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I’ve got a new favorite sound. You have a favorite sound, don’t you? The pleasing burble of a mountain stream or a 1972 Camaro. Your spouse’s laugh when you tell a joke. The silence of late-night Christmas Eve, with only the fire crackling in the background. Here’s my new favorite: The whoop of a 12-year-old girl when she discovers the book she’s had on hold at the library for weeks has finally come in! Yeah, that’s a good one.
Books will do that, won’t they? That’s why they are the sole suggestion for this year’s Practical Mobilization Christmas Wish list. Here are some books making waves in my life lately:
- Last week the great guys at The Traveling Team sent me A Book Called YOU: Understanding the Enneagram from a Grace-Filled, Biblical Perspective. I have a novice infatuation with the Enneagram but even as a newbie, I’ve been helped. Claude Hickman, The Traveling Team’s intrepid leader, didn’t send the book in order to get a mention here, but I love these guys! Go to The Traveling Team website, enjoy the cool vibe, then invite them to speak at your or church or university.
- I’m also grateful for the recent, innovative efforts of William Carey Publishing. They sell great books, books written by and for the kind of people who read Missions Catalyst. You could do worse than getting a missions-minded bud a gift certificate to spend with WCP.
- Finally, if you have a sense that maybe the path before you is nothing like the path behind you, please join me in reading Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory. My pastor, our elder team chairman, and I have formed an impromptu book club to go through this. Personally, I’m wondering this: If around 400 Muslim people groups remain totally unengaged with the gospel, what’s it going to take to get things started among them? What if what we’ve done in the past has worked as well as it’s going to and something new is needed? Answering that question is putting a lot of pressure on a book! But I hope Bolsinger will provide some insights.
New Way to Help Afghans
In last month’s Practical Mobilization email I advocated for US State Department’s Sponsor Circle program, which allows five Americans to band together and host an Afghan family. In response, Pat Hatch, a Practical Mobilization reader who directs the Refugee and Immigrant Ministry for the PCA’s Mission to North America and has forgotten more about welcoming newcomers than I’ll ever know, reached out with an additional idea. It’s called APA Community Partners and has the potential advantage of being more integrated with an established resettlement organization. Church World Service seems to be the farthest along with their efforts to implement APA Community Partners.
As you might guess, Pat has been scrambling to help believers respond to the arrival of so many Afghans. In the midst of that, she’s inviting Mission Catalyst readers to attend her intro Zoom meeting, Afghan Arrival Big Picture tonight (Wednesday) at 8 pm Eastern or tomorrow (Thursday) at noon Eastern. If you’ve been praying for answers or direction, this may be it. Email Pat for more info and webinar dates in January.
Can You Help a Guy Out?
In the next week, I’m planning to write an article for the robust Denison Forum audience called “Happy Halalidays: Christians, Muslims and an Immaculate Misconception.” I’d like to include some warm and winsome stories of people who’ve had Muslims over for a holiday dinner and lived to tell about it.
Assuming you’re pretty busy, I almost hate to ask. But I know some of you have killer stories. If you can share them, I’d be so grateful.
Three Notes for Christmas: God, Gratitude, and Grace
Is there a way to navigate the holidays and survive with your sanctification intact? You probably know better than me, but I keep coming back to three things: God, gratitude, and grace. We even made them the focus of our middle school youth group meeting this week, mainly so I could remember.
Keep God central.
It’s his birthday and all, but with Jesus’s marketing budget looking a speck next to Target’s, he sometimes gets sidelined. Can I tell you what I’m telling me? “Keep going to church. Devote your way through an Advent book or Bible plan. Get quiet for a few minutes and wonder again at God become man.”
Cultivate gratefulness.
It’s possible I have more to be thankful for than you do right now. The goodness of God is washing over me lately in particularly abundant ways. Regardless, we all have much to thank God for and it remains one of the best remedies for the rampant consumerism that can characterize this season. Will you join me in thanking God for coffee, COVID vaccines, and countless other ways you may have seen his goodness?
Swim in grace.
Finally, grace. It’s what’s brought us safe so far and what will lead us home. As we have richly received, may we extravagantly give in the next few weeks.
- Grace to the mom whose toddler slept and babbled peacefully the last two hours only to choose the ten minutes in Walgreens to scream like she’s being chased by two-headed snakes. (Don’t click that link! You’ve been warned!)
- Grace to the pastor who’s had one more demand placed on them than they were designed to carry.
- Grace to the dad who wants so much for his wife and kids, but honestly can’t figure out how to make the math work.
- Grace to the cashier who’s walking a road we probably don’t understand.
- Grace to the kids who’ve seen 18 gazillion ads screaming at them to want this thing now up against one dear Sunday School teacher who calmly admonished them to be happy that Jesus was born far away a long time ago.
- And while you’re at it, grace to yourself. God gives it by the bucketful. It’s OK for you to enjoy a cup.
Christmas will not be perfect. Your brain’s messing with you when it says it used to be! But the baby is perfect, and his message is perfectly suitable for these days.
Merry Christmas to you.