???? The Christmas list edition… it’s back! ????

Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_largePractical Mob Christmas 201912 Gift Ideas to Boost Global Vision or Vision Casters

By Shane Bennett

How is Christmas unfolding for you? You doing okay? I pray you’re filled with hope, peace, joy, and love in the lead-up to celebrating the birth of Jesus. I’m looking at deadlines and dropped balls myself, but also reeling in the wonder of new life and possibilities, including the birth of my first-ever grandchild!

Whether or not the whole Christmas spirit thing is totally happening for you, here’s a chance to take a quick break, smile for a minute, and maybe snag an idea or two you can use.

After a multi-year hiatus, the December edition of Practical Mobilization is once again devoted to a pair of Christmas lists. One consists of gifts you might give to juice a friend or family member’s vision for the nations. The other features gifts that gonzo mobilizers like us might particularly enjoy. (The second is not my personal Christmas gift list, but the overlap is striking!)

Christmas Gifts to Boost Vision

If you’re like me, it’s hard to turn off the mobilizer switch. It kind of runs on automatic. So, when it comes to gift giving, maybe you think, “Two birds, one stone. My friend gets something they like, and they also get a little nudge toward the nations.” Some of these are subtle and sneaky, and some dreadfully overt. You choose.

1. A Timely Gift

2020 YWAM Personal Prayer Diary and Daily Planner: A lot of the cool kids are going back to paper and this planner has solid chops. It also has a decades long track record of facilitating prayer for the nations.

2. Food Gifts

  • Ethnic Dinner Gift Certificate: If there’s an easier, tastier way to seduce someone into God’s global purposes than food, I don’t know it. Maybe you’ve got the skills to make an amazing meal for your friend. Do it. If not, find an Indian buffet or a Middle Eastern diner. When you’ve got my stomach, you’ve got me.
  • International Snack Box: Go to Cost Plus World Market and compile your own. Or save the gas and send one like this Ultimate Assortment of Turkish Treats.

3. Gifts that Give

How about giving a goat in your friend’s name? Sometimes this is a good way to honor the love you feel for them, along with the reality that they don’t need any more stuff!

Quite a few organizations can help you out here. World Concern offers a way to gift a year of school, chickens or a church. Food for the Hungry gives you a chance to buy a bee hive or the whole manger!

4. Mappy Gifts

  • World Map Shower Curtain: Contemplate the planet every time you…whatever.
  • Scrunch Map: A map of the world that wads up and fits in a small pouch! Won’t get you as many “Best Uncle Points” as something chocolate, but it just might score.
  • World Map Pillow: Global vision via osmosis every night!
  • World Map Puzzle: For bonus points, put this puzzle together with some munchkin relatives.

5. Good Reads

6. An Invitation

Are you going somewhere cool in 2020? Of course, you are, you crazy mobilizer! What if your gift to a close friend was a genuine invitation to accompany you? Maybe you can’t afford to cover her cost. What about just part? “You get the ticket, I’ve got the rest?” Or, “I’ll pay for your passport, if you’ll just send in the paper work.”

Few things wield more power than personal invitation.

Bonus Item

Here’s a Pray for Syria coffee mug. Can we all buy this and do it?

Gifts for Mobilizers

Got a mobilizer you love? Someone who’s laying it all on the line to share God’s passion for the planet with others? Reach out and kiss them with a gift this Christmas.

1. Go Blue

For starters, you can’t go wrong with anything in Pantone’s color of the year, Classic Blue. They say it instills, “calm, confidence, and connection.” Which pretty much describes mobilizers. The Cut calls it, “anti-anxiety” blue, which also might be needed!

2. Think Video

Once you’ve got them calmed down, increase your favorite mobilizer’s effectiveness by helping her excel in video. You’ll want to start with an iPad and add a quick course to get things rocking.

A drone! Again, not because it’s fun, but in the interest of helping mobilizers generate great video to help others fall in love with their favorite people group. Of course, to be honest, capturing drone footage in some cool places might land you in jail! (But that might in turn land you a book deal…)

3. Help with Finances

Consider the gift of an hour with a finance coach. For $45 my personal finance coach will spend an hour on the phone helping your mobilizer friend see where they stand financially. And he’ll give them three solid action steps to move forward. In case you’re worried, this guy will not try to up-sell your friend. He honestly just wants to help people. If you’ve got the courage and sensitivity to give this gift, let me know and I’ll make the connection. (I won’t tell if you want to give it to yourself!)

4. A Photo Shoot

Mobilizing isn’t mainly about looking good. But it doesn’t hurt to look like you tried a little! And many in mobilization ministry can use a head shot or family photos. Maybe you’ve got the chops and the chutzpah to gift your own services for this or maybe you hire someone else. Either way, many mobilizers would benefit from an hour of someone’s time whose photo skills surpass that of their iPhone.

5. Hotel Points

Riding the Perspectives speaking circuit, I’ve stayed in a lot of people’s homes. Many have been small outposts of Heaven and the owners’ exercise of hospitality blessed me deeply. All the same, sometimes you can’t beat a hotel. Telling your mobilizer bud you’ve got their bed and tiny shampoo bottles covered for a night or two on an upcoming trip can be a huge blessing.

6. A Boost of Power

If you know what sort of phone they use, hook them up with house and car chargers and an emergency power brick. I love this one, but cheaper versions are also available. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t use extra charging equipment.

And more Holy Spirit. Now we’re talking real power! What if your gift were to seriously ask your mobilizer friend what they’re dreaming, scheming, and planning for in 2020? When you’ve thoroughly heard them out, commit to weekly prayer for them and occasional check-ups on progress. We might hit the end of next year having seen goals reached and people released into the kingdom like never before!

Happy Christmas to you, my friends. I appreciate you reading Missions Catalyst and am grateful for every ounce of effort you put into the completion of the Great Commission. May God bless you beyond your imagination in 2020.

Subversive Mobilization: Thanks

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

USA: Hindus Next Door

Immigration-MapSource: Catalyst Services, November 2019

While a number of churches are intentionally reaching out to Muslim immigrants, many have failed to recognize another huge, unreached people bloc with whom their congregation may have much greater daily contact. Who are these people hidden among us? Hindus. The US alone is home to 2.6 million Hindus, the vast majority of whom come from Indian people groups largely unpenetrated by the gospel.

The number of South Asian immigrants, most of them Hindu, has grown steadily since the 1960s. As a group, these newcomers are the wealthiest and best educated of foreign-born Americans. Ninety percent represent socially advantaged groups, the traditional upper castes that are some of India’s least-reached people groups. A similar story prevails in Canada, and other Western countries also have large Hindu immigrant populations.

When the map above surfaced recently on the internet, many Christians were shocked. Excluding Mexicans, who make up by far the largest percentage of US immigrants, the swath of bright blue on this map reveals that Indians are the second largest foreign-born group in many states, especially in the East and Midwest. In the years from 1995-2017, an average of 65,000 Indians immigrated to the US each year.

Despite these statistics, few evangelical churches have seriously considered how to reach this major people-group bloc whom God has been integrating into their neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools.

Why aren’t we reaching them?

» Complete article includes analysis, stories, and recommended resources. Subscribe to Postings or browse the archives.

INDIA: Five Christians Ordered to Be Freed

Source: Morning Star News, November 29, 2019

After spending 11 years behind bars for a murder they did not commit, five Christians in eastern India were finally ordered to be freed on Tuesday (Nov. 26), sources said.

The Supreme Court of India issued a decision granting bail to the five Christians from Odisha (formerly Orissa) state falsely accused of killing Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, whose death on Aug. 23, 2008 in Kandhamal District touched off anti-Christian attacks that killed 120 people, destroyed nearly 6,000 homes and displaced 55,000 Christians.

The Rev. Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), said the legal fight does not end with the granting of bail to the seven accused Christians.

“This is just the first step,” Lal told Morning Star News. “The case still has to be fought at the High Court in Odisha.”

At the same time, Lal said he was glad that the Christians will be able to celebrate Christmas with their families.

» Full story points out that India has steadily risen on the Open Doors list of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, currently ranked number 10.

ALGERIA: Christians Protest Closing of Churches

Source: World Evangelical Alliance, November 5, 2019

Just days ago, Christians joined in a public protest against the Algerian government for shutting down churches. This is unusual. [Christians in Algeria] usually they work out these matters behind closed doors. But this time it was different. Christians (specifically Protestants/Evangelicals), sufficiently frustrated by the harassment of their government, took to the streets in protest.

Take a moment to watch these bold Christians in their public protest. Then pray. Secondly, help them in their drive to afford the lawful gathering in worship. As you do, you will hear them in Arabic sing this worship song: “How beautiful you are, you are the Holy one, the only one deserving all dignity and authority.”

Their singing was done while standing in front of a government office, in a country where as a minority, they face the power and wrath of a Muslim-majority government.

» Read full story with background information.

» Also read Algeria: Crackdown on Protestant Faith-Churches Sealed; Worshipers Beaten (Human Rights Watch) and, from Ethiopia, a story about an evangelical church shut down and its members arrested in a religiously contested area (World Watch Monitor). In this case, the conflict seems to be between Protestants and Orthodox.

UZBEKISTAN: Church Registrations Could Signal Greater Freedom

Source: Barnabas Fund, October 29, 2019

Church registrations are increasing in Uzbekistan with three churches validated in September, and up to five more registrations expected to be finalized in October. The first church registration in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, where penalties for Christian worship were previously harsher than in the rest of Uzbekistan, is expected within weeks.

The rise in registrations could signal greater religious freedoms for Christians under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was elected into office in the Muslim-majority country in December 2016.

President Mirziyoyev is expected to introduce a new religious law soon, under which the membership requirement for church registration will be lowered from 100 members to 50.

A Barnabas contact said the long-hoped-for registration increase was “hard to believe.” He added that, in some cities, the authorities had even approached pastors to offer to help them navigate the process of proving church buildings meet strict registration requirements. The church registrations were even broadcast on national television in a report featuring an interview with a pastor and footage of a church service.

Before Mirziyoyev’s election, Uzbekistan was known for its harsh treatment of Christians. But within the first year of his leadership, the first 3,000 Uzbek Bibles, partly funded by Barnabas, were sold legally in the country and official celebrations were held to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Fines imposed on Christians by the courts were also lower.

» Read full story as well as Christian Wins Landmark Case in Russia Over Right to Worship in Private Homes, also from Barnabas.

» Several of our regular sources published reports about a South Korean pastor killed in Turkey in what may have been a targeted assassination (Mission Network News). See an interesting editorial piece on Recognizing the Phenomenon of Persecution of Christians Globally (Forbes).

LIBERIA: Village Trades Ancient Human Sacrifice for Christ

Source: Mission Network News, October 17, 2019

A village in Liberia with a gruesome history now has new purpose. Over a century ago, villagers buried six girls alive as a sacrifice for power. They then erected six stones on the sacrificial grounds and worshiped these stones as a symbol of power bought with blood.

”As [a group of evangelists] came along the trail, there was a snake that had been planted on it. It was a big deadly snake. They say if it bites you, you will not live. So, in other words, they had kind of mined the road to get in. It was planted there so that this man wouldn’t be able to bring the gospel into this area.”

A few of the team members accidentally stepped over the snake, thinking it was just another tree root. Miraculously, the snake did not strike.

“When he got to the village, everybody was stunned that he was still alive!…Three days later, the town chief and the villagers accepted Christ and removed all six of the stones that were a memorial for the six girls who had been sacrificed.

“Now the snake is dead, victory was won over Satan, and God’s light will run where the darkness was.”

» Read full story.

» From the other side of Africa (specifically Kenya), read Thirty-Blanket Bride, about a Westerner discovering her faulty perceptions (Thrive).

DOCUMENTARY: Peacemakers

Source: New Eyes Productions

Peacemakers: Crossing the Divide is a 60-minute documentary film with a message of hope in the midst of the seemingly intractable conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. It features the personal stories of Jewish and Arab followers of Jesus who are pursuing peace and unity.

The film and an in-depth study guide speak to issues of deep division in the church worldwide. To get a taste, meet and hear from some of the peacemakers (click on their photos). Quite moving.

» Learn more or purchase and download the film for US$12.99.

Several other sources I follow have new films:

BIBLE STUDY: God’s Heart for the Nations

Source: Radical

God’s Heart for the Nations, by Jeff Lewis, takes you from Genesis to Revelation exploring the connection between two critically important themes woven together throughout Scripture—God’s blessing and God’s global purpose.

This eight-week, 73-page study will take you and your team or small group to more than 100 Bible passages and also includes memory verses, mission quotes, ways to pray for the nations, suggestions for reflection, and resources for further study.

This isn’t a new resource, but it has new graphics, new prayer highlights, and a new price: free. Download it as a PDF in exchange for your email address. Since it’s more of a study guide than a book to read, you’ll probably need to print it out to put it to its best use.

» Download God’s Heart for the Nations. You can also still get paper copies of the 2015 edition from Pioneers if you prefer.

» Looking for ways to help oral learners discover these themes and more? Check out God’s Mission in the World, designed to help you facilitate a three-day training event (Ephesiology).

BOOK: Always Love

Source: Peregrini Press

Always Love: The Timeless Story of God’s Heart for the World & What It Means for You, by Sara Lubbers. Peregrini Press, 2019. 329 pages.

This creative retelling of scripture in the form of stories is designed to help readers connect more deeply with the God of the Bible, and find their place in his ongoing story. Each short chapter includes scripture references.

It’s sort of a Bible story book for teens and adults, but one not limited to the narrative portions of scripture. That requires some imaginative dialogue and interpretive leaps, but I found the result pretty solid.

This is not a missions book, but an account of the story of salvation. And it might make a good Christmas gift for like-minded friends or supporters or serve as a resource for your family.

» Learn more or purchase the book from Amazon for US$9.99 (Kindle) or US$16.99 (paperback).

» Every book of the Bible has a major theme that emphasizes an aspect of God’s character or a way he is working to carry out his perfect plan, says pastor Garrett Kell. How would you sum those up? See Every Book of the Bible in One Word (The Gospel Coalition).