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What does it mean to be a Christian peacebuilder and peacemaker? In addition to the capacity and willingness to listen to others with caring, compassion, and respect, it also involves Christians asking themselves questions about what God wants of us and how we understand our relationship to others who are not Christian. These questions extend to further questions about the practices throughout Christian history of Christian misssions and evangelism.
It has been these sorts of questions that have occupied the spiritual journey of my guest for this episode.
Robert (Rob) P. Sellers was a teacher in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, for 25 years. He is Professor of Theology and Missions Emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary where he taught for 18 years. Throughout his ministry, Rob has sought and still seeks to serve God’s mission in the world by engaging in and promoting interfaith friendships across lines of racial, cultural, and religious diversity locally, nationally, and internationally. He has been president of the Abilene Interfaith Council, a member of the Interfaith Commission of the National Council of Churches, USA, a member of the Interfaith Relations Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, and the past Chair of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Rob was asked to be a non-Muslim observer in Morocco when the Marrakesh Declaration was ratified in 2016 and for the Alliance of Virtues Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2018. He was also invited to be a participant in the United Arab Emirates meeting in 2019 where The Charter for a New Alliance of Virtues was discussed and approved.
Rob considers himself a Christian pluralist who argues that an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of different approaches to the Divine is a distinctly Christian way to live in a diverse world.
In this episode, Rob shares his journey of interfaith discoveries and theological epiphanies, and provides both his wisdom and guidance in enabling us to engage in interfaith friendships and conversations ourselves.
Rob is a frequent contributor to Good Faith Media and Baptist News Global. For a good summary of how Rob integrates his concerns for interfaith friendships, his understanding of missions and peacebuilding, and his theology of Christian pluralism and Christ’s atonement, see his article, ‘Toward a multifaith view of atonement,’ in the June 10, 2021 edition of Review & Expositor.
The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.