Growing up 50 years ago in suburban Chicago, walls were everywhere. I assumed everyone around me was a Christian. Roads dividing black and white communities were seldom crossed. In overt and subtle ways, we were taught to maintain walls rather than to build bridges, to stay with “our own.”

My children are growing up in a different world. They have friends from many ethnic groups and from a variety of religions (as well as no religion). My wife Cheri and I adopted a little girl from Guatemala in 2008. Can you imagine the diversity of the world of 2030 in which she will come to maturity, the bridges she will need to be able to cross to relate to the people even in her neighborhood?

What kind of faith will be necessary to live as faithful, effective Christians and as faithful and effective congregations in the neighborhoods of 2030? At PTS, we believe Christians need a bridge-building faith, a faith connecting:

• Communities;
• Spiritual practices and works of justice and mercy;
• Christian traditions;
• Christians and people of other faiths for the sake of the common good;
• Generations.

Do you want preachers, educators, and other Christian leaders who know how to build bridges and to help congregations do the same? If your answer is “yes,” then join those of us who are supporting the Bridges of Faith Endowment Campaign. Christians need all the bridge-building leaders we can find and educate.

Gary Peluso-Verdend, President and Associate Professor of Practical Theology