It's about dialogue

IT'S ABOUT DIALOGUE: Brian McLaren, leader in the evangelically oriented Emergent church movement, thinks that dialogue with people of other religions doesn't preclude witnessing to faith in Christ. In talking with a Muslim imam, McLaren learned that this man was part of a reform movement within Islam.

This gave McLaren an opening to talk about Jesus as a reformer within the Jewish community of his own time. McLaren got an appreciative letter from the imam, who said he had never really understood Christianity before their conversation. In another instance a woman visiting McLaren's church identified herself as a Buddhist. When McLaren asked her about how she had become a Buddhist, the woman admitted she doesn't really know that much about Buddhism and merely called herself that so Christians would leave her alone. The woman eventually became a Christian (interview in Criswell Theological Review, Spring).

COPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Century Foundation
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