News & Reporting

* Tuesday, April 21.

Wow. Across three days and meeting in total for 25 hours with seven meals, about 65 Muslim and Evangelical leaders met in Pasadena, Calif., to discuss a wide range of topics.

Don Wagner, a leader in this initiative and a professor at North Park University, at the end exclaimed, "The Holy Spirit has been present with us!." True confessions, he's right. Yes, Islam teaches about the Holy Spirit, not as a person, but as God's active force. (Yeah, we disagree on that one too.)

In summary, here are my three take-aways from this event:

– The person of Jesus and our relationship with him must be central to discussions between Muslims and evangelicals.

– Evangelical advocacy for religious freedom worldwide is best positioned when it is clearly linked to the benefit of religious freedom for all faiths, not just for Christians.

– Religious labeling of all kinds is hazardous to our spiritual health.

* Friday, April 17, 10 pm, update

About 60 Muslim and Evangelical leaders and seminary students met for 12 hours of meetings, meals, and discussion on the Fuller Seminary campus today. (The session resumes tomorrow morning. See below for additional details.)

My head is spinning from the quality of the presentations and the passionate exchanges. So far, this has been a richly rewarding event.

Here are some of my initial impressions after interacting with these scholars, authors, editors, professors, students, and ministry leaders:

1. Muslims and Evangelicals who are committed to the work of dialogue spend a lot of time explaining to each other why extremists do what they do in the name of their own faith.

2. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have been, are now, and will be in a deep encounter for generations to come. While there was little discussion of Jews and Judaism, the reality of this encounter was for me inescapable. Dialogue that does not lead to tri-a-logue will not survive the test of time.

3. Muslims and Evangelicals once and for all must settle, resolve, mutually understand, ...

You have reached the end of this Article Preview

To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access.

Log InSubscribe

Already a CT subscriber? Log in for full digital access.