Ep. 7: Carter Brown -A Church and Mosque Unite for Multi-Faith Engagement in Miami

Transcript

Jessica: You are listening to LYNC Interview. I'm Jessica Eturralde. Building bridges across faith communities isn't always easy, but it can lead to unexpected friendships and deeper understanding. In this episode of LYNC Interview, we sit down with Carter Brown LYNC's Project manager for the Covenantal Pluralism Initiative in South Florida.

Pastor at Crossbridge Brickle Church in Miami, Carter shares his journey of engaging with a neighboring imam and the moss. He leads the challenges and breakthroughs along the way and how these multifaith relationships have shaped his congregation. Welcome Carter Brown. So last year, LYNC co-hosted the first ever multi-faith picnic with Crossbridge Brickle and the Islamic Center of Greater Miami.

I was fortunate to be able to attend that, and I recall how unique that was on the mosque grounds. Christians and Muslims gathered in a market style atmosphere and we shared delicious Mediterranean food and there were bouncy houses and even a petting zoo for the children. But that was not the first multi-faith discussion in Miami Between your church and attendees at the mosque.

The picnic, as I understand it was a result of a relationship that began a few years ago between yourself and Dr. Abdul Hamid Samra, the Imam and director of religious services at the mosque. So now, what initially motivated you to establish a relationship with a neighboring mosque and Imam Samra?

Carter: So I would say that it goes all the way back to my formation of faith when I became a Christian.

College and then felt called to be a pastor, which was surprising to me. But when God has a call on your life, you listen and follow. And when I felt called to be a pastor, I immediately like actually the next day changed my major from business to religion. I went to Florida State University and I studied and focused my religious studies on Islam primarily.

And that was because I felt called to to learn what other people believe is true. What other faith traditions hold so that I might be able to speak in and engage with love, those that are of another faith. If I'm going to commit my life to preaching and teaching that Christianity is the way, the truth and the life, how could I do it if I don't know what other people believe?

That started a journey for me of establishing relationships with people of other faith traditions. And so once I got connected with Wade Cusack, the founder of LYNC, he and his wife Helena started attending Crossbridge Brickle many years ago. We dreamed about partnerships in Miami, and a connection was made with myself and Imam Samra.

Where we had lunch together and that was brought together by Wade and we just started to connect and share stories of what it was like to lead congregations or be in the city of Miami with all of the different struggles and difficulties that it poses men of faith, even though our faith traditions are different.

It opened up a relationship that started from that lunch that blossomed into having dinner with our wives at each other's houses. And from there we decided to host an event at our office in downtown with Crossbridge. We, I spoke with Imam Samra and I said, listen, a lot of the concerns that you shared has just been the fear that it is to be Muslim in America.

The prejudice that happens. And I said, I would love to have the opportunity to host you where you could share your faith and you know your story. And we could have questions that our people from our church could ask you. Maybe they've never been able to ask questions of a Muslim neighbor or friend.

Certainly not an imam. And we held that event and it was really amazing. Just a time of conversation about 40 people attended. I think what established really on that event was neither myself nor Imam Samara believe in a unitarian view of faith and religion. I believe that the...