It’s not often that I’ll mention what’s happening or happened at my church, but this post is dedicated to an interesting event we held three weeks ago.  We hosted Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core.  He came, along with a few of his staff, one of whom is a member of our church, and we were very glad to have them.

The event launched what our staff expects to be a long-term multi-faith dialogue.  We expect the conversation that Pastor Hong and Dr. Patel started then will eventuate into more discussion and action on what it means for Christians and Muslims to be in relationship, how we together can seek the good of the city, and how we can pursue justice, even while honoring and holding well our own very real differences of (theological) opinion.  We also are planning slowly how to respond to the many things which came up after that: the questions, the concerns, the issues for people in our congregation.  Last, we are planning how to take the next step to make the multi-faith dialogue multi-faith.  We’ve been thinking about how we can invite and envelope a leader from one of the Jewish traditions in order to have the same kinds of conversations, words leading to actions.

That said, I purchased two copies of Dr. Patel’s book, one to read and one to give away.  The book’s in my third reading pile and I’ll get to it by February if I stay the reading course.  So, I can’t review it.  My friend and coworker, David Swanson, has read and reviewed it though. 

Nonetheless, if you’d like to get a free copy, enter my little competition by Wednesday, midnight CST, and I’ll randomly choose a winner.  To enter, leave a comment about why you think telling stories about faith is important.