Shane Bennett

I’ve realized with regret that since I’ve become pastor of my church, I’m more concerned about people attending than I used to be. It’s not the money. A good portion of our giving is done online and we don’t pass a basket at services. I suspect I fear attendance is a measure of how people feel about me! On the plus side, it’s fun to have the room full!

Back in the day, full time attendance for most churches meant congregants being in the building 4-6 times a week. It became 3-4 times a month when Sunday and Wednesday night services mostly went away. Now for many Christians, full time attendance equals 1-2 times a month! 

Thinking about this makes me wonder about Muslims in the U.S. and how often they go to the mosque. Certainly church buildings and mosques are not entirely parallel, but they do serve some similar purposes. 

First, the high bar: What percentage of American Muslims go to prayers five times a day? 42%, according to a Pew Research Center survey in 2017. What would the Christian equivalent be? Five daily quiet times? That percentage is amazing to me. 

Sunday services and Friday prayers are roughly similar weekly events for Christians and Muslims. How many Muslims attend Friday prayers? 45% of men, but only 13% of women. That pencils out to 35-40% of Muslims attending weekly services. For Christians, the number is about 29%. But only if you count all Christians. If you just count Protestant Evangelicals, the number bumps up to 58%! (This illustrates the statistical principle that says if you draw the circle where you want, you can get the answers you want!)

But wait a second: If you allow Mormons on the court, both Protestants and Muslims look bad: Latter Day Saints attend a weekly service at a rate of 69%

Of course this is self-reported data for all the above groups. If you want a scary dose of reality, check out this cell phone data based survey. You probably don’t want to see it! But this is for sure: It makes me glad for everyone of my people every Sunday they attend.

Special Thank you:
I’m grateful for those who gave in response to the past month’s campaign. You all donated enough to cover half the cost of one of my family member’s trip to Guatemala! Kudos and Gracie Mille! 

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

As Americans we seem to need a boogeyman: A big, scary nemesis, on whose demise we pin our hopes for security, prosperity and a happy ending. These days Iranians and immigrants occupy the top two slots on our Boogeyman Top Ten. You can imagine your way down the rest of the list. (If you’re not American, can you tell me, does your country do this?)

A prayer letter from a friend today prompted an arresting thought for me: On the one hand, Iran is a leading recipient of US ire, while on the other hand, it is likely Iranians are turning to Jesus from Islam in greater numbers than anywhere else on the planet! (Read more here.)

Certainly correlation does not equal causation, but in this instant it should be cause for contemplation. As Christians, let’s be careful to distinguish between the rulers and the ruled. Iran may be our enemy, but Iranians are not. In fact, maybe a million of them are our sisters and brothers in Christ.

Since most Iranians follow the Shia branch of Islam, this weekend is a good time to pray for them. July 5th and 6th marks the Islamic celebration of Ashura, the annual Shia commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, Muhammad’s grandson.

For info and ways to pray check out this helpful one page prayer guide. This video offers an on the ground look at some of the unsettling customs associated with Ashura. 

In other news:
Our family is planning to go to Guatemala this fall with my org, Healing Nations. We’ll spend a week seeing eye patients (mostly Dr. Anna!) and caring for overlooked people. This will be our first family cross-cultural experience. 

Over the past three weeks I’ve invited you to consider a gift to help cover the cost of this trip. Thank you to those who’ve given. This is at the last of those requests. I invite you to partner with us in this effort which we expect will have life-long impact on our kids, ages 11, 13, and 16. If God leads you give, click here, select “Healing Nations Trips,” type in “Bennetts’ October Trip.” Thank you very much.

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

John says in his third letter that he has no “no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” I got a little bit of that this week as our “Little Middle” daughter befriended a Muslim girl at their middle school STEM camp. 

There are at least three reasons it’s good for Christian kids to befriend Muslim kids (probably 83!):

1. Connecting with people not like them helps form a deep-down, fundamental understanding that different people see things in different ways. This helps combat the all too common current sentiment that assumes, “The way I see things is the way they are and people who ‘see’ them differently are stupid. . . and probably evil.”

2. If you build a decent friendship with a Muslim kid, maybe you get to the point you can talk about stuff you have in common like Jesus and how great he is, about Moses and what we can learn from him, and how to navigate challenging lives before the face of God.

3. Befriending a Muslim becomes a data point. It doesn’t say everything about every thing, but it does break down some of the weirdness of, “Oh my gosh, that person is different from me. I’ve heard I should be afraid of them and angry with them,” replacing it with, “but I’m not because I have this friend who is frankly amazing.”

Since my A-girl has set such a beautiful example, I’ve got to go this afternoon and meet her friend’s dad. I’ll try to do good like my daughter has done good and befriend him, show him the honor he merits and learn some good stuff from him.

Finally, this nascent friendship gave my daughter a rare and wonderful gift today: She witnessed the relief and joy in her friend’s eyes as she shared that today, after nine years of work, trials and tears, while the kids were at STEM camp, learning about trains and bridges, her mom was at the state capital becoming a U.S. citizen!

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.” Thank you to those who’ve given. You’ve been so helpful! We’re almost halfway to the goal!

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.