Monthly Archives: April 2025

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.

As Easter draws near, you’re probably thinking the same thing as me, “What’s up with Jonah in the Quran?” What? You’re not thinking that? 

Jesus did say in one of his earliest references to his coming passion, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Mt. 12.40) Jonah might be a good text for my Easter sermon!

Jonah shows up (as Yūnus) four times in the Quran: al-Qalam 68:48–50, al-Anbiyāʾ 21:87–88, aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:139–148, and the surah bearing his name, Yūnus 10:98.

The story is a little different, told in a slightly different order. It feels like the end of a short, but fairly accurate, telephone game. I assume Muslims think God gave Muhammad the corrected version of the story when Gabriel told it to him. 

It makes me wonder though, where did Muhammad get his information on the Bible? Scholars say Muhammad likely had access to an Arabic translation of the Syriac Peshitta. “The Syriac Peshitta is an ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament into the Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was a widely used version of the Bible in the Middle East.”

While the order of the story and some fairly significant points vary from the Bible to the Quran, both the earlier and the later version say similar things about God’s graciousness and his desire to forgive sin.

Jonah’s prayer in the Quran version also varies from the Bible’s, but you can’t really argue with his sentiment: “There is no God but You. Glory be to You. I was wrong.”

Want some good news? The compassion and forgiveness that both Jonah and the Ninevites received and that was secured by the Son of Man is available to you, me, our families, our people and Muslims all over the place. 

April is a big month! We’ve got Palm Sunday and Easter, I turn 60 on the same day my younger son turns 11, a daughter turns 16 a few days later and of course, the event you’re all looking forward to: The NFL draft! 

Actually, you probably don’t prioritize watching the draft, but here’s the story this year that might pique the interest of Muslim Connect tribe members: Ahmed Hassanein may become the first Egyptian in history to play in the NFL! He loves Jesus and his story is amazing. 

Born in the US, Hassanein moved to Egypt at six years old with his dad and zero Arabic! He had a hard time fitting in and staying out of trouble, but found sports to be a good outlet. He excelled in a variety of sports and became a national Cross Fit champ. 

When he was 15, a plan was concocted for Ahmed to return to the US with his half brother, a teacher and football coach at a small high school in California. He soon found himself once again losing the language lottery! But he was a terror on the football field! He didn’t know the rules, but resonated with the instructions, “See ball! Get ball!” 

Late in high school, some tape Ahmed posted on Instagram caught the eye of the defensive coordinator at Boise State. Turns out his brother had played with that coach when they were both students at Azusa Pacific! 

By his senior year at Boise State, Ahmed found both great success on the gridiron and a relationship with Jesus. 

People who predict these things think he’ll go in the 5th or 6th round of the NFL draft. I don’t predict much, but pray he’ll continue to be a solid follower of Jesus and that God will give him a strong voice for Christ in the US and especially back in Egypt. 

More on Ahmed:
Nine minute video interview. 

Great version of Ahmed’s story.