My friend Dr. Babar is a Pakistani physician and a leader in the local mosque. We were working together to organize a “Pakistani Peace Feast” at which we planned to get Christians and Muslims in the same room, sharing a meal around the same table, and talking about Pakistan.“Martin,” Babar said over the phone, “the US State Department has eight Pakistani journalists visiting Louisville this week. Should we invite them to the Peace Feast?”

I want to be a man of peace. That’s my goal. I believe that is what we are called to by Christ. It is needed today in our world perhaps more than ever, across all relationships and communities. Muslims and Christians need that in each other when we interact. That’s what I look for when I visit a mosque. I seem to be finding them a lot these days, by the way. I hope that’s what Muslims see in us.

“I think forgiveness is related to what Jesus said: ‘If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones’ (Luke 16:10 NLT). I always focus on forgiving little things, every single day. Because of this, I think I was able to forgive the big thing.

When Muslims and Christians - even nice Muslims and Christians - spend time together, we are actively overcoming a very powerful tension that reaches beyond language or culture. A tension with a volatile potential to end in violence, prejudice, hate, and fear.

I don’t know a single local church pastor who doesn’t believe in peacemaking. And yet, there is a clear gap between U.S. church leaders' stated support of biblical peacemaking and our actual pursuit of peacemaking in our ministry initiatives. I recently conducted a research project that collected data from 15 pastors in personal interviews and 297 pastors through an online survey. Their feedback on this issue was almost unanimous: “Yes, I affirm the theory of peacemaking as a biblical value. No, it’s not something our church is currently doing. Honestly, we’d have no idea where to start if we wanted to.”

The last couple months I've been trying to finish up my master's thesis at Near East University. The thesis is on how the U.S. government interacts with international religious entities.

The main thing I love about Peace Catalyst is its distinctively Jesus-centered approach to peacemaking. One of the most radically Jesus-centered Christians I know of was Charles de Foucauld, a Catholic monk who took the presence of Jesus to the heart of the Sahara desert around the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The Muslim Tuareg tribes grew to love him, referring to him affectionately as the "White Father."

Recently I heard a preacher talk about Jesus’ story of the prodigal son. Whenever I hear that story, I place myself in the story. Am I the son who has gone too far and squandered what has been given to me? Am I the older son looking down my nose at others who don’t obey the rules as well as I do? But there is a third character in the story I never presumed to be: the father.

I had the privilege of doing mediation, peacemaking, and organizational consulting for a Christian organization recently. We faced a seemingly intractable conflict and dysfunctional organizational practices. As was expected, this led to tense moments and periods of confusion. However, there was success on all three fronts: mediation was accomplished, peace was experienced, and the organizational realignment was implemented.Why were we successful? Two reasons.