UnCrummy (Jan 19)

World Watch List

Open Doors USA released its annual list of 50 countries where it is most difficult to follow Jesus. (These are countries where Christians experience high levels of persecution because of their faith.) New to the top ten this year is Nigeria. This year's list hit me harder than normal because there are a number of people who subscribe to my site who live in Nigeria. So to anyone who is facing persecution because of your faith in Christ: I'm praying for you and thinking about you often. To everyone else: I encourage you to join me in praying regularly for these persecuted Christians around the world. 🌍

Someone to listen to: Josh Garrels

Josh Garrels has long been a favorite artist of mine. His latest single, 'His Wings', feels like a bit of a musical departure for him and I'm always excited to hear artists I love flex their musical muscles in different ways. This single is definitely the same rootsy Garrels, but with a flare of (dare I say) bluegrass funk! Garrels has a huge catalog of music, so if you aren't familiar with him, go do some deep dives on one of his many albums. 🕊

Scattergories List Generator

Need a quick Zoom-friendly game to play with friends or family? Check out this free browser-based Scattergories emulator. 📝

Evangelical Convening on Immigration

Over the next few months, there will be a lot of talk about immigration in the U.S. The Biden administration is prioritizing immigration legislation which could lead to comprehensive immigration reform with some key bipartisan support. As someone who is involved in behind-the-scenes immigrant advocacy, I'd encourage you to join me in checking out the Evangelical Immigration Table's virtual conversations this month online. (If you can't view a live event, they have been posting recordings to the event page after the fact.) Christians in the United States largely have a very underdeveloped theology of migration and uninformed views of the topic of immigration. Help yourself and others by increasing your understanding with these upcoming conversations! 🏛

Someone to follow: Matthew Soerens

Matthew Soerens is the US Director of Church Mobilization at World Relief. He is also in leadership with the Evangelical Immigration Table and has co-authored helpful books on immigration. Matthew is someone I have personally coordinated with on immigration issues in Iowa and I have found him to be a wealth of knowledge and a compassionate voice on contentious topics. Below is a portion of a tweet thread from Matthew this past week. 👏