Monthly Archives: July 2025

Do you ever wonder how to balance joy at the good things with sorrow at the bad? I have a great wife, a quiver full of cool kiddos and work that I love. But I’m also aware that lots of gut-wrenching stuff is going down every day. I’ve not solved this to my satisfaction (Let me know if you have.), but I’m compelled to share some good news today. Three “good news’s,” in fact:

1. Mogadishu is being rebuilt.
The capital of the perennially broken state of Somalia is taking steps toward recovery. While al Shabab continues to wreak havoc, infrastructure investments and improved security builds hope for a new day. Happily, the reconstruction has opened doors for Somali women serving as engineers and project managers. 

2. The New York Declaration
“Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union,” signed a document agreeing on three things: The Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 was evil, that Hamas should turn over their weapons and power to the Palestinian Authority and that the path to peace in the Middle East includes a two state solution. 

3. Joshua Project launches fresh Adopt a People effort! 
“People Group Adoption is a commitment to prayer, advocacy, and partnership. It’s about seeing entire communities transformed by the gospel—especially in places where Jesus is not yet known.” Let’s do it!

If you’ve got a good news or two, I’d be happy to have you share them with me. 

After inviting countless Muslims to follow Jesus and countless Christians to give everything for Jesus, on Saturday, July 19th, Greg Livingstone went to be with Jesus. He heard the, “Well done, good and faithful servant” that he’d dreamed about for so many years. 

I didn’t know Greg as well as I wish I had and I didn’t get to know them until way too late in the game. 

In the early days, he was my missionary hero, the guy who did a Perspectives class at Penn State University and recruited four intrepid guys to move to Libya: An event which helped catalyze the beginning of Caleb Project and Frontiers and so many other good things.

Later, he was the guy who believed in the ethnographic research teams we were doing when few others did and perhaps no one should’ve. Greg said, “Yeah, I’ll try anything. I’ll listen to anyone, even a bunch of college kids if it might result in some Muslims finding Christ.” When a flood prevented our team from going to Khartoum, and then also our plan b, Dhaka, Greg advised us to go to Bombay. He gave us one phone number! On the strength of his reputation, that contact led to another and to another and eventually to three months that irrevocably changed my life. 

When Caleb Project went out of business, I happily accepted Bob Blincoe’s invitation to crash land at Frontiers and began to look for a chance to bump into Greg Livingstone. On the rare occasion that happened, I was like a kid meeting his favorite player at a ball park, embarrassed, tongue-tied, but happy for the encounter. 

Years down the road when my marriage fell apart, Greg jumped into the fray and sent the most sincerely apologetic and empathetic email ever to land in my box. After the divorce, he and I developed a friendship that has legit been one of the delights of my life. We sent emails. We chatted on the phone. We made a few wildly lo-fi videos and I was blessed forever. 

The power of that guy to encourage! He’s the only one who ever said “Shabash” to me. (Urdu for “well done.”) If you’ve ever gotten one of those from Greg, and I’m sure some of you have, you know it leaves a mark!

Greg was such a blessing to me: hero, mentor, terrible marriage counselor, but such a good, encouraging, inspiring friend. May God raise up a thousand like him in his place.

Have you ever thought about the Nation of Islam? With “Islam” in the title, you’d think the org would be of some interest to the Muslim Connect tribe. In the past I’ve thought very little about it. A message from a high school friend last week however, prompted a brief, but deep dive into this quasi-Muslim religion. Here’s the upshot:

1. It’s not Islam. At the risk of being offensive (and wrong!), NOI is Islamic in the way that Mormons are Christians; some similar beliefs alongside irreconcilable differences. NOI can be understood as a religious-political movement designed to confirm and demonstrate African American capacity, beauty and legitimacy.
2. Its origin story and the life of its founder are bonkers! Wallace Fard Muhammad founded NOI in Detroit, Michigan in 1930. His backstory up to 1930 and his disappearance in 1934 would be a terrific act one of a compelling movie.
3. NOI’s second leader, Elijah Muhammad took them from a few hundred members to a reported 500,000 at the time of his death in 1975.
4. Plot Twist: At Elijah Muhammad’s death, his seventh son, Warith Deen Mohammed, took over. A bit of a rebel, Warith had been excommunicated from NOI five times! After assuming the helm, he led most of the NOI members in conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam!
5. Louis Farrakhan revived the NOI in 1978 and today it numbers up to 50,000 members, but influences many more. 

On the plus side, NOI promotes discipline, health and conservative sexual morals. It also advocates for Black identity in ways that are good and soundly beyond my comprehension. Sadly, NOI holds to mainstream Islamic teaching that Jesus is not God and the Bible is corrupted. 

Should God bless you or me with a budding friendship with someone in NOI, I think we’d do well to remember they’re a person before they’re “someone in NOI,” and further, let’s talk like we normally would about how great Jesus is. He is, as he always has been, the key piece in the puzzle. 

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.