Author Archives: shanedar

Do you ever think how good it is that God loves people we can’t or maybe don’t? This morning I’m thankful that God loves deaf people. I’m acquainted with one or two deaf people, but close to none. 

When you look across the landscape of unengaged people groups (those who have no one living among them working to reproduce disciples), many are deaf communities in otherwise engaged peoples. The broader group might be massively underserved, but the deaf community within that group has no one telling the good news of Jesus. 

Mike Latsko, who heads up a cadre of people focused on seeing the remaining ~1600 unengaged people groups engaged, says, “5% of our list, that’s around 80 groups, are distinct deaf communities or peoples.” 

You probably know that deaf communities have legitimate cultural identity that endures after following Jesus. On the sadder side, they also experience isolation from their broader cultural context. 

So what can be done to get Jesus people sharing with pre-Jesus people who are deaf? Well, since the “Shane learns Arabic” ship has most likely sailed, I’m probably not going to learn Arabic sign language either! Further, it’s often very difficult for the non-deaf to connect at a heart level with deaf people. 

Here are three encouraging signs: 
An alliance of Bible translation organizations called illumiNations includes 400 sign languages on their list of translations to be finished by 2033!

Door International is translating scripture into sign languages and also training deaf people to go two by two into deaf communities around the world to plant deaf churches! 80 of these teams have been sent so far. 

Finally, this simple, short, winsomevideo from the International Mission Board shows five things newbies like me need to know about Deaf Peoples.

As Ramadan begins this Monday, March 11th, please join me in praying for these ministries and the millions of deaf Muslims who’ll not hear the call to prayer nor that Jesus loves them. May someone show them soon. Please pray as well for faithful Muslim Connect reader Shelly who’s working on translating the Bible into Mexican Sign Language! Go Shelly!

Had any good dreams lately? I mean “while you’re asleep” dreams, not “I dream of world peace,” which is definitely a good dream! Ahead of our sharing the preaching duties at church last Sunday, my wife dreamed that I kept trying to dance with her during the sermon! Happily her righteous anger quickly dissipated once she woke up!

While we might speculate on the origin of hers, dream interpretation and dreams in general, are not big in my stream of Christianity, practical protestants that we are! 

Not so with all Christians and definitely not so with Muslims. In fact, according to Nile Green, dreams and their interpretations have been a part of Muslim culture since the beginning. 

Sunnis believe that the adhan [call to prayer] was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but rather by one of his companions, Abdullah ibn Zayd, who reportedly had a vision in his dream in which the adhan was revealed to him by God.

In his book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?, Tom Doyle talks about how dreams of Jesus have led many Muslims to faith. 

In this unverified Facebook report, Dr. Mike Licona shares news from an underground Christian ministry in Palestine saying Jesus recently appeared to about 200 men in their dreams in one night! 

I have a dear Muslim background friend who began to follow Jesus after the Lord showed up to him in a vision. I believe it happens. 

I also suspect, with some data and good reason, that it happens more during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that starts soon. And what if it happens more if we ask God for it? 

If you’re up for trying, join with our friends at Pray4Movement.org to pray for Muslims during this coming Ramadan. And because the Muslim Connect tribe is all about inviting everyone to the party, please consider how you might share the prayer vision with others. 

Have you ever sensed something was up with your body, then welcomed the clarity of a clear diagnosis, even if it wasn’t what you’d hoped for? You may have dealt with that in a very serious manner, but I’m being cheeky with the following:

I’ve been diagnosed, courtesy of Dr. Benedict Beckeld and his article, Islam and the West: Culturally and Theologically Divided, in Merion West: 

I am oikophobic and allophilic, and it’s probably terminal. 

To be clear: Dr. Beckeld is smarter than me, probably by an order of magnitude. But, even though he’s much better looking, he’s also very wordy. I didn’t make it to the end of his article! 

If you’ve even dabbled in Greek, you can parse the words, right? Oiko and phobic = you’re afraid of your house. Allo and philic = you love the other. In common usage, oikophobics aren’t actually afraid of their literal houses, but are given to criticism and rejection of their home culture. Allophilics have an inordinate love for “the other,” those outside their culture or homeland. 

As you might imagine, Dr. Beckeld uses these terms pejoratively, and, with others, tends to equate oikophobia with academia, the liberal elite and political correctness. 

Me? I’m going to print stickers and fridge magnets!! 

I’m kidding. Fridge magnets are expensive. 

Two things I think (seriously, for a moment): 

We should consider these words and their popular use a warning to mobilizers. I can give the impression that I only care about people if they’re non-white and worship Allah. It’s a peculiar risk for people who care about Muslims, immigrants and refugees. But the label shouldn’t stick. 

Secondly, we must be critical of our own cultures, particularly in ways that will render them better. If doing that in biblical ways gets us labeled oikophobic and allophilic, so it goes. 

Finally, is it possible that Jesus by reaching out to Samaritans and sinners, not playing nicely with religious leaders and saying his kingdom was “not of this world” could have been allophonic and oikophobic? He was called worse! 

PS: If you’ve got 30 seconds, please hop over to Denison Forum and comment on the article I had published there today! I’d be big time grateful! Thank you. 

Did you watch the Super Bowl last Sunday? Over 200 million of us tuned in for at least part of it! That’s the most ever, including increased numbers of Hispanic viewers via Univision and more women than ever (via Taylor Swift?!). There was even a simulcast from Bikini Bottom, courtesy of Nickelodeon, which, due an internet issue, my buds and I enjoyed for a bit! 

If you did watch, maybe you saw the He Gets Us Foot-washing commercial. What did you think? Feel? What, if anything, did it stir in you? (I’d love to hear.)

You can guess what I thought, right? I loved it!! 

First off, it’s a counter-message to an idea which seems to be growing that Christians are best at not liking stuff: Sin, bad people, political opposition, whatever. Too many of us are too often pigeon-holed as haters and identified by what we’re against. But it’s what we’re for that really rocks: The fullness of the kingdom of God in our hearts, down the street and all over this beautiful world!

Secondly, the commercial reminds us of an aspect of Jesus that probably doesn’t get as much air time as it should: He came to serve. Similarly, Christians might not get reminded as often as would be good for us that essential to our calling is loving and serving people we wouldn’t naturally love and serve. 

Finally, a Muslim woman, sitting in the lawn chair of my Indiana youth, gets her feet washed. Yes. Yes. Yes. Those of us claiming the gift of life Jesus offers (and reading this silly email) can surely agree: Part of the way we (at least some of us) steward that gift of life is by demonstrating it through service to Muslims. Amen!

Now the hard part: Actually living out and living up to Jesus’s example! You grab a towel. I’ll go fill up a dish pan.

PS: Both the wash-ers and wash-ees have bare feet in the ad! Thoughts on that? 

One of the lasting joys of my life is that I was taught how to read. It didn’t necessarily have to have happened. And further, I was taught to enjoy books and live now in a day and age in which books are readily available. What a gift. 

I read something this past week that touched my heart and imagination and would like to share it with you:

Diaspora means scattering and fragmentation, exile and loss. It means being displaced and in search of a place that could be made home. For Israel it means life among the Gentiles. Danger and threat surround diaspora life. Diaspora life is life crowded with self-questioning and questions for God concerning the anger, hatred, and violence visited upon a people.

They also remember loss— of land and place, of life and hope, and even for some of faith. Yet diaspora is also power, the power of a conviction to survive and the power of a confession to never yield to the forces that would destroy them.*

Not every Muslim you meet is part of the diaspora, but many are. And a healthy measure of those probably live in some or all of the reality mentioned above. Jesus is there with them. At the right time, may he use us to extend empathy, welcome and life. 

*Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, by Willie James Jennings

I’m preaching about community this weekend. You know that weird, biblically mandated, annoyingly invasive, warm and beautiful tenant of Christianity that says we really need to do the Jesus things together. 

My wife, who’s scary smart, observed that Muslims are known for community. Indeed they are. The global community of Muslims is called the Ummah, and it feels like there’s a linkage among Muslims that’s deeper than the global connections among Christians. 

Of course for both of us there are lines in the (shifting) sands the crowds say mustn’t be overstepped. Just ask the Ahmadiyyas or Alistair Begg. 

What is it that holds Muslims together? I’m probably in error wondering if the motives are sickly or sinister. “We rule less of the world than we used to, so we’d better stick together.” Or worse, “We need to stick together so we can take over the world.” Maybe it’s the submission nature of Islam, maybe it’s the result of a more thorough integration of religion and life. 

One of God’s dear gifts to me over the years is connection to the Perspectives Course. In it I’ve been exposed the best Christians and congregations in a bunch of different denominations. As a result, I have reasons to appreciate many collections of believers with whom I likely disagree on several secondary issues. I feel a sense of community with a broad swath of Christendom. 

I don’t want to be arrogant here, but can we have more of that for us? Less sniping off people who disagree on secondary things and more, “That woman way over there, she’s got some weird ways of worship, but she’s my sister. She loves Jesus!” 

Maybe we could learn a thing or two from the, admittedly idealized, “Ummah over everything” approach of our Muslim cousins. 

If you prayed for my meetings last weekend, thank you! God heard and answered. We have fresh energy and direction to see Jesus people among the remaining unengaged people groups. 

As our church prepares to dive into Acts this Spring, my wife and I are searching for good ways to communicate the geography of Luke’s volume two. The Holy Spirit is the main character, but geography plays an important support role. If you’ve got ideas, I’d love to hear them. 

Clear data and information, like the geographical setting for Acts, helps us get beyond the sound bytes, first impressions and, let’s be honest, false assumptions that sometimes pepper our brains. 

Migration continues to be a challenging global reality. And if you live in the US, the deeper we descend into this election cycle, the more likely we are to hear true, mistaken and sensational claims about immigration. 

The following links come courtesy of the Dimitrov Research Center at the Continental Theological Seminary in Belgium. Their occasional email can’t come often enough for me. 

The Migration Policy Institute provides an interactive map of data on immigration to and emigration from every country based on the country of origin for immigrants and the destination country for emigrants.

. . . an interactive map of data on refugees and asylum seekers from every country based on country of origin and destination country.

. . .an interactive map of data on the net number of migrants for every country for the years 1950 to 2020 shown in five-year increments.

A snapshot of the totalnumber of people identifying as religious, as Christians, and as Muslims in each country. . .through an interactive map.

Finally, here’s a tool to help you explore unengaged peoples in areas where you have interest or burden. I’m on my way to Phoenix today to gather with the folks spearheading that website and broader effort. We’re asking God to show us how the number of unengaged peoples might be dropped to zero by the end of 2025. I’d deeply value your prayers for that meeting. (If you’re willing, shoot me a note to let me know you’re praying. Thank you.) 

A friend and I tried something this past week and I think it worked. 

Many of the people we do life with are thinking deeply about the grievous situation in the Middle East. What if we could help them with some background, practical guidance and maybe renewed hope for God’s purposes?

My friend Joseph and I hosted an event last Sunday night called, “Thinking Biblically about the Israel/Hamas War.” We gave people a bit of the biblical, historical and socio-politcal background that has led to the current situation. We built empathy for both Jews and Muslims. And finally, we all engaged in some powerful prayer. 

The agenda was pretty simple:

1. Welcome and opening prayer.
2. A ten minute video overviewing the history of the plot of land now called Israel.
3. A quick dive into the biblical history of the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac. 
4. A healthy amount of time for question and response. 
5. Fifteen minutes of prayer

Components that made the effort succeed:

1. The people at my church are inclined toward graciousness.
2. We solicited written questions ahead of time. We requested them from the front on Sunday morning and by text blast. We also invited questions from the floor at the event. 
3. Video: We think the video is pretty balanced. Your view may vary, but the more objective it is, the better. 
4. We had tea and cookies! 
5. The X factor: My bud, Joseph. He has a good handle on the Old Testament, he’s lived in Israel, has been there several additional times and he wants abundant life for Jews and Muslims. You could probably personally fill the role I played, “The guy who knows a little bit about Muslims.” The “Joseph” part might be a tougher. Is there someone local who fits the bill? If not, bring him in to do it. 

This is a timely step. If we had the ability we’d resolve this war, wouldn’t we? Since we don’t, let’s take the opportunity to help and inspire the people of God to pray and take action. 

(If you’ve done something similar recently, I’d love to hear about it. Thanks.)

One of my kids, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, used to reply, “Engineer.” Sometimes the impressed inquisitor probed further and inquired, “What kind of engineering do you want to do? Mechanical? Computer?” But their awe would fade when he clarified, “I want to drive trains!”

If we have kids, we want good stuff for them, right? We resonate with John, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” As Christians, we want them to become wholehearted followers of Jesus. 

Would you say you want them to be radicalized for Jesus?

Recent reports have indicated that ISIS, inspired by the Israel/Hamas war, have upped their recruitment efforts targeting younger people. The principals in several recently foiled terrorist plots have been 14 years old and even younger. 

Of course the appeal is complex, the blame multifaceted. As Christians we can say, “It’s the Devil’s handiwork.” Yeah, but through whose hands does he work? 

In addition to the grim conviction that no child deserves to be targeted by ISIS, two questions trouble me: 

1. To what degree is my country, by continuing to sell military equipment and ammunition to Israel, complicit in the creation of the next generation of radicalized Islamists?
2. To what end are my own kids being radicalized and what role do their mom and I play in that process? 

To be sure, there’s a part of me that wants them to become rich enough to happily and gratefully send my wife and I on wonderful, exotic trips. But more than that, I want them to rise up like, and with, Jesus as powerful, peaceful, loving and radical forces for the Kingdom of God. I see no other alternative if evil is to someday be overcome by good. 

Got kids? Got thoughts?

In case your church calendar is covered up by discarded wrapping paper or New Year’s confetti, can I remind you January 6th is Epiphany? 

No shame if you think, “Epipha-what-now?” In most of our church traditions, Epiphany is the shy middle child of holy days, sitting quietly in a corner between loud, first born Christmas and favored baby Easter. 

But for those of us who love Muslims and love the God who desires life for them and merits their deepest loyalty, Epiphany rocks. 

It celebrates, as you may know, the revelation of Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles (Which is super good news for most of us!). While some eastern traditions pin Epiphany to Jesus’s baptism, which is cool, most of us associate it with the Magi from the East finding and worshiping Jesus. 

Talking about this at youth group last night, my super smart wife said the Magi, “Traveled great distance at great cost with great expectation.”

I love that. 

It inspires a two-fold hope in me: 

1. That Muslims, including those who now live on the dirt from which the Magi journeyed, will find Jesus to be so compelling they’ll go great distances (of all sorts) and pay great costs (of all kinds) in order to bow before him. 
2. That you and I, and many others, would go great distances at great cost, empowered by the great expectation that Jesus came to bring abundant life to Muslims and God desires to be followed by some from every Muslim people group. 

Of course I don’t know what that specifically means for you. Heck, I often feel clueless about what it means for me! But as I write, I’m praying God will show us and give us grace and courage. None of us are as wise as we wish, but Jesus is worth the cost and the journey.