Author Archives: shanedar

I love a nice overlap. Like when a sermon can be used for an article or a trip to the grocery takes you by your favorite thrift store. 

Here’s my current overlap: Today is the second day of Black History Month in the U.S., there is a shared history among Islam and African and Caribbean Americans, my friend hooked me up with an amazing Black History Month prayer calendar, and I’m writing while en route to the Ivory Coast to see if God may open a door of outreach to Muslims there!

So much fun!

Some of Islam’s first steps in the Americas were taken by West African slaves brought here. Muslim slaves made up a minority and faced many challenges in maintaining their faith. But some stood out, including one man who left an entire Quran in Arabic, written from memory. (I know you’re remembering your Sunday School teacher or Navs discipler asking you, “How much scripture do you have memorized!”)

Then in the heady civil rights days of mid-last century, some Black Americans found a home in a new version of an ancient faith, the recently founded Nation of Islam. While a side current to main stream Sunni Islam, it seemed to provide what many Blacks were looking for. 

Does your church formally recognize Black History Month? Mine doesn’t and I’m wondering why. 

So I’m planning to do two things:
1. Ask my pastor if we can distribute this calendar.
2. I’m going to listen a lot this month. For the next few days to Ivorians. I know a little north of nothing about Muslims in Côte d’Ivoire. I need to learn. 

For that matter, I also need to learn about Blacks here in the U.S. Maybe you’ve got a book you’d recommend for starters. 

If you’ve read this far, can I ask a favor? Click here to watch the first ever 90 Sec Muslim Connect video. It will tell you about the trip to CI and some ways to pray. If you subscribe, you’ll get an alert when the second one drops and maybe see the first footage you’ve ever witnessed from Ivory Coast!

You know something? Sometimes I swear at Muslims. Big groups of them and sometimes even individuals. That might be surprising if you know my bias toward them.

I love Muslims and long to see them receive the life Jesus has in mind for them, but sometimes I just don’t get it. Mind if I share with you?

Even though I detest it, I understand Sunnis and Shias battling over land and power. Heck, in my own backyard American Christians call for civil war against other self-avowed Christians. But I don’t understand killing people because they’re doing the religion wrong. 

Last week, I swore at Hassan Muawiya, a Sunni Deobandi cleric who goes around Pakistan asking the police to prosecute Ahmadis for blasphemy, a crime punishable by death there.

If you don’t know who Ahmadis are, I don’t blame you. They comprise a small and unorthodox sect of Islam, numbering between 10 and 20 million and in my limited experience are among the nicest people ever. But they’re in the bullseye. 

On January 12, nine Ahmadis were killedin their mosque in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Their Muslim attackers attempted to persuade them to recant their views and when they refused, killed them. 

Protestants and Catholics have killed each other in the past, so our slate is not clean, but I honestly don’t get this. I’m thinking these killings would be roughly parallel to an Evangelical killing a steadfast Mormon. Would God be pleased by that? Nope. 

I’ve got to think the fondness and care for minorities Jesus showed as he walked through Galilee carries on for minorities today, whether they be Christian, off-center Muslims or any other stripe of humanity.

You love Jesus, right? You want to follow his teaching and example, right? Then join me for a little happy dance: Yesterday the US State Department launched a program called Welcome Corps. Finally, American citizens can band together and sponsor refugees. 

Just the facts, Ma’am:
“Refugees” not “immigrants” (documented or not): Welcome Corps allows for private sponsorship of vetted, documented legal refugees. Most will initially come from Sub-Saharan Africa. This effort is distinct from the issues on our southern border. 

What do sponsors do? In groups of five, sponsors will “take on tasks like securing and furnishing initial housing, greeting the refugee newcomers at the airport, enrolling children in school, and helping adults find employment.”

Who pays for this? The sponsors will be required to have $2275 per refugee they sponsor. 

Two things that I like about Welcome Corps: 
It’s politically ambidextrous! If you’re blue, “Yay, we’re helping marginalized people.” If you’re red, “Good, we’re giving power from the government back to the people.” If you’re Christian, well, our Jesus does have a soft spot for people who got dealt a bad hand. 

It’s timely relative to the employment environment. Anecdotally, the Department of Corrections in my state, Colorado, currently has over 1700 openings! Other agencies are similarly understaffed. 

The pilot effort is looking for 10,000 Americans who can help 5000 refugees. A quick peek at the Church Angel website says there are over 4000 churches in Colorado alone! Seems likely that Christians around the country could step up and say, “Hey, we got this!” 

Can you think of five local friends whose gifts, resources and connections compliment yours? My mind is spinning! Get started here. And please let me know what you think about Welcome Corps. 

Special thanks to readers who weighed in with info and advice for my upcoming trip to Ivory Coast. If you haven’t yet, please open and read last week’s Muslim Connect.

Maybe you can relate to this: I love America, feel like I generally fit in the culture and, at least to a small degree, recognize the privilege that comes with being born here. That said, thinking about visiting a different country makes my eyes light up and my heart race a bit. Familiar?

In a couple weeks two really good buds and I will go to Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire if you want to be really accurate, French or you’re trying to impress a girl!). We’re going to meet a guy there from a Muslim background who loves Jesus and is pursuing a number of smart ways to enable his people to consider the claims of Christ. The four of us are wondering if some American churches might partner with him in God-honoring ways to see the kingdom grow. 

I share this with you because I think you might say, “Oooooh, fun!” But also because you might know some things or people I should know before I depart. And because I want to ask you to pray for us. 

If you’ve got advice, please let me hear it. 

If you’re inclined to pray, here are some ideas:

1. I’m not the best guy to get any ducks in a row, but that’s my role with this trip. Please pray I wouldn’t miss important details like what pants to wear, how to make phones work in CI and plane tickets. 
2. Pray for the relationships between the four of us. I love each of these guys and one I’ve not met IRL yet. But we do come from different places. We need the Holy Spirit’s help.
3. Please pray for the families and churches we’ll leave behind and ask God to bring us back to them safe and sound. 

Thank you for being with me in this. I look forward to sharing fun stuff from this trip. 

PS: If giving is your gig and you’d like to cover some of the cost of this effort, you can contribute here. (Scroll down to “Bennett Vision Trip.”) Thank you.

Got any fun New Year’s resolutions, goal, dreams? I’m hoping to build a small cadre of like-minded people who will challenge me to be the best person I can be and do the best work possible. 

It’s important, isn’t it, to have people who have your back? In all of life, for sure. And maybe particularly when you’re swimming upstream and trying to love and connect with Muslims. 

My friend Martin heads up a cool organization called Peace Catalyst that helps people become agents of peace in their neighborhoods and the world. They recently released a series of very short videos and simple prompts to get going in peace making. 

The second entry, “Lean Into Those Who’ve Got Your Back” really resonated with me:

Peacebuilding is all about relationships, so an important practice is to recognize and celebrate those who care for us, encourage us, and challenge us. Here are a couple questions to help figure out who those people are for you:

• Who’s in your support system that you can turn to when things get hard?

• Who isn’t but could be?

• What other sources of support could you look to?

I wonder about this for you. Do you have someone eager and watching to give you a high five, a quick prayer an “atta girl/boy?” We all need that. 

I’m down to be your “at a distance” cheer leader. Shoot me a message, sharing about an effort you’ve made and I’ll tell you you’re a rock star! 

Let’s also pray for each other and the many people God has rallied to extend his love and care to Muslims all over. 

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

There’s a Muslim dad with kids at the same karate studio my younger son attends. I’d really like to connect with him, but we only see each other briefly at pick up maybe once a week. 

So I got an idea: Our town has a very semi-pro ice hockey team. Tickets are not outrageously priced. What if I invited the dad and his boys to join my son and me for a game? 

The upsides: 

1. Having the game to focus on lowers the required intensity of conversation. 
2. If he’s a good Muslim, I won’t have to spend a lot on beer! 
3. Win or lose, it will be a sign-post in our relationship. We’ll build memories. 

Potential downsides:

1. I fail to navigate his initial, “No, I can’t go,” thinking it means he really doesn’t want to. Or he steps into “American-mode” and declines for real, but I assume it’s cultural and awkwardly re-ask him. 
2. He has no fun. The boys get bored in the first period. We can’t think of anything to talk about. 
3. He’s not a good Muslim and I have to spend a car payment on beer!

What do you think? Should I take the risk or take another direction? What am I missing?

It seems likely that for many of us, if we’re going to connect with Muslims, we’re going to have to go out of our way. At minimum, for most, we’ll have to poke through a cultural barrier of some sort. 

May God give us grace to take the steps he puts in front of us. And, as we do, may we simply ooze and radiate the love, kindness, and truth of Jesus. 

If you’re like to give to ministries at the end of the year and Muslim Connect has blessed you, please click here (choose my name in the staff drop down) and give as God leads you.

You’ve felt it, haven’t you? Jolly ol’ St. Nick, promising you peace and happiness and all you’ve got to do is buy something: A Coke, a coat, a car with a big, red bow on it. You know the drill. 

I’m as prone as most to the lure of that lie, and the ancillary untruths that accompany it: “She’s gonna like me more when she opens the present I got her!” And, “They value me. They got me this thing!” 

For people like us, there’s an additional issue with this deceit: A country who celebrates “Christ”-mas, could easily be assumed to be a “Christ”-ian country. Ergo, “This is what the people of Jesus think and do.” Bummer.

Arguably more Muslims are living under Santa’s watchful eye this year than ever before; many in the U.S. for only their first or second Christmas. What will they see? Feel? Experience and think? 

Maybe for some, they’ll get caught off guard with an empty fridge like I did in the early days of living in religious-holiday laden Holland! Maybe they’ll wonder how to be nice to their kids while being true to Islam. Maybe they’ll think about Jesus a little more than normal. 

Given we lack the marketing budget of Lexus and Lego, what can we do? 

If you get a chance, give a little gift to a Muslim family. Add an offer to pray and an invitation to a low key Christmas gathering. I prefer this description of Christians, “We give gifts, we pray and we throw parties!”

“Father, may this Christmas somehow spark many Muslims to think and wonder about Jesus more and in more biblical ways. And for those fresh to the whole Christmas frenzy, please help them navigate.”

I learned something really cool recently: Senegal is known as the country of teranga. While difficult to translate, teranga communicates a sense of hospitality, respect, inclusion and looking out for the other. It captures an essence of Senegalese culture and describes a common purpose of both the people and the nation. 

As is often true, this cultural reality can be readily seen around the table, or in the case of Senegal, the bowl. Meals are frequently eaten from a common bowl and there’s always room for an extra hand in the dish. In fact, the best bits are pushed toward the visitor. 

Senegalese chef and author, Pierre Thiamsays, “There’s always room for the other around your bowl. Why? Because we believe that the other is bringing blessings. When you share your bowl, your bowl will always be plentiful. . . . This is a country that values the wealth of a person not by how much he has, but by how much he shares, by how much he gives.”

Teranga haș characterized the people of western Africa for centuries, but found new life when Senegal became independent in 1960. The first president, Léopold Senghor championed the idea and the term to encourage unity across religions and peoples. 

The stability that Senegal enjoys shows that it worked. As does the tendency of Muslims to share with Christians during Tabaski (the Wolof word for Eid al Adha) and Christians to share with Muslims Christmastime.

I love the idea of teranga in part because it feels so much like the kingdom of God. I want to embody it myself. And hopefully part of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be eaten from bowls, with your hand and mine intermixed with hands of Wolof, Fula, Soninke, Jola and Mandinka peoples.

Christmas exists because of a pretty special kiddo and it exists for kiddos. Of course we keep Christmas around for a lot of other good reasons as well, but kids do factor pretty hugely into the whole deal. 

With the kid-centric nature of the holiday in mind, I want to invite you to drop a little seed into some wee brains. If you get a chance to chat with kids and make it past the next sweet thing they hope to pop into their mouths or the sick toy they’re hoping to get under the tree, consider laying some “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” truth on them. In no way dissing a really pretty good song, maybe we can help kiddos connect the dots between the creche and the craziness of modern day Bethlehem. Here are some talking points: 

Did you know Bethlehem is a real place? It’s a city with traffic and stores, restaurants and movie theaters. 

Around 25,000 people live there. That’s about half as many people as visit Disney World on a given day! (Or whatever contextual stat might make sense to the munchkins you’re engaging.)

Most of the people who live there are Muslims. But most of their nearby neighbors are Jews. The Christians have mostly moved away. Since Jews and Muslims usually don’t like each other (That’s a long story!), it’s sort of like Mentos and Coke over there. 

Let’s pray the remaining Christians will be safe enough to stick around. Ask God that the Jews and Muslims would learn more about this sweet baby and the rock star he grew up to be. 

Next time your parents ask what you want for Christmas, tell them a trip to Bethlehem!

Ok, so it’s possible you’ve got a busy month ahead of you. Not only is the World Cup heating up and the temperature falling, but maybe you’ve got, oh, a tiny bit of Christmas prep on your plate? 

We tend to stack a lot of good things on December: Food drives, services at church, parties you want to attend and maybe a couple you don’t, cookie plates for neighbors, Christmas cards, Christmas movies, family visits, and finding an amazing present for my amazing wife. (Suggestions here, please.) 

Here’s a way to pull your mind back to your love for Muslims in the midst of the merriment. Every time you enjoy a slice of pie, see a pie, see a picture of pie or even smell the yumminess baking in the oven take a moment and lift up the following acronymic requests, asking God to work so that Muslims will. . . 

Participate in God’s story. May Muslims inherit their place in the abundant life Jesus came to earth to bring.

Impart the God-given gifts of their cultures to Christians and others in their midst.

Experience the kindness of Jesus expressed through the interest, love and hospitality of people like you and me. 

Of course you can sub in your own words for the acronym. You can also go for longer words like STAR: S: Seek Jesus, T: Turn from everything false, A: Aquire eternal life, R: Reproduce disciples among all Muslim peoples. Or CHRISTMAS TREE (You’ll have to do that one yourself!) 

May God hear our PIE (participate/impart/experience) prayers and answer them beyond our wildest imagination.