Multi-Faith Weekend occured last weekend in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, bringing together Jews, Muslims, and Christians. This is a follow up article where we take a look at one Christian woman's experience from that weekend.
50 year old Maria Escamilla from Fort Worth, Texas is a member of Northwood Church in Keller - the Christian church which participated in the Multi-Faith event. She said: "When NorthWood Church announced the Multifaith Weekend, I jumped at the chance to sign up, knowing this was a unique opportunity for my family to visit a synagogue, mosque and church all in one weekend."
The Multi-Faith event was held at a Jewish synagogue on Friday, an Islamic mosque on Saturday, and at Northwood Church on Sunday.
Maria continued: "My personal reason for participating was to learn more about Judaism and Islam from the people themselves. I’m currently involved in supporting missionary work and hope to increase my involvement in the coming years. Knowledge and appreciation of other cultures and beliefs is essential."
"It was very interesting to observe the different worship services as a guest in a respectful environment. And of course as a Christian I also believe it’s good that all people have an opportunity to hear God’s Word as they did on Sunday."
Maria clearly saw this as both an educational event and the opportunity for those of other faiths to hear a distinctly Christian message. But what about involving her children?
"They were both really interested in the whole weekend, the 13-year old more so. The 7-year old got a little bored at times. But both asked questions throughout as to what was going on during the different services. As a family we enjoy cultural events and learning about different cultures around the world. All three of us are preparing for future mission trips to serve those in need, so they really enjoyed the Multifaith Weekend."
It was surprising to hear that even the youngest girl is preparing for "future mission trips." This seems quite ambitious; however, it's no surprise that she would want to go wherever her mom and older sister are going, and in general, children are easily influenced by those around them. This can be good or bad.
"At first at the mosque, the 7-year old didn’t want to wear a headscarf, but when she saw many others with headscarves, she wanted one, too. A Muslim lady gave her own headscarf to keep. The girls tried some of the ethnic foods the Muslim ladies prepared and were surprised at how spicy one of the curried potato pies (was) —it was really HOT, but good."
I don't know if I would want my little girl dressing like a Muslim woman, but I'm all for the curried potato pies.
"The girls were also surprised to see that the Jewish book for the Shabbat was opposite ... since Hebrew is read from right to left. They enjoyed trying to follow along ... "
As Christians, the roots of our faith are Judaism, and if we ever want to really understand our Bibles, we should study Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament.
"We loved how reverent and respectful the Jewish and Muslim people are in their places of worship. It appears none would show disrespect in their worship sloppily dressed. We thought that was a good lesson and example to emulate."
This last observation is a strikingly embarrassing one. As a Christian, it seems sad that somehow those of other religious faiths have a better grasp of the need to show reverence to God than we do.
So how did things go on Sunday at the Christian church?
"During the service at NorthWood on Sunday, Pastor Roberts asked if the participants would be willing to continue getting to know each other so we could serve the community. It appeared that many agreed they would like to do that. Pastor Roberts ... hoped we could meet while respecting our fundamentally different beliefs and I believe this was achieved."
Didn't she wonder or worry about this combination of different faiths? Wasn't Maria concerned that her pastor was leading the congregation into a melding of religious beliefs where commonality trumps the pure truth of the gospel?
"I can see how people can have a negative reaction to this. When I first saw the promotions for the Multifaith Weekend, a red flag went off in my mind. I had to make sure this wasn’t an “all paths lead to God” event. It wasn’t at all, but I can see where people might think that."
"God commands us to love one another. On a local level, we got the opportunity to make acquaintence with our neighbors so we can get to know them and better serve their needs."
The greatest need that I can think of for any person of any faith is the need for Jesus Christ to be the love of their life, so they can be reconciled to God, forgiven of their sins, and have the gift of eternal life. Everything else is just potatoes and scarves.
Comments
Wow. That sounds like it was an awesome opportunity.
Heard of one of these events elsewhere. It is good to understand people of different cultures etc. "Don't leave discernment at the door". Remember that it is still religion that you are seeing and participating in.
We cant better anyone without first serving their souls. They need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're told to serve our brothers and sisters, we are told to preach the gospel to ALL NATIONS. I'm not going to take care of a person's material needs without addressing their spiritual one. We can extend love to one another, because LOVE abides within you IF Christ abides within you, but when the opportunity comes to show someone you love the truth, we should do that first. If they don't love us for it, then its fine. But we've acted out of love and the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.
I don't understand your reason for having an issue with this whole thing. You quoted the pastor asking if the participants would be willing to continue getting to know each other so they could serve the community. Is that not the 2nd highest command, love thy neighbor, help thy neighbor? You're suggesting that we only serve the community alongside Christians, and if you're not a Christian, you serve the community on your own or with other non-Christians.
Thank you for the comments. to T: by no means am I suggesting that Christians only serve the community alongside other Christians; however, how well do you have to know someone in order to serve alongside him/her? Why spend time on that instead of just getting out there and serving? And isn't meeting someone's spiritual needs even more important? How will a Muslim find harmony with a Christian when Christians should point people to the Bible and salvation through Jesus?
I fully agree with your assessment of this!
Yes we are called to love everyone but spending time with people in kindness isn't the same as sharing Jesus Christ. We have to place emphasis on <b>sharing Jesus Christ</b> in love. I would love to see a synagogue and how Jews worship because, as you said, the roots of our faith are Judaism. But I don't believe Christians have any more business in a Mosque than we do at a satanic worship, and we need to be especially careful about what our kids pick up in the way of teaching. We are in a spiritual battle and should never underestimate the enemy.
I could go on but I won't. Great article! I will put a link to you in my lists. Would appreciate the same. TIA!
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