Shane Bennett

Please see the timely announcement at the end of this email. 

I put my wife on a plane to Guatemala this morning. (If you find typos in this email, it’s because it didn’t pass under her wise and careful gaze en route to your inbox.) While she’s seeing a ton of patients and helping them see the leaves on a tree or their grandkids’ faces, the kids and I will be here pining for her return. 

We’ll be fine, I expect, but waiting stinks. Sometimes in little ways, like our waiting for Anna’s return. Too often in big and brutal ways: 

A friend waiting for a likely sobering diagnosis or for treatment to commence after getting the report. 

A mom in Gaza waiting to see if her husband comes home with bread or comes home at all. 

Farmers everywhere waiting for the rains to come or to stop. 

Unengaged people groups waiting for the first ambassador of Christ to move into the neighborhood. 

People all over the world waiting to see what Israel will do next, how Iran will respond and whether or not the U.S. will join the fray. 

And finally there is this waiting: My friend’s wife, Miriam, and two team mates recently went to Jerusalem with a message of hope and life in Jesus. Now they’re learning the ins and outs of air raid shelters while they wait for a way out that doesn’t include the closed airport. 

This afternoon she said I could ask you all to pray in these wonderful ways:

For those serving in the Holy Land to have Psalm 91 protection.

For the Christians, Muslims and Jews who live in Jerusalem to be protected by the Hand of ADONAI. (Zephaniah 3:15)

For Persians and Hebrews to reestablish healthy economic & political relations.

And though she didn’t ask, please also pray for Miriam and her friends to quickly find God’s way out of danger, and for my bud as he awaits his wife. His waiting is clearly more challenging than mine. 

Timely Request:
Muslim Connect has always been free and will alway be so. That said, a couple of times a year, I invite grateful readers to donate to help it thrive. This summer, I have a special request: Our family of five is going to Guatemala in October with our church and Healing Nations to care for some overlooked people. You can read about these trips here. If Muslim Connect has helped, encouraged, informed or poked your buttons, please consider giving a gift that will help me, my wife and our three kiddos get to Guatemala. We expect this journey to be extremely formative in the kids’ lives. Anna will continue to help poor and underserved people see better. I’d be grateful for your gift. Click here, select “Healing Nations Trips,” type in “Bennetts’ October Trip.”

Please see the timely announcement at the end of this email. 

The World Cup is arguably the most viewed sporting event on the planet (1.5 billion people watched the final match in 2022), it’s no wonder given the spate of recent U.S. immigration actions that there’s intense speculation about the next edition scheduled for the summer of 2026 in North America. Is it possible that FIFA, the sport’s governing body, will shift the matches currently scheduled for U.S. venues to co-host countries, Canada and Mexico?

The online claims, while vehement, seem so far to be baseless. But it makes you wonder. 

Out of the gate, the Trump administration froze the U.S. refugee program, thawing it slightly to allow in 59 refugees from South Africa. 

Temporary Protected Status has been terminated for Afghans in the U.S. among many others groups. 

Foreign student visa applications for study in the U.S. are currently halted while the State Department considers how to vet social media accounts of applicants. 

And two days ago a new travel ban went into effect forbidding travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim majority nations. (12 countries are banned and another seven face restrictions.)

For Christians this poses questions in two areas:

What are the mission and ministry implications of these actions? For starters, is this the way an ostensibly Christian country behaves? More specifically what do these policies mean for outreach to international students? For morally appropriate care for the most legit of refugees?

And what about my bud Ken? Somehow the country of Chad made the travel ban list. A country to whose citizens the U.S. issued less than 1500 travel visas last year, now gets none! Why? Because 750 of those visa recipients overstayed their welcome. Is this a national security threat?

Chad responded to the ban by saying, “Back atcha!” So now Ken, who has had amazing ministry, partnering with Chadian believers to engage previously unengaged peoples, may not be able to return. 

The second question might not be limited to Christians: What’s the end game here? Will the U.S. ever be finally secure? Will the bans and deportations and immigration limits stop at some point? Will they stop before they reach your friends? Your extended family? You?

God have mercy on us. And, God, please continue to extend mercy through us. 

Honest Request:
Muslim Connect has always been free and will alway be so. That said, a couple of times a year, I invite readers to contribute to the cost of its production. This summer, I have a special request: Our family of five is going to Guatemala in October with our church and Healing Nations to care for some overlooked people. You can read about these trips here. If Muslim Connect has helped, encouraged, informed or poked your buttons, would you consider giving a gift that will help me, my wife and our three kiddos get to Guatemala? I’d be grateful. Click here, select “Healing Nations Trips,” type in “Bennetts’ October Trip.”

Back in the olden days, I went to Morocco for the first and only time (So far!) to visit a cultural research team we had working in Casablanca. By the grace of God and the whims of the Islamic calendar, I was there for Eid Al Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. 

This celebration, one of the two biggest of the Muslims’ year, commemorates God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his son and God’s provision of a ram in the son’s place. The Bible says “Isaac,” while the Quran simply says, “son.” Muslims assume it was Ishmael.

Some of the team took me with them to a family celebration. They, like many in Morocco, had a sheep on their roof, waiting to serve as a special guest in the festivities. 

I experienced two things for the first time that day: I ate sheep liver, which turns out is a delicacy offered to guests. I also participated in helping the sheep transition from cute fuzz-ball to flame-grilled delicacy! (Although, tbh, “participating” consisted mostly of triumphantly not throwing up. Same with the liver.)

You don’t have to be Hudson Taylor or Samuel Zwemer to sense the cultural, biblical and missiological connections flashing like a neon sign in this celebration. We should be the son taking the knife, but God provided another sacrifice. 

Eid al Adha starts today (June 5th) and runs through the weekend. May that Moroccan family (or their descendants, it’s been a minute) sense the reality of Jesus’s gracious, redeeming sacrifice. 

May Muslims all over hear whispers of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29), and join in the eternal chorus, “saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev. 5.12)

Where does your job rank on the cool scale? With “Sherpa guide who’s climbed Mount Everest 31 times” being a ten and “Headset cleaner at a call center” being a one, your job is. . . .? 

How about this one: Moon Sighting Committee of the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia? Now, that’s got to be a cool job. They’re the guys who decide the new moon has been sighted, which indicates the start of the last month of the Islamic calendar year. Which in turn determines the beginning of the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. (It also determines the beginning of Eid Al Adha. Tune in next week for more on that!)

Hajj this year begins, “on the 8th day of Dhul Hijjah and lasts until the 13th of the month. [That means] Hajj is expected to take place between 4th June to the 9th June 2025.” A little over a million people have journeyed to Saudi Arabia for this pilgrimage. 

Imagine a million Christians, all kinds of us, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox of varying stripes getting together all at once! It would be surreal, but just think of the potluck dinners! 

Muslims gather out of religious duty, obedience to Muhammad and in celebration of global community. Many also go in hopes of doing their part to get their sins forgiven. I’ve spoken to Muslims who remembered with fondness the sense of forgiveness they felt post-Hajj; and with sadness recall how quickly that sense faded. 

As you seek God to move in the midst of the Hajj this year, can I ask you to pray that few would die, either from the heat, from accidents or violence? And ask the Holy Spirit to whisper truth to countless hearts, intruding on the deceptions of the enemy and bringing hope and life to many. 

In recent weeks many of the people in our church have taken this spiritual gifts assessment. An unusually high number of them have had Craftsmanship come out on top. I think this means one of two things: A. As a congregation we’ve had little experience in the more charismatic gifts or B. We should send a church planting team to Asheville, NC or the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul! 

Either way, it’s got me thinking about the arts Muslims are known for and have excelled at over the centuries and up to recent days.

Of course we all know Muslims frown on depicting Muhammad, maybe any human actually. We also know that Muslims (and Christians) sadly got good at making swords and their subsequent, limitless variety of tools of destruction. 

On the other hand, God has brought tremendous beauty to the earth through the minds and hands of Muslims. 

Visually, we have amazing calligraphy, intricate and enduring textiles and woodworking both functional and beautiful. 

There is the poetry of Rumi and the music and dance of the rest of the Sufis. 

Combining beauty and engineering, Muslim craftsmen have built some of the most stirring buildings in the world. 

As conduits of beauty and craftsmanship, I long for Muslims to also realize they are God’s handiwork, created for good works in Christ. May his blood bring them near to a beautiful God who loves them and loves reflecting his beauty through them.

I’m 60 years old and I heard something for the first time ever this week: The concept of “thick” communities. I suspected the letters stood for something like Trendy Homes In Cuddly Communes. (I watched a video, so I didn’t know the spelling for sure!) Turns out, “thick” is more descriptive than acronym-tive. 

According to author David Brooks, “thick” in this context carries connotations of: 

• A physical location, often cramped, where members meet face to face on a regular basis

• A set of collective rituals

• Shared tasks

• A sacred origin story

• A common ideal

• An idiosyncratic local culture

• A shared goal

• Initiation rituals

• A sacred guidebook or object passed down from generation to generation

• Distinct jargon

• People tend to like the version of themselves that is called forth by such places.

• Intimacy and identity borne out of common love

Does that sound good or what? Does it sound like your church?

This has me wondering how thick Muslim communities are. I tend to think Muslims might be better overall at community. The global community, or ummah, certainly is viewed as a big deal.

Maybe we perceive them to have thick communities because we often see Muslims in minority contexts. It makes sense, if you’re among the few of you in a given chunk of geography, to stick together.

Of course their relatively thick communities also hinder Muslims from following Jesus. This is why ministry efforts that focus on whole families following Jesus fill me with hope. “Father God give us turnings to Jesus like we read about in the book of Acts, preserving community, while shifting allegiance to the Lord.”

The older I get, the more I appreciate and long for thick communities. I want my church to look like the list above. I want to foster and offer thick community both locally and among Muslims who find Jesus all over the place. 

Though I’ve yet to convince my 11 year old son of this, reading must be one of the most essential and delightful (if you’ve ever read a Leif Enger novel) skills we possess in the modern world. And its absence, illiteracy, carries a strong social stigma. 

Get this: Muhammad was likely illiterate and many Muslims see this as a good thing. 

Now when I read that he was illiterate, I right away think, “Well, our guy Jesus could read and write. He argued with the smarty pants in the Temple at twelve years old and he wrote on the ground in John 8.6 (overlooking the questionable provenance of that text) and that means we’re ahead!” (Because my inner me is still concerned with getting that last pie piece in my Trivial Pursuit token!)

It turns out Muslims believe Muhammad’s illiteracy actually lends credibility to the Quran! “Only God could produce such a book. And certainly Muhammad didn’t write it because he could neither read nor write.” 

It’s a fascinating take, though Muhammad’s alleged illiteracy might not be true to history. Either way, intelligence, or the illusion of it, was less tied to literacy in Muhammad’s day than ours. Reading, writing or not, Muhammad would have done well to spend more time with the Gospels and Paul’s letters, than hanging out in a cave hearing things from Gabriel. 

Follow Up Good News
Our new favorite football player, Ahmed Hassanein, who I wrote about one month ago did get drafted! The Detroit Lions took him in the sixth round, making him the first Egyptian to ever reach the NFL. It also super-charged his potential platform for sharing about his faith in Jesus. May God protect him and use him as an ambassador to the many Muslims living in and near the shadow of Ford Field and beyond. 

No way around it: Suicide is tragic, permanent and painful beyond comprehension. There seem to be more suicides here in my little corner of paradise than should reasonably be expected. Do you get that feeling about your area? God help us all. 

Thinking about this has me wondering about suicide in Islam. Is it a “You’re banned from Heaven forever” deal like it used to be for Catholics? Or simply frowned on? Somewhere in between?

The Quran says, “And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.” [Qur`an 4: 29]. Pretty plain right there. Additional verses support this one. 

Extra-Quranic teaching says those who kill themselves will be punished in Hell with the implement of their death. One Hadith in particular records, “Whoever kills himself with a piece of iron, that piece of iron will be in his hand and he will be stabbing himself in the stomach with it in the Fire of Hell, forever and ever.” Dang.

Additionally, based on an example from Muhammad, some Muslim teachers think they shouldn’t say the official funeral prayer for those who’ve died by suicide. 

Softening this hard line slightly, is the caveat that Allah will not record the evil deeds of people who are insane. Someone lacking control of their faculties to the extent they don’t know what they’re doing when they kill themselves will not be punished. 

Interestingly to me, ten out of fifteen of the countries with the lowest suicide rates are predominantly Muslim. (20 of the lowest 30!) You may suppose, as I do, that this reflects significant, shame-based underreporting. A Muslim in the UK wrestles with that here.

And finally this, a recent survey reported that Muslims in the U.S. attempt suicide at twice the rate of Protestants. We might think, “Another indication Islam is broken.” We’d do better to wonder what is going on and how God may have us live and love in such a way that fewer and fewer Muslims and Christians find themselves convinced there are no other options but to end their lives. 

A couple flips of the calendar pages and we’ll be square in the middle of summer. I hope the lengthening of the days corresponds to an easing of your schedule and commitments and an overall bump in your general wellbeing. 

(If your summer involves travel to southern Colorado, hit me up and maybe we can get coffee!)

For many churches, summer means a shift, maybe a lightening, in schedule. I’ve even heard reports (unverified) of pastors taking vacations! 

So my little mobilizer mind thinks, “Maybe this is an opportunity for people like us to help out while waving our flag!” If you go to Mighty Mongo Mega Church, the preaching and programming is probably already set. Good for them. But if you go to a church like mine: Slightly smaller, slightly more seat-of-the-pants, perhaps now is a good time to reach out. 

You can likely come up with some really good ideas. (When you do, please share them with me.) Here are five to spark your thinking:

1. Offer to preach. I’ll grant there may be legitimate reasons that’s not a good idea for you and your church. (eg. You’re only marginally fluent in the language your church worships in.) You know the language? Great! John’s chapter 4 account of Jesus and the woman at the well provides a great text from which to invite others to connect with Muslims.
2. Offer to lead a prayer for the nations.
3. Ask to show a killer PrayerCast video.
4. Provide a summer series of classic “Missions Moments.” Project an arresting image, include a thoughtful question, give a clear call to action and finish 30 seconds before your time is up.
5. Write a blurb on unengaged Muslims, or four while you’re at it, for the bulletin. Too cool for a bulletin? Offer it for the website or app. 

Come to my church and I’ll let you do any two of the above!! 

I’m writing on Maundy Thursday, anticipating Good Friday and fervently asking God for help with my Easter Sunday message! How are you? 

Easter is the best, isn’t it? So much reality and hope wrapped up in an often hijacked holiday! But the core remains the core: 

Jesus defeated death.

Jesus conquered evil.

Jesus opened the door for life. 

Jesus reset the entire system. 

The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God will come in fullness. The Lamb will receive the reward of his suffering, the Father’s blessing will extend to every family on the Earth and some from every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne and worship him. 

As we celebrate our 8th or 80th Resurrection Day, many Muslims, now freshly following Jesus, celebrate their first. 

Many Christians from ancient streams of the faith navigate the challenges of observing Easter in Muslim-majority nations. 

More than a handful of our sisters and brothers, workers wholeheartedly devoted to the task, hide eggs and sing familiar songs in a strange, new culture, wondering how to explain to new friends that Jesus really did die, that God really did raise him from death and that the implications of this miracle are both terrifying and good. 

Let’s remember all of these as we celebrate with hope and joy this Easter.