In this issue: Practical Mobilization | Shane Bennett
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash
I stumbled on a quiz about Ramadan last week. That first quiz led to a second, which led to me signing up for a super-short online course about Islam fielded by Pew Research. The course consists of four brief daily emails followed by a quiz. I’m 25% of the way through!
But it’s got me wondering. Why was I eager to take the quiz? Then why did I sign up for the course? Did I feel like Muslims are my jam and I would probably nail the quiz? Sure did. Was I embarrassed by my 75% score? Yep. Does the currently fettered state of life afford a little more margin to sharpen the saw? Does for me!
In another attempt to learn and grow, yesterday I spent some (virtual) time with one of my favorite people. Doug Lucas has just released a brief set of videos for his full-time global workers with Team Expansion. In the generosity that characterizes him, Doug is allowing us to peek over his shoulder as he challenges his people to frame the current situation by “Getting Back to the Basics,” “Taking Initiative,” “Communicating Actively,” and “Adapting to the Current Context While Staying True to Our Calling.”
These short talks encouraged and challenged me. I took away both calming assurance as well as actionable challenges. I commend them to you.
What about you? Are you sharpening your saw these days? Kevin Kelly says, “A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.” Are you learning and growing, turning crazy, home-bound days into higher capacity for what lies ahead?
Maybe you’re barely holding it together. Chasing kids, scrambling for food, and just trying to hold on to your job or keep you head above water. Much grace to you. And thanks for reading this in the midst of that! Please receive what God has for you, rather than taking these musings as more “things you have to do.”
If you do have bandwidth to think, though, let me ask you this. Are there things you’d like to learn about mobilization, Muslims, missions in general? Would you find a mobilization or global outreach quiz compelling? Would you consider taking a short email-based course about a relevant missions topic? How long would be optimal? Would video lessons make it more fun or just longer to slog through?
» I’d love to read your thoughts, wishes and references to existing items like this. Please comment on our website, find us on Facebook or Twitter, or just respond to this email.
The good people at Truth Collective are doing the coolest thing next week: A virtual tea party!
“We need to honor the directives of our authorities, but there’s absolutely no reason we can’t enjoy one another, learn from Jesus, and experience tea-novelties from around the world, all from the comfort of our own slippers! At this tea party we welcome back Noushi, our esteemed TC Fellow from a Muslim background, to discuss the difference between perfect righteousness and relative righteousness and why it could be a pivotal difference between you and your Muslim friend.”
» Sign up for this one. There were still spaces available at the time of writing. Then pray and dream about hosting your own!
Are there 25 of us who would commit to finding, or starting, the team that would go to one of the largest unengaged Muslim groups?
We want to see the Great Commission competed, right? Even though we may disagree about what that looks like. We want to see God’s Kingdom come, right? Again, with diverse understanding of its nature.
There must be steps and stages on the way to God’s vision of consummation. Different benchmarks, waypoints, and goals. What if the start of the problem were defined as simply as this? “We must get one reproduction-oriented team of people on the ground among each unengaged people group.”
Those teams might come from anywhere. And there would be much more to do after they arrived. But could we make that a starting point? Some of us living among all.
Friends of mine who’ve invested many years in global, Great Commission work among Muslims have developed a researched and tested list of over 500 Muslim people groups they call unengaged. That first team has yet to arrive. In many cases, it’s hard to even find believers who are thinking about moving in with them.
If I’m lucky 1500 people will read this email. Are there 25 of us who would commit to finding, or starting, the team that would go to one of the largest unengaged Muslim groups? Just two dozen of us who would receive grace from God to open the flow of his grace to one of the peoples least impacted by the gospel?
I’ve compiled a subset of my friends’ list. Take a quick look at it and a long gaze at your Father. If he directs, put your name and email beside one of the peoples on the list. Together, we might be able to start the very beginning of what will ultimately be the fullness of God’s Kingdom among some precious people.
Plans to complete the Great Commission are nothing new. Some say there have been over 2600 since Jesus gave the challenge. I’m not presumptuous enough to think this idea is the solution to everything. But I’m feeling very committed to doing what I can do to find “engagers” for these 25 groups.
Here’s the massively over-simplified plan:
In the words of NASA’s Gene Kranz, flight director for the ill-fated Apollo 13, “let’s work the problem.”
Thank you for considering this challenge. I’m convinced God wants some of us from somewhere living as ambassadors among every people for whom that’s not currently reality. How wonderful if he were to allow you and me to join him in making that happen.
» Please watch this video where I start the cheerleader process, then consult the list.