What’s Happening Around the Globe?

A Josh Bossé Update

This is Josh.

You probably know him. He’s one of the beloved co-hosts of the BEMA Podcast. We’ve talked about him a lot the last few years on the podcast because of his liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in 2022 and his subsequent recovery. We recently updated listeners who are caught up to real-time about his new battle with lymphoma.

It is with unbelievably heavy hearts we share that Josh passed away peacefully on Friday evening, November 28. He ushered in Sabbath with his final breaths and Sabbath ushered him home. For those who know and have heard Josh’s passion and love for the Sabbath, you will know how deeply moving this image is. When Sophia (Josh’s wife) shared this perspective, it gripped us.

We’re reminded of Josh’s words in Episode 405, that “once you fall in love with Shabbat, once you see what’s really there... you can find it wherever. You can find a way to get there. To connect with it. To practice it. The Spirit makes all kinds of ways.” What a comfort it is for all of us missing him here to know he has found the most beautiful connection with Shabbat—in the arms of Jesus.

We will miss Josh immensely; we already do. His words made a difference to many; his compassionate presence was even more powerful.

There are a few invitations we would like to extend to you as a part of the wider BEMA community:

First, you can read more about Josh’s journey and his most recent developments by visiting their CaringBridge site.

Next, if you would like to support Sophia and Ronen as they put the pieces of their lives back together, a GoFundMe campaign has been created that goes directly to them. (If you are a supporter of Josh through Impact, we are also looking to find legal and appropriate ways to set up a season of transition for their family financially.)

Finally, Impact Campus Ministries and the BEMA team want to invite you to join us in a season of mourning. Starting today, we will be “sitting shiva” for the next seven days. There will be no public facing communication from our organization after this email is sent. No newsletters, no answered emails, and no podcast episode released tomorrow morning. We are creating a space for grieving, mourning, and reflection—avoiding the urge to distract ourselves with productivity and fill the space with empty words that lack the gravity and honor of a life remembered.

After our time of shiva, we will extend a time of mourning for another 33 days. We will resume our communications and content releases, but our tone and our posture will be one of remembering and somber honoring of all that Josh meant to each of us. You may see staff write remembrance posts or share memories. We may not be “at the top of our game” around here, and we’re okay with that. We’re in mourning, and we’re giving each other lots of grace. It’s what Josh would celebrate anyway.

On Monday, January 12, we will leave our time of mourning as an organization. This does not mean we are done grieving. It doesn’t mean we have to “go back to normal.” The normal that used to contain Josh is no more. It simply means that we go back to our regularly scheduled efforts and build a life reflecting all that Josh left with us.

So, please join us as we remember Josh. Pray for our BEMA and Impact teams. Pray for Josh’s students. And please pray for Josh’s wife and young son, Sophia and Ronen.

The Future That Josh Was Building

Not only was Josh an integral part of the podcast, helping plan and build BEMA dreams for the future, he was building a flourishing ministry with online students in our virtual campus ministry. Josh had a way of approaching spiritual formation and engagement that he called OLAM. Olam is the Hebrew word for “eternity” or the Age to Come. Josh loved teaching students how to tap into God’s dream for the world, and he did so with such poetic passion, grace, and humility.

Josh loved his students and pastored them with great care. Even before his most recent battle with cancer, we were seeking an additional hire to help him grow this ministry. We’ve identified some candidates who can help keep this student ministry going and minister to those students well.

There are other places the team has identified needs, requiring new hires for different tasks and jobs. Both large and small, these dreams had Josh’s fingerprints and boisterous heart all over them. That being said, most of our ability to pursue any of these ideas will be in the way that we fund this year’s budget. Will we be playing catch up? Changing directions? Or will we have some extra headroom to dream about what lies ahead?

This is the season where you’ve probably seen mailers for year-end giving from everyone—including us. Many of the letters mailed, emails sent, and social media posts shared were scheduled well before the events of this past week. It feels insincere, or just unsettling, to make year-end appeals in the midst of our grief. We're doing our best to manage the balance of our work and our grief, and we want the work we are doing—the work we all, including Josh, love so deeply—to carry on.

So, before we pause our inboxes and shutter our social media accounts for the next week, this is a reminder that the gifts during this time of the year are what help us balance budgets and plan for the future. We’ve always been blessed—every single year—by the amazing generosity of you, our listeners.

Would you help us hit our fundraising goals for 2025 by making a year-end gift to the BEMA team? And if you already have, thank you. You make all the podcast episodes, meet-and-greets, study materials, Sabbath Reminders—and this space to sit shiva together, sharing memories, stories, and tears for our dear friend, Josh—possible.

GIVE TO THE BEMA TEAM

DATES OF INTEREST

Marty, Brent, or Brian may be coming to your neck of the woods. If more information is available, we will include some of that below. Full details on the BEMA website.

DECEMBER 1–13: Marty hunting in the Texas panhandle

DECEMBER 7: Marty preaching at Canadian Church of Christ (details)

DECEMBER 3–9: Sitting Shiva for Josh Bossé

DECEMBER 10: Begin 33 Days of Mourning

No Live Q&A in December

DECEMBER 19 – JANUARY 2: Solomons in Idaho and Montana for holidays (no public events)

JANUARY 7: Live Q&A at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET (details)

JANUARY 12: End of Organizational Time of Mourning

JANUARY 16–18: Marty speaking at FOCUS campus ministry event in Dallas

JANUARY 20–26: Brent in South Florida and Orlando

JANUARY 20: Meet-and-greet with Brent in Orlando (details TBD)

JANUARY 19–30: Marty at ICM’s annual All-Staff Conference in Orlando (no public events)

FEBRUARY: Live Q&A TBD

FEBRUARY 20–22: Marty at Indiana campus ministry retreat (no public events)

FEBRUARY 23–26: Marty with Act Five in Hamilton, Ontario (details TBD)

FEBRUARY 27 – MARCH 1: Marty in the Bay Area of CA for fundraising (no public events)

Updates and additional details will be posted as they arrive at bemadiscipleship.com/news.