What might Mr. Rogers have to say to Evangelical Christians and Muslims in America today? What might he wish us to say to one another? “Won’t you please be my neighbor?” This is the subject we are taking up today with two Evangelical pastors working with Muslims in their community. They are answering this “Mr. Rogers” question in the affirmative.
Mr. Rogers is not our guest today at “New Wine Tastings”. But for our present purposes, I could think of no better guests to speak about neighborhoods made up of Evangelicals and Muslims living in close proximity. Our guests reflect Mr. Rogers’ exemplary form of decency and neighborliness in their work.
Mark Shetler is Executive Pastor at RiverCity Christian church in Sacramento, CA. He works with the Bridges program at the church in ministering to Muslim immigrants. (Website: http://www.rivercitychristian.org / Contact: info@rivercitychristian.org)
Bob Roberts is Global Senior Pastor of Northwood Church in Keller, TX where he has started over 200 churches in the US and a center for training new pastors. He has been active in bringing Muslims and Christians together nationally and internationally. (Website: http://www.bobrobertsjr.com / Bold Love Podcast – http://www.bobrobertsjr.com/podcast)
Both Bob and Mark have been a part of the Multi-faith Matters grant team exploring evangelicals and multi-faith engagement.
Joining New Wine Director Dr. Paul Louis Metzger to interview our guests is John W. Morehead. He is the Director of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, as well as Multi-faith Matters. Multi-faith Matters resulted from a Louisville grant initiative that John led. His latest book project explores the significance of emotions toward those in other religions—orthopathy. It is titled A Charitable Orthopathy: Christian Perspectives on Multifaith Engagement (Pickwick, 2020). (Website: https://www.multifaithmatters.org/ / Book: https://wipfandstock.com/a-charitable-orthopathy.html)