Enlarge Rahman Khan (from left), Terri Bolotin, Steven Allison and Rod Garvin share stories from their past.

Posted: March 19th, 2010 Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman

What life experiences have shaped your emotional and spiritual life?

That's the first question Rod Garvin, a community activist, seminary student and member of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, asked his table March 17 during an Xchange Sermons luncheon at Charley's in Cotswold Shopping Center.

For Garvin, the news that he would be a father "changed the course" of his life.

Steven Allison, a member of Providence Baptist Church, said of his time as a missionary, "Being able to help someone else has really helped to take my faith outside of the church and has defined my walk with God."

Terri Bolotin, Carolinas Medical Center's assistant director of pastoral care, thought of her time in Chicago. While there, she lived in an intentional community in the inner city where people from different faiths worshiped together. We're all better, she said, when we intermingle our differences.

Rahman Kahn, of Good Works TV and Masjid Ash-Shaheed (an Islamic temple in Charlotte), credits his wife's curiosity about his faith with deepening his religious experience. When they met, he said, she was spiritual but not religious. In 2001, they made their pilgrimage to Mecca together.

And that was only the beginning of the lunch-time conversation and only one of four going on simultaneously in Charley's upstairs dining room. The purpose of the gathering wasn't to persuade anyone, rather to encourage understanding and communication.

Maile Kim, of Actor's Theatre of Charlotte  considers herself agnostic. She said she enjoys the freedom to question people about their religions. "If it's not what I believe in, teach me. Let me learn. But, don't expect me to conform," she said.

"I want people to express their faith in the best way they know how," said Kahn, "but don't impose [your choices] on other people."

The table agreed on the importance of continuing the conversations sparked by Crossroad Charlotte's Xchange Sermons, citing misinterpretations of others' spiritual choices, assumptions about unfamiliar religions and cultural influences as key forces behind religious intolerance.

With that, the luncheon was over. No, the secret to world peace wasn't unearthed – but a room full of people left to continue their day feeling accepted, appreciated and understood.

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