Category Archives: Uncategorized

In the annals of famous last words, few are as pervasive, inclusive and pumped full of promise as the mandate Jesus gives his disciples (including you and me!) in Acts 1.8, “. . .you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

It’s both a charge and a promise, a nudge and an assurance. Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus followers from all over will take the good news everywhere to everyone.

It’s an echo of the covenant God cut with Abraham so long ago, “I will bless you. . .and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Has the promise been kept? Yes, in many places, in many ways for many peoples. But also no. It has yet to become reality for others.

Good friends of mine are investing prayer, money, and copious cogitation in the development of a list of Muslim peoples who’ve yet to experience that witness for the first time or who are currently without it.

Their term is unengaged. The technical definition is something like, “no one is on the ground, speaking the local language, working toward reproducing discipleship movements.”

As the list nears completion, they estimate around 500 Muslim people groups fit that definition. 500 groups, ranging from thousands to tens of millions in size, among whom no witnesses have yet to begin the work.

Babies are born and grandmas die. Pandemics are fought and wars are lost. Tears are shed and laughter shared. All without the first witness to the cosmos-shifting good news that God came, lived, died and rose again.

500 of these groups. What are we going to do? What does God want us to do? What about me? What about you?

Maybe like me, you love to befriend Muslims, but struggle to talk about deep stuff.

How do you turn a conversation toward spiritual things?

Often when I think about this question I’m faced with the awkward realization that I’m not as spiritual as I wish I were. Which is quickly followed by, “What the heck am I doing even talking about stuff like this?!?” But I want to grow and maybe you do too. And one of the pleasant side effects of reaching out to others is growing spiritually yourself.

Here are three ways to turn the corner.

1. My Facebook friend Ginny is a treasure who talks to tons of Muslims. She says, “Let’s become ‘conversationally fluent’ with the Bible, knowing how to speak it into ordinary conversations, without long explanation or embarrassment.”

A specific way to do this is to springboard from topic of conversation to something Jesus said. “That reminds me of a story Jesus told.” Then tell it!

2. Ginny also says we can turn the corner by, “sharing what God has done and is doing in our life! We can know these things, but if we don’t feel confident sharing them, we’ll stay silent. It’s critical for believers to develop this fluency with each other, to normalize it in conversation with other believers. We embrace a cultural belief that it’s invasive, rude, or inappropriate to talk about Christ. We think there’s some sort of complex dance leading to a conversation about Jesus. But that’s not true about our own culture nor most Muslim ones.”

Particularly share how God relates to your pain. Everyone hurts. “I’m struggling with this, but God is helping me.” Or maybe I believe or am trying to hope God will help me.

3. Finally, ask how you can pray for your friend. Then do it. Hand on shoulder right here and now or awkwardly typed out prayers if you’re connecting online! This might deepen things in a hurry!

Do you have other, perhaps better, conversation shifters? Share them here.

We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known. . .       – Brené Brown

Last week I asked you to choose which type of Muslim Connector you were. Of those who responded, almost 70% chose “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” the option for people who prefer to engage Muslims through building friendships. (If the options in your email were not selectable I apologize. MailChimp.com had some indigestion.)

To start developing skill and confidence in building friendships with Muslims, here are the four super basic steps we need to take and the mistake to avoid. If these feel like kindergarten to you, please pass them on to friends who might be new to all this “Muslim stuff!”

1. Go where you’re more likely to find Muslims. Not so good: Bars, church, Trump rallies or in these crazy COVID days, anywhere in public! Better odds: Pakistan, Louisville, ethnic groceries/apartment complexes/neighborhoods, and in these crazy COVID days, online.

2. Ask good questions. Cultivate curiosity. Risk bugging a few, while blessing most.

3. Share food. Whether you bake, broil or fry in oil, many Muslim cultures are deeply wired to accept, then return, food-borne hospitality.

4. Share your life. Involve Muslim friends in both normal and exceptional events. Share yourself at the level of depth you’d like the relationship to go to. I’m terrible at this. I want so much to look like I’ve got it together, but this is the path to connection. (Tweet this.)

Avoid this mistake: Don’t put off talking about God. Don’t wait to speak about, and to, Jesus with your new Muslim friend.

What basic steps would you add to this list? Please comment here.

Next week we’ll look at turning the corner to spiritual conversations. 

I hope you have absolutely killed this week! I have absolutely just barely made it alive to almost the end of the week! School’s begun here in our little part of the world and that means I’m riding herd over three kiddos doing a variety of in-person, hybrid and full-time virtual school.

This yields two results: I’m hitting my daily step goal walking back and forth between the two kids and their gremlin-infested computers and two, I’m struggling to string together two consecutive thoughts.

Arguably, I’ve never been that skilled at stringing together thoughts, but it’s even tougher these days. As a result, you get the rapid fire bonus round of Muslim Connect today.

Four super quick ideas

David Wood
If you like poking the bear, David Wood might be your guy. He’s crazy smart and pleasingly snarky! His “Five Reasons Christians Should Learn about Islam” video is a great start. His YouTube channel has both brief and long form videos. What sometimes seems to me like lack of respect and honor for Muslims also reminds me that God feels free to use all kinds of people to get his work done.

Pray for Muslim Teachers
Faithful Muslim Connect reader Mert encourages us to pray for Muslim school teachers. He interacted with one yesterday who was praying not to lose her sanity. While we’re at it, let’s spread that prayer net out to include all teachers.

Joke of the Day
Why do Muslims like Covid? Because they’re not getting blamed for it! Yes ISIS desperately tries to validate itself by stepping up attacks and encouraging children (!) to spread the disease to non-believers, but most normal Muslims must be happy that the damage of the virus is not getting pinned on them.

Thank You Video
The annual Muslim Connect summer fund raiser was designated to help me purchase equipment for effective videos. Watch this video that’s both a thank you and a tribute to the success of the campaign.

You’ve probably heard the basics: Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine and he was 53. No way around it, that behavior is gut-wrenchingly wrong. Any place, any time in history: Sex with a pre-pubescent girl is wrong.

If you agree with the age numbers, I assume you agree with the judgment.

Here’s the question: If the prophet of Islam did something as horrendous as that and the 1.8 billion followers of Islam don’t excoriate him, are they not likewise guilty?

And following: If they are guilty of pedophilia, should non-Muslims take against them whatever action is necessary to either change their minds or remove them from society?

Or, is the equation not as black and white as we’d like? Is there nuance?

Turns out not all Muslims agree on Aisha’s age. One Muslim scholar friend responded to my inquiry, saying, “She was 19. I thought this issue was settled by now.” (Honestly, I haven’t been able to discover what percentage of Muslims agree with that and a Christian friend warned me about spreading Islamic propaganda by sharing that idea.)

The complement of Muslims who do agree with the traditional age markers of six and nine must either think pedophilia is ok, have reasoned out a way to deal with it or just ignore the issue. (They wouldn’t be the first religious people to do something like that!)

What about you and me? Would we be more relieved or grumpy should sound research and consensus take the “Scarlet P” off Muhammad’s robe?

If you agree most Muslims today are not “pro-pedo,” (as I suspect you do) what do you say to Christian friends who disagree?

How do our hearts and minds on this issue contribute to the growth of God’s kingdom among Muslims?

Expect re-wording and retracting next week! I’m less expert and more fraidy-cat in this discussion, but my soul resonates with my former organization’s motto: With love and respect inviting all Muslims to follow Jesus.

Please see the special note below. 

I have suffered loss in life. You have too. We all have. My pain may pale in comparison to what you’ve endured.

Is there any acute agony as severe as losing a child? Is there chronic pain that compares to fear of loss and loss of hope?

I wonder how much of each of these Abraham and Sarah felt as dad and son, but no animal for sacrifice, set off into the wilderness.

Somehow they held on. Abraham became the father of all who believe what God says. Sarah became the poster child for people who are honest with God, even when it means laughing at how crazy something seems, yet still get his promised gift.

As you read this, Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid Al Adha, a feast commemorating Abraham’s obedience to offer his son and God’s provision of the ram. This Eid lasts through the weekend and includes special prayers for forgiveness, family visits and feasting.

Under COVID constrictions many Muslims will celebrate at home. I assume if you don’t have to make small talk with scary Aunt Fatima, you might have more time to think; to wonder at the current challenges facing the planet; to seek deeper meaning in your life and faith.

Viktor E. Frankl, doctor, Holocaust survivor and author observed, “In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it.”

Would you join me in two things this Eid? 

1. Ask God to give Muslims searching hearts. Pray that many would take the unusual time afforded by this strange Eid to think, pray, wonder and seek.

2. The graphic at the top of this email is designed to be copied and pasted onto your Facebook page. You are welcome to join me in doing so. Right-click (Or Control-click if you’re in the tribe!), then paste as your status. I had to put a couple spaces in before pasting for it to work!

This is the last week I’ll ask you to consider donating to keep Muslim Connect flowing and growing. Thank you to those who’ve done so. If you’d still love to give, I’d be terribly grateful. Do so here. If you’d like to, but COVID’s all over your funds, I get that. Maybe you could simply forward this email to a friend and recommend they sign up. That would be helpful as well. Thank you. 

Please see the special note below from a Muslim Connect reader. 

Major League Baseball starts tonight (July 23rd) in the U.S. and to be honest I’m a little excited about it. My anticipation is tempered though by empathy for the many who have lost their income as baseball hasn’t been played and will continue to lose it to fan-less stadiums.

A similar dynamic is unfolding with Saudi Arabia’s announcement that this year’s Hajj (the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) will be limited to 1000 people. For comparison’s sake, 2.5 million showed up last year.

My heart goes out to travel operators around the Muslim world whose businesses have collapsed, to the barbers in Mecca who won’t get paid to help pilgrims with the required head shave, and to the dads and husbands who planned to get ahead just a little bit this summer but now are in debt to boxes full of souvenirs, trinkets and gum nobody’s going to buy.

The gut-punch is not just financial, but spiritual as well. If your religion asks you to do something just once in your life, something which promises to result in all your sins forgiven, you do your best to make it happen. It takes savings, planning, banking vacation days, likely a little bit of conniving and cashing in favors. You’re all prepped and pumped up when the whole thing goes up in smoke. Devastating.

I believe this about God: He doesn’t want bad news, loss and pain for Muslims.

I know this about God: He has stunning capacity to bring good out of bad, beauty out of loss.

With that in mind, please pray with me for God’s redemption, in every good way, of the loss so many Muslims are experiencing right now. Email me for a brief, insightful guide to praying through the Hajj (July 29-31).

Tom L, a loyal reader from Indiana shares his thoughts about donating to help Muslim Connect to impact more people with hope and practical tools to engage Muslims:

Hey Muslim Connect readers. I’m one of you. I look forward to seeing Shane’s name in my email box every week. His words always encourage, often humor and regularly challenge me to love Muslims like Jesus does. Because I value Muslim Connect, I gave to support it. Maybe you could give as well.  –Tom