Category Archives: Uncategorized

I was at a church conference recently where the main speaker, a brilliant, lettered, experienced man, shared the standard fare regarding contemporary gender wars. In a brief aside toward the end of his time, his words sliced through my malaise. Himself single, he challenged the room full of pastors, spouses and leaders, “You’ve got to do better caring for and reaching out to singles.” I thought of my church and agreed, “Dang, he’s right. We, more accurately I, have failed in this regard.”

Our culture, at least my particular bubble, treats singleness as a waypoint en route to normal married life. As a result, singleness that stretches beyond the reasonable timeframe can feel, both from the inside and out, different, abnormal, like some sort of failure. My church language and programing too often reinforces that idea. 

How much more so for single Muslims.

While this varies wildly depending on where and with whom one lives, singleness is even more “out of the norm” in many Muslim cultures. In fact, Islamic teaching says that since Muhammad married, so should Muslims, and there will be no singles in Paradise! Interesting as Jesus seems to indicate in Matthew 20 that there will be no marriage in Heaven!

While single women and men continue to carry much of the weight of world missions (see last week’s email), it’s almost always hard to counter one’s culture. I want to radically empathize with singles, particularly globally minded ones who feel the hundred stings of being “different” and work to find balance and direction amid the various callings of God, culture and their hearts. 

Toward that end if you’re single, I apologize for the things I’ve said or written that communicated that “normal life” doesn’t include you. May God give life to your deepest hopes and dreams.

Have you ever heard about something and thought, “I really want to share this with people!” only to then think, “Wait! What if everyone else has already heard of this and I’m just late to the party?!?” That’s me when it comes to Lilias Trotter, but she was so amazing I’m taking the risk. 

Born into a posh British family in 1853, Lilias developed a two-fold passion as a young woman: art and outreach. She’s remembered for cruising late night London inviting prostitutes to spend a night in a hostel and stay around to learn a different trade. 

Lilias also excelled at painting. So much so, the biggest art bigwig in Britain, John Ruskin, took her under his wing and believed, “she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be Immortal.” Immortal, that is, if she would give herself up to art. 

Lilias had seen her faith come alive at a series of conferences and now faced a harrowing choice: Invest all she had in developing the artistic skill God had given her or honor the desire to be a missionary insistently developing in her soul.

North Africa won the day. When the agency she applied to turned her down for medical reasons, she and a couple friends set off for Algeria; self-funded, with neither Arabic nor local contacts! 

But Lilias stuck it out. . . for forty years! Painting and writing (eventually in Arabic) as she went, she established mission posts throughout Algeria and south into the Sahara. Ahead of her time in many ways of thinking and reaching out, she led her mission band, sometimes even from her sick bed to her death in 1928.

I’m grateful to Lilias for her example of making tough choices and working hard and to God for giving gifts and using all kinds of people. 

Learn more about Lilias from my friend, Marti Wade, this helpful website or this film.

If I asked you to name something beautiful about where you live, what would you say? I’m in southern Colorado so sun and mountains come to mind for me. Also my wife keeps the house all jungly with plants everywhere and occasionally a sleeping child will drool in the most adorable way. 

Although I don’t always live out this conviction, I’m convinced that beauty, it’s creation, pursuit and appreciation, has great consequence for our lives as Christians. 

Brian Zahnd asserts, “If the church in America is to recover any relevance, it won’t be through a public emphasis on the true (though there is a place for Christian apologetics), and it won’t be through a public emphasis on the good (though there is a place for Christian ethics), but through a public emphasis on the long-neglected third prime virtue — the beautiful.

I love that. This applies for us in how we think and talk about Muslims. Without diminishing the reality that we must question and consider the truth and goodness of Islam, it might do us well to amplify our understanding and enjoyment of the beauty found in Muslims and Muslim culture. 

I drool like a sleeping child remembering desserts hospitably offered to me by the hand of Muslims from Turkey to Jordan to Malaysia. You may have similar experiences.

I am also hugely blessed by the these two videos on Instagram (Part 1, Part 2) in which Muslims share the origins of their Eid clothes. To see people from various cultures in their best clothes on their happiest days. . .beautiful. (And worth quickly signing up for an Instagram account you may never use again!) 

Too many of us (I’m looking at me!) too often think of Muslims as a problem. Join me in leaning toward thinking of them as beautiful people, designed to help embody and bring about the beautiful kingdom of God. 

If you’ve ever worked hard in ministry, vocationally, on a mission trip or even leading a small group with too many EGR’s*, this week’s YouTube video is for you. (If you get some value from it, please subscribe to my fledgeling channel. Thank you.) *Extra grace required!

“Please, please. I beg of you more time. I didn’t account for the laughter!” That was George Verwer speaking at an Urbana missions conference over thirty years ago, imploring the leaders to extend his time as he gave a talk that made me roar with laughter and rethink my life choices!

I saw George speak several times over the years and always enjoyed his candor, humility and passion. His book Revolution of Love and Balance left a dent on my psyche. I got to meet George in person a few years ago and briefly thank him for the way he’d blessed me. 

Determined that Jesus was worth it, he challenged people to do crazy, world-changing things. I would love to grow up and mobilize like George Verwer. 

It was while doing one of those crazy things that I met Viju Abraham. Although we’d landed in his city of Mumbai unannounced, Viju helped our team find places to stay, showed us where Muslims lived and shared his heart and ministry for the city. 

A consummate networker, Viju introduced us young, bumbling Americans to key ministry leaders. Even more so, he endorsed us. I think it was his passionate commitment to Jesus and Mumbai that pushed him to take such risks. 

When I grow up, I want to love and serve a great city like Mumbai the way Viju did. 

As I write, it’s my birthday. I’m grateful for another year of life, for satisfying work, for a family that’s bigger and better than I deserve and for the cloud of witnesses, recently joined by George and Viju, that surround us. 

Ramadan ended on April 20th, so Eid al Fitr is today! If you’re reading this Muslim Connect when it drops, here’s something fun you might do: Visit my friend Jeannie’s website, grab an image and put it in your social media status. I just did! 

I saw a striking quote during a recent tour of Tulsa’s Greenfield neighborhood, site of the burned down Black Wall Street. (How did I get so old and know so little?) James Baldwin’s words about the massacre are emblazoned on a wall, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Indeed.

I was in Tulsa with a small band of friends who want to deliberately face the existence of people groups on the planet who have no one in their midst inviting them to consider the claims of Christ. We believe God wants that to be different and humbly think he may want to use us to that end. These groups are referred to as unengaged unreached people groups. 

Here are five facts I want you to know about them: 

1. The best current research says there are 1572 Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPG’s). 393 of them are Muslim. The others are divided among Hindu, Buddhist, Ethnic religions and others. 
2. A UUPG is defined as one in which no one is living and working in a local language, engaging in ministry focused on sparking a movement of disciples to Christ. 
3. UUPG’s matter, in our minds, because the kingdom of God does not fully come until a people group is discipled and a people group is not discipled until someone from somewhere starts something.
4. We expect the 1572 number to drop by as much as 30% based on developing research. We’re asking God to drop the remaining number to zero by the end of 2025. 
5. Our conviction and hope is that most of the UUPG’s will be engaged by culturally nearby believers. By God’s grace we’re connecting some dots.

Thanks for facing the Muslim world with me, those who are down the street and those on the other side of the planet. For more info on UUPG’s, please check out our “currently in beta” website. The “Explorer Tool” will help you see what UUPG’s live where.

Ramadan’s Night of Power is Monday, April 17th. Please check out my latest Muslim Connect video (shot in Tulsa!) for background and ways to pray.

Are you ever glad you’re a Christian? I hope so, and for better reasons than this: It’s Passover right now (April 5th to April 13th), so Jews aren’t eating anything yeasty. No Cheerios, bread or beer! It’s also Ramadan (March 22nd to April 20th), so Muslims aren’t eating anything during the day. They can have Cheerios and bread after dark, but still no beer.

Passover celebrates the Exodus, the seminal event in the history of Israel. Ramadan commemorates the giving of the Quran. Both events serve to build and bind together their respective communities. 

Christians celebrate our big event (April 9th) by eating chocolate rabbits. 

To be fair, some of you faithfully fasted through Lent. That’s commendable and I hope you find yourself closer to Jesus as a result. But sometimes I wish we had a more corporate life and identity. Perhaps it’s my particular brand of Protestantism that so emphasizes individual faith. That has its positives, but I still wish we had more feasts! 

This current confluence of the “best days of the year” for the three Abrahamic faiths only happens three times a century. It makes me dream of, and long for, the fullness of God’s kingdom on the earth.

Sadly, there’s violence in the holy city Jerusalem as Israeli forces raided Al Asqa Mosque for two nights in a row. Palestinians responded by sending two dozen rockets into Israel from Lebanon and Gaza. As I write, Israel is responding to those rockets. Ad nauseam. 

As we celebrate Jesus’s victory over death this weekend, let’s don’t give into arrogance because we don’t do what the Jews and Muslims do (Our history, both old and new, is littered with things we should not have done.), but rather let’s ask afresh for resurrection power to fall heavily on Jew, Christian, and Muslim alike. May the life of the living God be known all over. 

If you haven’t yet, please check out some of the recent videos at my new Muslim Connect YouTube channel. I’d be honored if you subscribed. Thank you.

You are blessed, lucky and privileged, aren’t you? If for no other reason (And there are many!), you have email! Now getting the Muslim Connect email might feel unlucky and the number of unread emails in your inbox might make you feel cursed! Even so, I stand by my statement: You are privileged. Me, too.

Our privilege allows, among others, this perk: We can squawk about people and institutions more powerful than ourselves. We could share the situation of our sisters and brothers on the planet who choose to keep their mouths shut and their heads down in hopes they might fill and not lose them tomorrow. But for whatever reason God has blessed us with the freedom to say with the bold humility of Jesus, “No more, not now, and you’re wrong.”

As Paul admonished, “All things are permissible, but all things are not profitable.” 

Might it, however, be profitable for some of us to sometimes poke the bear of apathy, anxiety and antagonism regarding Muslims? Spoiler alert: Oh yeah, big time.

I want to encourage you to bring Jesus’s love for Muslims before your church and your tribe. 

Ramadan (March 22 to April 20) provides a timely excuse for asking! Would your church show this beautiful four minute video? Or maybe this shorter, but far less beautiful one? Would they do it on Easter, our biggest Sunday of the year? Saying to all the visitors, “In this room, we think the Resurrection goes for those guys too!”

After the Easter service, many of us will gather for a feast with family and friends. If you get appointed to give the blessing and you’re feeling feisty, slip in a little prayer for fasting Muslims. Maybe volunteer ahead time to bring dessert and bless your people with baklava! (Arguably, baklava is less like poking the bear and more like scratching his back right up between the shoulders where it feels soooo good!)

And remember, the trick with all bear poking, which I clearly have not mastered, is to not fancy yourself superior to the bear you’re poking! 

Wanna give it a go? Watch this video for five bear poking ideas (and a bonus) with varying degrees of difficulty and consequences!

Ramadan began yesterday and my friend, colleague and hero penned this from his city in Europe where he and his family live and reach out to Muslim immigrants:

“Last night I was meeting with my students from North Africa and was asking them what the best and worst part of their week was. All four of them said the best part was that Ramadan was starting today! Here’s a question to ponder for a moment: Why is it that Muslims love and look forward to the month-long period of fasting? 

It’s inspiring to me, particularly here: These kids, currently in high school, won’t be able to eat OR DRINK anything between 5am and 8pm (more or less). Many of their classmates think it’s weird and it’s hard to fast here when life continues and bakeries produce delicious smells all day long. Two of the students have extra strenuous activities at school today, including a hike up a nearby mountain. They’re dreading the inevitable feeling of thirst they’ll have, yet it’s the best part of their week. Wow.”

Today I sent a greeting [Feel free to borrow it above.] to my Muslim friends and included these precious words of Jesus from the book of Matthew, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.’

Would you ask God to use Ramadan around the world to draw Muslims to himself? If you are up for it, I’d strongly recommend the resources on this website. 

Also, please pray for us! [and other workers among Muslims] We will do some extra fasting during Ramadan and, Lord willing, also share some meals with Muslim families as they break fast in the evenings. These are wonderful opportunities to talk about spiritual things (and enjoy great food!).”

Check out the new Muslim Connect video. It’s a 2 1/2 minute answer to “what’s the deal with Ramadan?” I think it might be great to show this at your church this Sunday!

Is there anything you could do that would cause your family to say, “Yeah, don’t come back here anymore.” It would have to be pretty gruesome, wouldn’t it? Most of our families and friends are relatively tolerant of a wide range of divergent behavior. In anthropologist speak: We live in rather elastic networks. 

Many cultures though, have a long list of “kick out-able” offenses and the impact of an individual’s behavior on their family is much heavier. Group think tends to carry more weight than personal preference. 

When making decisions, members of such cultures must weigh the potential honor or shame their decision will bring on their family and community. 

If Khadijah pursues an engineering degree, will her mom and her mom’s friends be pleased? 

If Muhammad comes out to his family, will their desire to avoid shame result in his death?

If Yusuf and Fatima share about their new found devotion to Jesus, will their village listen or force them to move away?

Can you imagine setting the course for your week, or your life, based largely on what it will mean to your family? It’s challenging, isn’t it? But most of our Muslim friends factor that in. 

Thinking about how to reach out to people in honor-shame cultures, Jayson Georges, the founder of HonorShame.com says the best thing to do is, “Eat with them! When Jesus wanted to honor people he ate with them (Lk. 15:1). In honor-shame cultures, the people you eat with define both your community and identity. Table fellowship confers honor.”

Ramadan begins next Wednesday, March 22nd. While it is a month of fasting, it also involves a ton of eating. Look for an opportunity to step into the honor-shame world by sharing some food (after dark!) with a Muslim.

Please take a look at the new video that dropped yesterday on the Muslim Connect YouTube Channel: “Divorce, My Greatest Shame.” As the channel gains some traction, I’d appreciate you subscribing and helping get the word out that Jesus loves Muslims.

Do you wonder if Islamophobia might be in the same category of polarizing and perceived-to-be over-hyped terms like “systemic racism,” “social justice,” and “women’s rights?” One way to find out would be to try to listen to people who may have experienced it. Another would be to show up to your family Easter gathering wearing a BLM shirt and say, “I’m wearing this for Black Muslims.” (I’m not suggesting this, of course. Just dreaming a bit!)

What is Islamophobia? According to the Bridge Initiative, a multi-year research project on Islamophobia housed in Georgetown University, it is “an extreme fear of and hostility toward Islam and Muslims which often leads to hate speech, hate crimes, as well as social and political discrimination.” 

Read this poignant account from the Bridge associate director, Mobashra Tazamal, regarding an anti-Muslim speaker invited to Georgetown to get a feel for what it’s like on the receiving end. Take a dive into Tazamal’s Twitter feed for current examples of Islamophobia around the world. (On second thought, if you’re hoping for a fun weekend, skip her Twitter.)

The UN has declared March 15th (that’s next Wednesday) to be International Day To Combat Islamophobia. This falls on March 15Thanks to commemorate the Christchurch massacre of 2019 that killed 51 people.

What can we do to observe this event?

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any Islamophobia in our hearts and promptly repent of it. 
2. Watch the UN talk on Saturday, March 10th at 10am Eastern time.
3. Buy a Muslim a cup of coffee and a donut. Or simply reach out on Facebook and say hi. 

Muslim Connect exists to help me, you and others get past our Islamophobia and invite Muslims to consider the loving claims of Jesus. Thank you for reading and share this. 

Two special requests:

1. Please take a gander at a brand new website I’m helping some buds launch. It’s in beta now, so you get a chance to find typos and be among the first to try the cool stuff there. It’s all aimed toward getting the first workers among the remaining unengaged peoples. 
2. Please check out the latest video on the Muslim Connect YouTube channel. If you’re feeling tribal, go ahead and subscribe!