, asking how I can pray for them and actually doing so while on the call will bless people. (He also says it will help my support!) So I submit.

But I also wonder. What types of communication, and at what intervals, do donors really want? Personally, I’d like to hear more from the friend to whom I give a small monthly gift. At the same time, I have a dear analog-only donor who’s given monthly to my work for decades with, sadly, almost no information from me.

You probably donate money to support-based workers. You may also live on the gifts of others who give to you. Would you help all of us by taking two minutes to fill out this brief survey? The insights and experiences of our Practical Mob tribe will be helpful to many.

Thank you to the kind folks at Pioneers, Support Raising Solutions and Stewardship Ambassadors for their input on this survey.

One respondent will be chosen at random to receive a US$25 Amazon gift certificate, so answer away.

13 Ways Normal Christians Can Show Care for Muslims during Ramadan

By Shane Bennett

Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, has begun.

From May sixth until the moon gets full and goes away again, practicing Muslims avoid food, drink, smoking, and sex during daylight hours. Discipline, celebration, devotion, and spirituality characterize this month for nearly 25% of the world’s population.

It’s also a great time for people like us to reach out in care to connect with our Muslim neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family. Here are thirteen ways to do that. You can likely think of more.

Were you that kid who always got straight A’s? You’ll probably do them all and feel guilty for not thinking of more. Otherwise, just join me in picking one or two. Aim to be a blessing and give out some of the wonderful gifts Jesus has given you.

Practical Prayer

We are blessed to live in a day when resources and opportunities to pray for Muslims during Ramadan are proliferating. I suspect God is pleased with even a simple, “Bless those Muslims,” but none of us, no matter how isolated, have to settle for that. Check out these:

1. Join 30 Days of Prayer.

The 30-days high-quality, insightful booklet has been guiding prayer for Muslims since 1993. As beautiful as the print versions are, it’s probably a bit late to order them now. Instead, grab copies of the pdf for adults and kids.

2. Ask a Muslim friend how you might pray for them.

While writing this column, I’m messaging with a North African bud in England. I started with this: “Happy Ramadan! I would love to pray for you during this month. Can you share with me what you’d like me to ask God for?” His response opened an amazing conversation that’s still going on and involved me sharing a ham-fisted but good-hearted treatise on what Jesus is really up to.

3. Dial in on a particular group.

Go to joshuaproject.net and pick a group from this list to pray for until Ramadan ends. I picked the Ansari. If you want, you can join me in praying for the good kingdom of God to come to this people group in wonderful ways this month. I’m pretty high tech, so I wrote “Ansari” on a Post-it Note and stuck it on my bathroom mirror.

4. Follow a one-page Ramadan prayer outline.

Check out this free, simple, super-short Ramadan prayer guide that can be freely copied to share with your home group or church.

5. Sign up for the Crescent Project Ramadan Prayer focus.

Join thousands of others who will pray each Friday during Ramadan. Sign up here and Crescent Project will email you a reminder and specific prayer points each Thursday.

6. Watch the Prayercast videos.

The rock stars at Prayercast are releasing a high-quality prayer-facilitating video each day during Ramadan. Sign up for daily reminders. I’m planning to show this one at my church on Sunday. It’s very moving.

7. Focus on the Night of Power.

Consider gathering a few friends at church or in a home on the Night of Power toward the end of Ramadan. As Muslims around the world seek forgiveness and their destiny for the coming year, ask God that the abundant life of Jesus would be poured out on them.

Moving Past Prayer

Keep praying! If you’d also like to put feet to your prayers this Ramadan, here are some ideas that will get you in increasing connection with Muslims.

8. Try a Friday fast.

Some Christians choose to show solidarity with Muslims by following most or all the decrees of Ramadan. Trusting they’re obeying God in this, more power to them. May their example move the hearts of many. I’m planning on chucking one meal a week. (I’m pretty spiritual that way!) Would you join me in skipping lunch on the Fridays of Ramadan? If you’re in, shoot me an email and we can pray for each other (as well as for Muslims). Thank you.

9. Post a greeting on Facebook.

Direct this greeting to your Muslim friends. If you don’t have any, simply say, “As a Christian, I’d like to wish Muslims everywhere a blessed Ramadan. May God fill you with joy, keep you safe, and answer your prayers for forgiveness and new life.” Here and here are two examples from a couple of friends I respect a great deal.

10. Ask a question.

We honor someone when we ask about her experience and opinions. Aim for easy-answer, low-offense questions like, “Can you tell me what your family does for Ramadan?” or go deeper with, “I’d love to hear what Ramadan means to you.”

11. Go to an iftar.

The fast-breaking meal each evening during Ramadan is called iftar and is a wonderful time to connect and celebrate with local Muslims. Google “Islamic center” and your town, then call or email to see if a visit is possible. Since you’re the one reading, you’re the designated group leader! Thanks for stepping up and gathering a small cadre to go with you.

12. Hand out welcome cards.

Ramadan is a great time to pass out cards to Muslim newcomers, letting them know you’re glad they’re here. Check out welcome cards here and maybe grab some for yourself and your church.

13. Plan to give a gift at Eid.

Eid al Fitr is the celebration at the end of Ramadan. Families get together for food and fun. In some situations, gifts are a part of the festivities. A simple gift of chocolates, flowers, or a plant would likely be received as a kind and thoughtful blessing. Eid will happen on or around June 3rd of this year. If you want to sound like the cool kids, learn to say, “Eid Mubarak!” That basically means “Happy Eid.”

Conclusion

Okay, so you have a life and probably would have plenty to keep you busy even if it weren’t Ramadan. Fair enough. God is certainly not asking any of us to do all these things. In fact, he may not ask you to do any of them. We are people of grace, not works, after all.

If, however, you do take up any of these suggestions, particularly the more public ones, you will join a growing group of Christians who want to act like Jesus toward Muslims. Together we will reaffirm that Christians do not hate Muslims, but on the contrary, though falteringly and sometimes hesitantly, we love them. And we want for them, as for ourselves, every bit of the forgiveness, hope, and abundant life Jesus came to bring.

» Thoughts? You can respond to this article on Facebook, Twitter, or our website. Just hit reply to reach us directly.

By Shane Bennett

Here in my corner of the world, spring is gloriously breaking out all over the place. With it comes the proliferation of three things:

1. New life, thanks be to God.
2. Allergies, thanks to the Fall.
3. Short-term mission-trip funding requests, thanks to the upwards of two million short-term-mission participants sent out each year by America alone!

The number of requests you receive may correlate closely to how much money you have given in response to past requests. So, if you’re complaining about the stack of letters on your kitchen counter, realize it’s like a war veteran whining about the weight of the medals on his dress uniform. You did this to yourself. But now, what to do about it?

What if this year we all made a concerted effort to really help the short-termers who reach out to us? The Great Commandment (love God, love people) may apply even more than the Great Commission.

Here are five ways you might show love to mission trippers.

1. Give them money.

This is why you read Missions Catalyst, right? For surprising, unforeseen insights such as “give money to someone who’s raising support to go on a short-term mission trip.” Of course this is a way to love them!

But seriously, there’s only so much of this kind of love to go around, right? How do you choose how much and to whom? Consider these options. You’re smart; pick the criteria that seem best to you.

• First come, first served. This will reward the go-getters who actually follow their organization’s fundraising schedule!
• Give when they make it easy. Prioritize those who crowdsource or who email their letters and include an online giving link. Who uses checks anymore?
• Give when the ask is personal. Only give to those who make their request in person or by printed letter and take the time to sign it. Unless it’s a blood relative, in which case you may be close enough to give both money and a scolding.
• Give when it’s strategic. Only give to those you sense are meeting real needs in a way that short termers can do well.
• Give a little bit to everyone who asks. This is kind and generous, but also a sure way to multiply the number of requests you’re looking at this time next year.
• Have a focus. Decide on a type of work or a geographic area to which you’ll give. Bless the rest, but stick to your plan.

2. Give them prayer.

God alone knows how large a donation has to be before it outweighs heartfelt prayer, but I suspect it’s more money than I’ll see in my lifetime. You know prayer matters! You also know it’s easy to check the prayer box to say you’ll pray, and then forget. (Unless that’s just me?)

Make your prayer commitment meaningful by asking for regular prayer requests. Maybe daily ones for a trip that’s two weeks or less, weekly for a longer experience. With a little thought, most can come up with such a list prior to departure.

Some good buds recently participated in a huge, multi-day prayer gathering for unreached peoples and sent out this crazy great prayer guide in advance. Check it out. It might serve as an inspiration for you or someone you’re helping to go.

You could also show love by writing your prayers in a text or email or calling them and praying live. What about taking their prayer requests to an ongoing group you are part of?

3. Give them advice.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, “What advice do I have about missions?” Or maybe, on the contrary, you don’t want to break your new year’s resolution to stop telling other people how to live their lives (again!) But you probably do have some words of wisdom. And can I tell you something? If you deliver them right, they will even bless your friend.

Your advice may be as simple as, “Read this article, Nine Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Mission Trip. You’ll benefit.”

You can also think for a moment of a key way God challenged you during a short-term trip and share that, or even a way the Lord has spoken to you in a sermon or your devotions recently.

You may want to provide a word of warning or counsel. You know: don’t fall in love with your team leader or local translator. Do consult with your team leader before going off with a friend or starting a multi-day fast. Give ongoing attention to how God is using your experience to transform you. Drink more water if your pee gets dark and smelly.

4. Give them a shout.

Over the course of my career I’ve gone from frantically throwing tokens in a Turkish pay phone for a once-a-summer, 90-second call, to now enjoying leisurely, multi-participant video chats at will! Technology allows for—to the point of almost demanding—instant global contact. This does cause some problems (“Stop chatting with your girlfriend back home and pay attention to this local person we flew across the ocean to hang out with!!”)

While keeping that in mind, consider reaching out and communicating with the person you helped send. A ping or two over the course of a week-long trip or weekly for a summer-length project wouldn’t be intrusive but could be super encouraging.

Simply let them know you’re thinking of them. Use the communique to tell them how you’re praying. Pat them on their virtual back and say, “You’re doing good, kid!”

5. Give them follow up.

Finally, one of the best ways you can show love is to follow up with the short-termer after they get back. I’m thinking a coffee-centric event in which two things happen:

• You listen and ask good follow-up questions. I’ve never met a returned short-term goofball who said, “Ugh, if one more person buys me coffee and lets me tell them about the trip, I’ll scream!!” One of the best ways to love someone is to listen to their stories.
• You show up packing some good questions. I assume most sending organizations provide their participants some sort of debrief. On the off chance they don’t, be ready. And even if they do, doubling down on this never hurt anyone.

Here are four easy-to-remember, worthwhile-to-answer, debrief questions:

1. How did you win?
2. How did you lose?
3. What did God teach you?
4. How does this trip fit into the rest of your life?

Ask those questions and the follow-up ones that emerge from their answers and your short-term bud will feel the love.

Conclusion

Ministry people debate the value of short-term missions ad nauseam. You could probably argue both sides of the debate intelligently. But maybe, like me, you feel it’s often a waste of time. The goofballs are going to go! And some of them are not even goofballs. God will delight to use them. And they’re going to ask us to help them succeed.

This summer, let’s go above and beyond. Perhaps we’ll be honored to play a small part in a mighty kingdom harvest.

By Shane Bennett

As I sit and write this morning, southern Colorado fog limits the view from my window to a few dozen yards. Overhead, though, military jets are buzzing around in some sort of frenetic training exercise. The intermittent sound bugs me more than it should. Maybe because I can’t see them. Maybe because I’m trying to concentrate and just when I get in a groove, they light up again.

But then it occurs to me there are people for whom that sound is much more than annoyance. The ascending and descending drone of the jets predicts death and destruction, the continued upsetting of life at fundamental levels.

Somewhere in the world an airstrike means the kids can’t go to school. There’s no way to get to work, or no place to work if you can get out. The food in the cabinet will have to last, because there is no more left to buy now.

It may mean broken, twisted, still bodies. Friends, neighbors, and children who must be left where they lie for now. And for how long? Can you even imagine the agony of that calculation? How long until it’s safe to scramble out and retrieve your dead friend? When is it okay to run down the street to see what’s become of the preschool where your wife had gone to collect the kids?

Do you ever want to just turn away from such dark thoughts? I sure do. To focus on a happy, little life right here. The lure is strong and sometimes I succumb. But if you’re reading Missions Catalyst, it probably means God has done a work in you that renders you dissatisfied with that response. This is grace and a gift of inestimable value.

If you ever find yourself needing motivation to empathize with the world’s pain, some reason to re-engage, here are four things that reminds me to keep caring, and to act.

1. The present goodness of Jesus

Somehow Jesus is in the midst of the airstrike. I don’t understand it, but I can’t shake the reality that he’s there, he knows, he cares. All my sympathy and compassion look like vapor next to the real presence of the creator of the cosmos.

Jesus holds the hand of the dying, feels her final breath on his face, and mourns her slowing, fading heartbeat.

He stands with the refugee dad, despairing as the way forward is blocked and the way back simply gone.

He cries with the girl abused by the one she trusted the most.

He stands again in the furnace with faithful followers who trust him for their very lives, some living to see the next sunrise, others waking up in glory.

He is with us in the mess, bringing the very life of God to bear on his creation. Pointing us forward in hope.

2. God’s plan to make all things new

That hope toward which we move is summed up for me in two places in Revelation: John’s vision of the crowd before the throne, made up of a “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” and Jesus’s personal pledge, “I am making everything new!”

Every springtime, every Easter, every Nowruz is practice for the ultimate renewal that awaits creation. That awaits you and me! Can you even imagine it? Is it too scary to try?

3. Our intrepid predecessors

Don Richardson recently traded earth for heaven. If anyone I personally know heard, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” it was him. I remember seeing a clip from his movie, Peace Child in which intrepid Don (sporting some wicked sideburns) and long-suffering Carol are being paddled up to a Sawi village. Say what you will, but that sort of gutsiness makes me want to pay attention, to engage, to—heaven forbid—not let Don down!

This is to say nothing of the biblical heroes of faith, the great missionaries of former centuries, and the Filipinos, Kenyans, Chinese, and South Asians whose noble sacrifice and early, painful transition to glory never made it to Western screens.

May we not sit down on the shoulders of such giants.

4. We were built for impact

We are not powerless. You and I were made to matter. Paul says we are God’s masterpiece, that “He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” I don’t know what those “good things” are for you. I often wonder about it for me! But I don’t doubt Paul’s insight nor God’s good purposes.

It’s as normal as air to doubt this, but it’s in your DNA. It’s who we are.

Granted, it may feel like there’s nothing you can do about an airstrike in Yemen or Pakistan. And by most measures, you are right. You can’t be everywhere there’s pain. Nor could you handle it.

Heck, we couldn’t handle the unseen pain present just in our row at church on an average Sunday. Most suffering will transpire apart from our attention. But we know the one who knows it all.This great God has invited us partner with him in the reconciliation of all things.

Conclusion

Let’s not turn ourselves away from the world’s pain. We have good reasons to care and to take action. You can probably think of more than these four. Please share them (and these) with your friends.

And, since perhaps the best way to join in God’s redemptive work is through prayer, I’d like to invite you to jump into this year’s Seek God for the City prayer initiative, already in process. Perspectives hall-of-famer Steve Hawthorne has put together this guided prayer effort for our neighborhoods and the nations.

» Learn more and grab the app today or search “Seek God 2019” wherever you get apps.

Traps and Tendencies that Keep Us from Global Ministry

By Shane Bennett

Editor’s note: We hope this month’s Practical Mobilization article provides some insight for you. You may, however, find it more applicable to those you are currently encouraging to follow God to the nations, essentially the ones you’d like to mobilize. Can I invite you to reprint this, share it widely, and forward it to the friends it might help? Thank you. — Marti Wade

Introduction

It’s the pinnacle of Christian service, right, the role of the foreign missionary? The long-dress-wearing, once-a-week-hair-washing, pop-culture-unknowing, weird-food-loving, strange-language-speaking, stunningly holy, terminally single woman who has given her all for an odd set of people and a hopeless work:

Is it any wonder you don’t want to be that?

But let’s say you’ve outsmarted the stereotypes. You’ve seen through the gauze of hero-worshipped missionaries. You can actually picture yourself serving God where God is little known. And now you’ve set your heart and head in that direction. You’ve put your hand to the plow (1 Kings 19:21).

Good for you. But you want the bad news? There are a thousand little evils in your enemy’s bag of tricks all custom-designed to keep you from doing what God has laid out for you to do. Here are just nine of them. Be on your guard.

1. The bubba you’ll fall for

He’ll fulfill 24 of the 25 items on your list since puberty, but he won’t care about the world. This doesn’t make him a bad guy. In fact, it makes him sort of a project and, for that, all the more intriguing.

Or Bubba may be a Barbara, and when you’re standing next to her in church twelve years down the road, you can know the capacity of God to make plans B, C, and Z work but still wish you were worshipping in another culture.

2. The specter of your past

I don’t know what people have said and done to you, nor do I know what dumb stuff you’ve done as a result. But I hear the whispers of those things even now: “You’re damaged. You’ve slept with too many. You’ve messed up too much. Your contribution to things that matter may be small. Don’t get your hopes up!” If you only hang onto 18 of the 1300 words here, let them be these:

You did not deserve the damage that was dealt you,
and it does not have the last word.

3. The weight of your culture

Like air and gravity, your culture exerts tremendous and largely unnoticed influence. It is relentless and almost always wins. The “bet the rent” odds indicate you will grow up to love, spend, and vote like your parents. The more that tweaks you right now, the greater the likelihood it will happen.

Thirty-one years ago, I could fit everything I owned on the roof of my little yellow Ford Fiesta, shared with two friends and all their stuff for the summer. Three months ago, I had three houses, a mountain of debt and five kids. I’m not kidding about the culture deal.

4. The lure of trendy causes

To be fair, some causes are trendy due to their merit and many of us should rally to them. Matt Damon is right about water. Malala is right about educating girls, and Jesus was right about justice for the oppressed (Matthew 25:31-36). But offering the life of Jesus in cultures that so far have heard little about it has not often been trendy, nor is it now.

Causes are rarely single and compartmentalized, for sure. It’s a messy world. But this is true: If some of us do not focus on and work terribly hard to tell people who haven’t heard about the life Jesus offers, we will drift toward work that’s easier, more measurable—and honestly, trendier.

5. What you take in as entertainment

I have no right to judge your viewing habits and I would not float mine forward as a good standard. But let’s be honest, we live in a time when you can see pretty much anything you want at pretty much any time. Our dads had to hide their dirty magazines. You get email invitations to look at stuff and you simply need to angle your phone a bit.

This is not easy to deal with, but it certainly works against our spiritual health and maturity. At the shallow end, it makes us weak. At the deep end, it will leave you disqualified and sitting on a pile of manure you’ve shoveled together yourself.

6. The debt you’ve accrued

It may have seemed like a good idea or it may have looked like the only way, but now, oh my, what a mess. Again, I have no grounds to judge, but let me encourage you to question the common narrative, to consider who benefits from you buying that next shiny thing, to think critically about the messages of your culture, and to bring someone older and smarter than you into the loop of your money habits. (Yeah, people actually do that. It hurts like heck at first but makes you happy later.)

7. The need to please others

Right now, you may be doing any number of things simply because your parents wouldn’t want you to do them. That’s normal. But over time it’s also normal for us to want to live a life that makes sense to the people most important to us.

This is part of what makes society work and shouldn’t be written off too hastily. But it must be weighed against the tendency of God to ask for radical obedience and his track record of using ordinary dopes like us to accomplish extraordinary things, and often to the bewildered surprise—even disappointment—of friends and family.

8. The lazy longing for comfort

Life is hard work and most of us at some point give in to the desire to float downstream for a while with a cooler nestled in the tube tied to ours. But to find yourself doing effective work in North India, speaking Urdu like a champ, will require more than going around the bend of a lazy river.

You may be flush with your own power and energy, right now. That’s God’s gift. Run with it! But keep your head up and your eyes open. You wouldn’t be the first rock star to find yourself satisfied plinking a couple of tunes around a campfire.

9. A numbing love of tolerance

ISIS and the devils in Burma (and elsewhere) notwithstanding, tolerance is the tenor of global culture these days. It is the utopian theory du jure.

Honestly, it has a lot going for it. Jesus was certainly more tolerant than the religious leaders of his day. And people will like you better if you overlook their quirks and flaws. But what do you do when the wave of tolerance washes over you and you wonder if Jesus really is necessary for life?

Tolerance to the right degree will enliven your Christianity. Taken too far, it will neuter and then kill it. Well before getting to that point, you will have compromised enough to give up the crazy notion of raising your own salary and raising your kids in a killer hot place with little or no access to the internet.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, can you do two things for me?

1. Respond

Take a second to share which of these would most likely knock you or your friends out of the race, or another thing if I failed to mention it. Comment on Facebook, reply on Twitter, or share your thoughts on our website.

2. Remember

Since this list is too grim for even my worst days, remember with me that God is more powerful than all of these, in all their various combinations, in all areas of our lives.

These nine reasons you’re not going to make it could be—should be—proven wrong. One day I’d love to have coffee with you right in the middle of what God calls you to and celebrate our respective victories.