News from Tom and Leslie Johnson

Special Request

We would like your help with an unusual need. Last year, before the virus interrupted international travel, I (Tom) visited a refugee center in another country to interview a family who had converted to Christianity from Islam. They were fleeing for their lives because of a realistic possibility they would be forced to return to their country of origin to be executed for apostacy. Since then, I have been looking for a place for them to go. It looks like a door has just opened for them in another country, where they could move legally and start back into the normal things Christian families like to do: jobs, home, church, school, friends, hobbies, etc.

We just started a budget for their transition. The current estimate is about $23,000 (USD). This is budget is not appropriate for Global Scholars, but the deacons of our church in North Carolina have offered to oversee donations.

Please pray for this family, and please consider making a donation to support their transition. We hope to send you info on how to make donations within several days.

New Books

Several nights ago, I was exhausted after a Zoom went late into the evening, but I was tremendously grateful to have heard in person, from a top Indonesian Muslim thinker, the painful process their team went through when they assessed the atrocities committed by ISIS against Christians in 2014. A technician had assembled 90 minutes of video filmed by ISIS while they were proudly committing crimes against humanity. All the Indonesian Muslims watching the film understood Arabic; and they were sickened by what had become of their religion. Some screamed aloud in anguish during the showing. It is these people about whom I wrote my recent book, Humanitarian Islam, Evangelical Christianity, and the Clash of Civilizations. (Click for a free download.)

As soon as this book was released online, I sent a PDF of the book, which includes long explanations of important themes in Protestant theology and ethics, to our Muslim counterparts. Some of them read it almost immediately; within a few days after publication, they thanked me for describing them and their views accurately. They are accustomed to inaccurate or even slanderous descriptions of Islam coming from Christians.

With my permission they placed my book on their website, along with a very nice communique. They wrote, “The world’s largest Protestant organization has endorsed the Humanitarian Islam movement as an essential vehicle for peacefully and definitively resolving ‘the Muslim-Christian clash of civilizations, which started almost 1,500 years ago. ‘On the day that Pope Francis commenced an historic papal visit to Iraq — which included a meeting with the world’s preeminent Shi‘ite spiritual leader and a tour of Mosul, until recently a stronghold of the defeated ISIS caliphate — the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Theological Commission published Humanitarian Islam, Evangelical Christianity, and the Clash of Civilizations.” Until very recently I could not have imagined that the world’s largest Muslim organization would promote a book by a Protestant theologian. PTL!

In February 1994, Leslie and I, with our three children, moved to the former Soviet Union, where I was beginning work as a visiting professor of philosophy at a dissident university. Soon I was lecturing on human rights in my classes, as well as for conferences of professors. This forced me to dive more deeply into our theological and philosophical foundations. This deep dive led to a number of books, and recently my third book on the topic of human rights theory was published. For the cover, Leslie suggested a picture of the people standing on the Berlin Wall at the end of communism. I was very pleased that a Muslim scholar wrote a foreword, and a Czech Protestant theologian wrote an appendix about my theory of human rights. The Theological Commission of the WEA has made this book available as a free download on our websites, available here.

My work representing the WEA in religious freedom efforts of the US State Department is continuing. I do not know if the change at the White House will have a large influence. This means that I am participating in Zoom meetings with religious leaders and diplomats from several countries. Sometimes I can give a speech. Two such speeches are available online: Understanding Religious Persecution and Religious Communities as Good Neighbors.

Leslie’s Update

February and March have been busy months and the rest of the Spring looks to be full.

ACSI
In early March, I was a part of the ACSI Europe team that helped put on a virtual conference in partnership with ECCEN (European Conference for Christian Education in the Netherlands). The bi-annual conference is called the International Educational Leadership Conference and seeks to support and strengthen Christian school leaders. There were 272 people from 46 different countries who joined us in the conference. The Lord be praised!

Now our ACSI Europe colleagues will start looking forward to the Student Leadership Conference held in September each year. We are praying it can be face-to-face this year. Last year’s was online. Europe is currently quite locked down, so we just do not know at this point.
In April, I will be leading an accreditation team for a “virtual” accreditation “visit” of a Christian international school. It is a lot of work for the school and the team, but it strengthens the school and the visiting team members learn a lot. Pray I have wisdom as I help the team and school navigate through a virtual visit.

After that accreditation, I will return to my series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.” I have been asked to develop an online version of it for ACSI’s Pre-Field Orientation (PFO) that is entirely online now. Pray for me to have wisdom to make this helpful for teachers so that children grow in their cultural sensitivity.

ICCM Cohort
I am still learning and growing through a cohort connected with the Institute of Cross-Cultural Mission (ICCM). Even as I write this, I am involved in a “virtual” retreat. It has been a great experience studying and growing in three pillar areas: theology of unity and diversity, intercultural competence, and leadership competence. Pray for me to manage time well so I can continue to delve into books and webinars about these topics.

Praises

We thank the Lord for:

• Tom’s opportunity to coordinate a team of Evangelicals and Indonesian Muslims.
• Opportunities for Tom to advise the State Department.
• Leslie’s opportunity to continue working with her ACSI EU and Global colleagues to strengthen Christian teachers, administrators, and schools.
• Leslie’s opportunity to study theology and intercultural competence to contextualize her training and experience to the US setting.
• Students being taught and discipled in Christian schools around the world, even when school has been online.
• Tom and Leslie have both received both Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations, as have Aimee and her husband (with whom we live).

Prayers

Please join us in praying for:

• For the Lord’s purposes for COVID-19 to be accomplished around the world and that he would end it. Soon. Lord willing, by the end of 2021.
• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world and safe places for them to go.
• Our work from home to be encouraging and helpful locally and from afar.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. They are working on a jointly authored book.
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• Tom as he considers which books to write next.
• Wisdom for Leslie as she develops her series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.”
• ACSI Europe and ACSI Global to have an impact through conferences for administrators, teachers, and students around the world whose education has suffered because of COVID-19 and virtual learning.
• For Christians around the world to be strengthened to serve God and others in their communities, whether those “others” are different in beliefs, color of skin, nationalities, etc.
• Specifically, for Spring 2021: The refugee family in our lives will need tremendous courage to face huge challenges. They report feeling overwhelmed with discouragement.

Thank you for your faithful prayer for us as well as your financial gifts that allow us to do the work He has called us to.

2020 in Review, Tom

My year began, effectively on Jan 13, with a trip to Rome for meetings organized by the US State Department at the Vatican about religious persecution. There were six Muslim, six Jewish, and six Christian representatives, along with diplomats and State Dept staff. Among the Christians there were two Catholics, two Orthodox, and two Protestants (including me for the World Evangelical Alliance). One of the evenings we met with the Pope for informal discussion.

While in Rome, I also met with my official counterpart at the Vatican and had long discussions with two of the Muslim leaders who strongly support religious freedom for all. This led to many online meetings throughout 2020 with religious and governmental leaders, while spending the rest of my time researching and writing on themes surrounding religious freedom and human rights. Prior to this past year I had friendly contact with the State Department office of religious freedom, but by midyear they were calling me a couple times per week with questions, since they do not have their own religious scholars.

The group that met in Rome

In mid-2020 I published a research article on an important type of Islam, what is now called “Humanitarian Islam,” in the Evangelical Review of Theology. This included a

comparison and contrast with normal Protestant views on many topics, which led to a substantial change in my relationship with the leaders of this Muslim movement. They wrote to thank me for the article and then, with our permission, they republished my article three or four times in Muslim publications. Imagine that! Muslims republishing what I wrote about Christianity! It felt like they began to trust me; I think I had earned their trust by investing a lot of study into honestly understanding their views. There is now a book length version of this study in press, and I am leading the WEA team of a religious freedom joint working group we have formed with this group of Muslims. We have held numerous meetings and have plans developing.

Just a couple days ago I received the proof of my next book on human rights, and a Muslim scholar from this group wrote a nice foreword to the book. Until recently I would not have imagined that a Muslim theologian would participate in publishing a Christian book on human rights.

My aid to the US State Dept has developed into distinct programs, leading to different online conferences about religious freedom in which they have asked me to speak. In December I gave a speech for about 20 diplomats (mostly American) and 50 religious leaders from all sorts of religions from around the world. In January 2021, a year after the Rome meetings, I was one of four speakers (with a Muslim, a Jew, and a Buddhist) for a conference of diplomats from about 25 countries. In every speech I must earn the right to be heard by means of telling them something relevant they have not heard before, so that I can weave part of the biblical message into the speech as an organic part. While consulting on religious freedom, I cannot stop being a minister of God’s Word.

The group in Rome with Pope Francis

2020 in Review, Leslie

Because of COVID-19, I had assumed the year would go more slowly, that I would be bored, that maybe, just maybe, I would get caught up on some things. Did that happen? Nope. 2020 went by in a blur in spite of COVID-19.  How did that happen? Well, the Lord brought my way a lot of good things to do:

January and February, pre-COVID, I was preparing workshops for schools and two conferences for which I was speaking in March/early April.

Though I was able to talk to the students at a Christian school in Rotterdam as planned, all of my other engagements and school visits were cancelled by the end of the second week of March. By that time, countries all over Europe were closing their borders and we were concerned we would get stuck in Europe. So we prayed and worked and managed to get out of the Czech Republic just in time before their borders closed.

Once we were back on US soil, we chose to self-isolate for two weeks before going home to our daughter, who was expecting, and our grandson. Our son-in-law was deployed at the time. Those two weeks were a bit of a respite and rest, for which I am thankful.

In April, we were looking forward to the birth of the newest grandchild and trying to settle back into routine. For me, the question now hung over my head – now what?

May and June were busy with a newborn in the house. How can one have routine then?!? And of course, for Americans, the end of May showed us the dark side of our US culture with the death of George Floyd and the protests and violence that followed. As things heated up about that, I started praying more earnestly: Lord, show me how I can contextualize all my work in cultural intelligence to the US cultural tensions. How can I help?

By praying and reading and watching webinars about race and education and others, I sensed the Lord leading me to apply for a three-year cohort program that focuses on unity and diversity, intercultural competence, and leadership competence. In August, I was accepted into that program and have been full-on busy ever since. I am reading, watching webinars, and working on developing a practicum.

And all that on top of my ACSI Europe meetings with colleagues there that continue once or twice a week, being involved in planning and participating in ACSI EU Student Leadership Conference in September, and ACSI Accreditation. Oh, and babysitting two days a week for my daughter. So nope, not bored.

However, I am humbled and thankful for the Lord’s gift of health and energy, as well as the opportunity to serve in Christian education and learn through the cohort.

Would you like to ZOOM with us?

Until travel can happen again, we are available to meet with missions committees and/or Sunday school classes or even church services using Zoom or other platforms. We are also each available for speaking engagements via webinars. Do you need a speaker for an event, church retreat, or mission conference Feel free to invite Tom and/or Leslie to come to your organization. Contact Leslie at prgjohnson@gmail.com to organize engagement for either of us.

2020 Publications and Websites

Tom’s website

https://thomaskjohnson.academia.edu/

Leslie’s website

www.lesliepjohnson.com

After 43 years as a print journal, the Evangelical Review of Theology is online. It is one of the major publications of the WEA for which Tom has been both writing and helping with planning for many years. We now have a subscription form for the online publications of the World Evangelical Alliance. This includes both Theological News and the Evangelical Review of Theology for which Tom is on the editorial team.

Praises as we look back at 2020:

We thank the Lord for:

• Overall, continued good health for both of us.
• We are particularly thankful that the Lord moved us to the US to be with family before COVID-19 hit. There is something special and worth thanking the Lord for, to be with family.

• Tom’s opportunity to participate in high level discussions about religious freedom at the Vatican in January.

• Leslie’s opportunity to speak to students in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in March.
• Safe return from Europe back in March, as well as no contact with the COVID-19 virus in our travels.
• The project Komenksy 2020, celebrating the Christian life and teaching of Jan Amos Komenksy (Comenius), was launched in public schools, libraries, and churches across the Czech Republic in 2020, 350 years after his death.
• Tom’s opportunity to write about Muslims who support freedom of religion.
• Tom’s opportunity to coordinate a team of Evangelicals and Indonesian Muslims.
• Opportunities for Tom to advise the State Department.
• Leslie’s opportunity to study theology and intercultural competence to contextualize her training and experience to the US setting.
• Students being taught and discipled in Christian schools around the world, even when school has been online.

Prayers for 2021:  Please join us in praying for:

• For the Lord’s purposes for COVID-19 to be accomplished around the world and that he would end it. Soon. Lord willing, by the end of 2021.

• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world and safe places for them to go.
• Our work from home to be encouraging and helpful locally and from afar.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. What are the next steps? He is reading constantly.
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• Tom as he considers which books to write next.
• Wisdom for Leslie as she develops her series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.”
• ACSI Europe and ACSI Global to have an impact through conferences for administrators, teachers, and students around the world whose education has suffered because of COVID-19 and virtual learning.
• For Christians around the world to be strengthened to serve God and others in their communities, whether those “others” are different in beliefs, color of skin, nationalities, etc.

Praises:
Join us in thanking the Lord for:

• Overall, continued good health for both of us.
• Leslie’s opportunity to speak to students in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
• Safe return from Europe back in March, as well as no contact with the COVID-19 virus in our travels.
• Tom’s opportunity to write a report on Jakarta.

Prayers:

Please join us in praying for:

• Our work from home to be encouraging and helpful from afar.
• Leslie to make time to read the books which are important for her work.
• For her work to develop the lesson plans for cultural intelligence that would be helpful examples for teachers.
• The Lord to bless the ACSI Europe project Leslie is helping with.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. What are the next steps? He is reading constantly about these questions.
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• The project Komensky 2020, celebrating the Christian life and teaching of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), has launched in public schools, libraries, and churches across the Czech Republic. This has been challenging to keep going with the closing of schools in the Czech Republic. Pray for wisdom and opportunity for teachers to access and use this project in their classrooms.
• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world.

Global Scholars:
PO Box 12147
Overland Park KS 66282-2147

*****Here’s our February/March newsletter. By the time this went out today, we learned the week ahead will be a bit more chaotic for Leslie than planned. She is flying to Amsterdam tonight and the conference she was to attend has been cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns. Pray for wisdom for her and her colleagues on how to use that time well.*****

Thank you!!

 First of all, THANK YOU!! Because of your generous donations in December, we ended the calendar year in the black. We are humbled by and grateful for your kindness, love, and support. We are facing some costs for our March and April travel.

After having the family come for Christmas, we have had a quiet schedule, giving us time to write and prepare for our upcoming trip.

We head to Europe next week. Leslie will go first, landing in the Netherlands to speak to some 12-14 year-olds at a Christian school. After an educational conference, she will head to Prague and meet Tom there. We both have plenty of ministry and work ahead.

Leslie will visit several Czech national Christian schools and speak later in the month at a Christian teachers conference about school improvement. Then she will fly to Rwanda to lead a pre-conference workshop on teaching with cultural intelligence.

Tom will have meetings in Prague with people connected to the Comenius Institute and in Bonn with the board and faculty of Martin Bucer Seminary. Right now, it is on his agenda to go to Ukraine. However, something came up just at this writing which might send him a different direction.

It feels a bit precarious to travel to Europe and Africa during this time of fear about COVID-19. Leslie is a little worried that we would get stuck in Europe. That wouldn’t be so bad except that Aimee is expecting in early May. We would hate not to be in North Carolina to be helpful. So we would like your prayers. Through out all of our travels, we’d appreciate prayers for:

• Safety and health (especially with the COVID-19 stuff going on);
• Encouragement to those we are working with;
• And wisdom in our speaking engagements, that we speak the Lord’s words, not ours.

Thank you for the prayer and financial support that make our work possible.

My Unexpected Trip in January – Tom

I represented the World Evangelical Alliance at meetings of 25 Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders January 14 to 16, 2020, addressing the issues of religiously motivated conflict and persecution. The meetings were called by the U. S. State Department and the Vatican.

Sam Brownback, U. S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom (in an interview with Religious News Service, Jan. 16) said, “I think the world is crying for this movement,” adding that even though the world might not want to talk about religion, the matter cannot be ignored. “If we’d involved the religious actors 30 years ago in the Middle East peace negotiations and discussions, saying ‘OK, this is what we are thinking about, what do you think? Help us build the peace,’ we might be somewhere today,” he said. “We still don’t have peace in the Middle East and the prospects don’t look particularly good.”

The meeting and following efforts envision multi-faith interventions wherever religions are contributing to hostility and violence, rather than contributing to the well-being of peoples and communities. In particular, the religions represented committed themselves in a brief statement:

• “To focus such efforts towards those wracked by conflicts and carnage, where possible, by sending teams to one or two areas not yet served by multi-faith efforts to help spur and guide towards peace.
• “To advocate before our political and civic leaders to use these values of religious freedom, civic equality, and societal change of differences as a foundation of laws, policies, and civic norms.”

I participated in two roles. As the WEA Envoy to the Vatican I attend some meetings in Rome; as WEA representative to engage Humanitarian Islam I am to see if there are ways that Christians and this large group of Muslims can cooperate on religious freedom. While talking on the phone with a senior figure from these Muslims a few days before going to Rome, we discovered that we agreed that “religious freedom” is often undefined. We worked together to use the excellent United Nations definition of religious freedom in these meetings.
There are not many Protestants who attend meetings such as this. I was very happy I could tell senior Muslim leaders, some from countries where Christians are persecuted, that our hundreds of millions of Evangelicals are in communication and have international representatives. This may lead to more respect for some less-visible churches.

While in Rome I also met with the Vatican bureau chief for Evangelical relations. Once again, we discussed, given our limited manpower, what we can do together that will truly be beneficial for Christians on both sides. We raised some options that are now being discussed.

Click HERE for the link to get to Tom’s academic website.

Thank you so much!

We appreciate you all and are thankful for the Lord’s work through you!

Praises:

Join us in thanking the Lord for:

• Tom’s health continuing to improve. All his blood work recently shows good progress. And his hip is not in such pain.
• A good trip for meetings in Rome in January.
• A good time with our children and grandchildren over Christmas.
• Tom’s opportunity to write a report on Jakarta.

Prayers:

Please join us in praying for:

• Our upcoming travels:
  • Tom – to Europe, including Czechia, Germany, and Ukraine.
  • Leslie – to Europe and Africa, including Netherlands, Czechia, and Rwanda.
• Good health while traveling, including no exposure to COVID-19.
• No cancelled flights due to COVID-19.
• Our different meetings and talks to be an encouragement to those we are working with.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. What are the next steps?
• Wise next steps for WEA=Vatican relations.
• The project Komensky 2020, celebrating the Christian life and teaching of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), has launched in public schools, libraries, and churches across the Czech Republic. Our project leader, Doc Dr. Jan Habl, received a presidential medal from his university for this effort. Here is a Czech website with pictures of teachers participating: http://www.najdilektora.cz/vyhledavani/#/search
• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world.

Thank you for your faithful prayer for us as well as your financial gifts that allow us to do the work He has called us to.

Global Scholars:
PO Box 12147
Overland Park KS 66282-2147
Phone: 913-962-4422

Tom’s Report on the Indonesia Trip
I spent November 6 to 14 in Indonesia for the General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance as one of 800 delegates representing 650 million Christians whose churches belong to the WEA.  A few thousand people from the local churches joined us for the opening ceremony. In addition to speaking at a workshop, I had numerous meetings with individuals and time with the staff of our department whom I do not see very often. My academic assistant, Kyle Wisdom, was a tremendous help.

What to do in response to persecution and opposition was a theme in many meetings; next steps are being planned.  I am especially grateful for the time I had with the Vatican bureau chief for evangelical relations who attended as an official observer. He and I began to identify topics to discuss when I next visit their offices in Rome. My speech should be published soon by the WEA Theological Commission in the Evangelical Review of Theology. A preliminary version is available here

While in Indonesia I also coordinated a team of Christian scholars who met with a team from the Humanitarian Islam movement, which has its offices in Jakarta. This is the world’s largest Muslim organization, representing some 90 million people. We had a very friendly meeting, lasting a good part of a day. An Indonesian cabinet minister who is a Christian joined us for dinner. There should be more to report on this relationship. I am preparing a study on the distinctives of this type of Islam.

I was exhausted when I got home, but I am thankful to you and to God for these opportunities. Such work would not be possible without a faithful group of people praying, encouraging, and giving. Now I am considering how to follow up on these meetings. Pray for God’s wisdom.
Thank you for the prayer and financial support that make our work possible.

  Tom prior to speaking…

Delegates to the WEA Assembly

Leslie’s December Notes

Financial Update
Thank you for the encouraging donations in the last few weeks! We are optimistic about getting caught up by the end of the year. It is on our hearts to continue our efforts for several years. To do that we continue to need a loyal and generous team behind us.

Tom’s health
Tom survived Indonesia and the change of food. However, he did need to start taking meds while there to calm his system. We are thanking the Lord for the effectiveness of the meds and his relatively good journey.

Next….
I am working on developing a fourth workshop for my “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence” series. Please join me in praying for wisdom in the content. I would like to help teachers work with different cultures in their classrooms well.

Thank you for your continued support in prayer and with finances! We cannot do what the Lord has called us to do without your help.

Materials To Download

The Department for Theological Concerns of the World Evangelical Alliance has released the 10th edition of our resource CD online. It contains both major WEA book series (Global Issues and World of Theology), our International Journal for Religious Freedom, back issues of the Evangelical Review of Theology, our Journal of Islam and Christianity, along with hundreds of other books in English, French, Spanish and several languages, all of which we recommend, all as free downloads. I have participated in this project for about 15 years. For our library click here (overview) or here.

My book Christian Ethics in Secular Cultures was just published in Albanian, available for free here.

Two recent books I revised and edited in English for German friends, as free downloads:

1. Modern Fathers: Neither Wimps nor Tyrants.
2. Corruption: When Self-Interest Comes before the Common Good.

Click HERE for the link to get to Tom’s academic website.

Click HERE for the link to get to Leslie’s website and blog.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Psalm 23:1-3

Praises:
Join us in thanking the Lord for:

• Tom’s safe trip to and from Indonesia.
• Leslie’s safe trip to and from Panama.
• Tom’s opportunity to meet with different people while in Jakarta.
• Tom’s good meetings with the Humanitarian Muslims.
• Good health for Tom throughout this important trip, especially that his food allergies were managed in all the different times of meals.

Prayers:

Please join us in praying for:

• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. What are the next steps?
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• The project Komensky 2020, celebrating the Christian life and teaching of Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), has launched in public schools, libraries, and churches across the Czech Republic. Our project leader, Doc Dr. Jan Habl, received a presidential medal from his university for this effort. Here is a Czech website with pictures of teachers participating: http://www.najdilektora.cz/vyhledavani/#/search
• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world.