Episode 16 of Reconnect featuredguest, Ken Chitwood, sharing an article he wrote entitled,“Building Bridges: Toward Constructing a ChristianFoundation for Inter-Religious Relationships in the Shift fromReligious Privilege to Spiritual Plurality”. Thekey points for inter-religious dialog that Ken suggests are: payattention, find, and form, friendships, listen and learn, dine,dialog, and do together, discern, and witness to the worldview.
While I agree with many of Ken’s points to approachinginter-religious dialog, I have a different application of the term“building bridges”. I explain this approach in an articlethat I wrote for Reformation 21: “Embracing Religious Contradictions to ProclaimChrist Crucified: Tolerance andCoexistence”. Looking at Acts 17, I see how Paul knew thebeliefs and culture of those he was sharing the Gospel ofJesus. He made the presentation of the Gospel from startingwithin their belief system with a point of contact that he coulduse to make a connection to the Biblical narrative ofsalvation. I was given the opportunity to share this approachto evangelism at Brookfield Lutheran Church in Brookfield,Wisconsin. This episode contains that sermonmessage.
Senior pastor at Brookfield Lutheran Church, Robert Mrosko, was a guest onReconnect Episode 39, discussingStar Wars.
The building bridges technique I am advocating for is alsoshared in Episode 34: “Storytelling Evangelism”.
