Cole Buchanan is off to get the B-Roll of pastor Rodrigo Cisternas. [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 800, 1/100, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 82)]

Storyteller Cole Buchanan was given this small paragraph and asked to flesh out the story.

“Rodrigo Cisternas is a seminary graduate (Facultad) in Santiago. He is now the pastor of a church in Recoleta that was planted by ABWE missionaries. That church has grown to almost 300 people, and they have worked to start three different churches. He also teaches at the Facultad and has children attending Santiago Christian Academy at a reduced cost thanks to the Student Fund.”

Watch the final video here:

If you are interested in this type of storytelling, join us on future trips, then go here to learn more http://storytellersabroad.com.

If you have an organization and would like to do something like this with you, contact me, and let’s see what we can do for you.

Storyteller Jennifer Nelson works with coaches Bill Bangham and James Dockery, putting the final touches before our showing to the missionaries who helped us produce these stories.[NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 3200, 1/100, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 28)]

Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, sent their former staff pastor Julian Pizarro to Santiago, Chile, to do missions. Pizarro went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for his training.

He is planting a church in the upper-income neighborhood of Los Ciruelos.

Storyteller Jennifer Nelson was assigned to the Pizarro family because they are sending their children to Santiago Christian Academy, founded by ABWE [Association for Baptists for World Evangelism], to help missionaries educate their children while doing missions.

Without the school, Julian’s wife was staying out of the ministry to do full-time home schooling for their children.

Listen to the story that Jennifer captured telling how Santiago Christian Academy is helping them be more effective in their church plant.

If you are interested in teaching in a missions school around the world, like in Chile, go to www.abwe.org/go to learn more about serving opportunities.

Maybe you are interested in learning how to tell stories like this one. Go to StorytellersAbroad.com to learn more about workshops in the future.

Emily Tromp, in the foreground, worked hard on her story during our Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Missions Workshop in Santiago, Chile. [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 4500, 1/100, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 28)]

Before the workshop starts for participants, some coaches go early to the country and lay the foundation for the workshop. We work on logistics that involve housing, food, and transportation for the workshop.

The core of this time is finding stories. We talk with the missionaries and found out what needs they have right now. These are things like a building, money for something, and people.

It is a list of wants and needs. The problem with this list is there is nothing emotionally engaging to it.

WHY?

We then ask the critical question, “Why do you need this?” They tell us what they can do if they get those resources. Often those answers are pretty generic. “We can help more people” is a standard answer.

Can you give us an example of a life changed by your ministry that you need more support for? This is when we start to find those stories.

The teacher/missionaries at the Santiago Christian Academy shared how throughout the school, they were doing evangelism of families. Some families need help with scholarships, and individuals like you and churches can also reach more people with the Gospel.

This is one of those stories.

Storyteller Emily Tromp

Storyteller Emily Tromp shares the story of Maria Paz Gonzalez, a single mother who lives with her daughter, Antonia, in Ñuñoa, Chile. Maria has dealt with a great deal of adversity regarding her health and has struggled with heart issues that have impacted her ability to work. Due to financial difficulties arising from her medical needs, she did not believe she could afford to send her daughter to Santiago Christian Academy. Still, thanks to the “SCA Student Fund,” the school has been able to cover the costs of Antonia’s education. Despite continued struggles with her health, Maria keeps a positive outlook on life and thanks God for everything he has given her.

To support the student fund, go to abwe.org/give and search for Santiago Christian Academy Student Fund.

Maybe you are a storyteller but have never done a mission story. We are planning workshops right now for next year. Go to the Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Missions Workshop website and start the process so we can alert you to the trips and dates for next year.

The workshop is designed for those with a working knowledge of photography and some basic writing skills. Many of the past workshop participants worked on their college newspapers, studied communications in college, or worked in the industry.

The workshop is designed around doing what a seasoned pro storyteller would do to tell stories for a missions agency. Our coaches have been working on missions for years. I grew up in missions and have professionally done mission storytelling since 1984.

Here are some of the things we address and this is not a complete list:

• Identifying the Audience
• Identifying the Client
• Navigating the politics of missions organizations
• Cross-cultural issues
• Difference between using logic and emotions to tell stories
• Why you need to know the story before hitting the record button
• Understanding how Human Voice, Words, Visuals, and Music can all tell a story more effectively
• Having a “REAL DEADLINE” and delivering a finished story to the client
• Coaches share their call to “Missions Storytelling.”
• Deep dive into a person’s life that you get to tell their story

“The debilitating interpersonal impairments experienced by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder are assumed to result from a neurocognitive impairment in the basic motivation and ability to understand people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors – perhaps even their own.”

– Personality and Self-Insight in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder by: Roberta A. Schriber, Richard W. Robins, and Marjorie Solomon

I want to fit in and connect with people. This desire has led me to try and understand good communication skills and do a LOT of self-evaluation.

People with Autism and those struggling in storytelling have something in common. We can get a message delivered but are often perplexed about why the audience isn’t responding.

I am on the Autism Spectrum and considered to be high functioning. What is essential to understand for this blog post is, at its core, Autism is a disorder that has social impairment at its heart.

My wife, family, and friends have all gotten used to me. I will be deep in thoughts, and when something fascinating is in my mind, I often share this with those around me.

When I do share these thoughts, I am seldom taking the time to understand what is going on at the moment with them. I do a poor job of meeting people where they are in that split second and helping them make a transition to something I would like to share.

Guess what? When it comes to business and communications in general, this is a problem for everyone. When you have something to sell, you are like someone with Autism. You have a tough time meeting people where they are. People constantly are talking about everything they know about their product but do not understand where your audience is at the moment and about the product they are selling.

One important thing people in business and Autism have in common is often lacking an understanding of self.

We are so into our thoughts that we are not thinking about how we come across to others [AUDIENCE].

Two common themes I heard throughout my life are that first; I need to learn to meet people where they are in the moment. Secondly, almost everyone said that once people got to know me, they appreciated me much more.

You cannot survive very long with these characteristics when you are in communications or sales. You need to be seen as a person who cares for others. You need to be seen as someone interested in others and not just yourself.

The hardest part of storytelling is not knowing your subject or peeling the onion to get the best story. The hardest part of storytelling is meeting the audience where they are with the story.

Stanley Leary

It would help if you did as much research understanding your audience’s knowledge of the subject as you do about your story/product.

When it comes to storytelling for nonprofits, you will always have a “Call to Action” at the end of the story. Now that you have heard this story, you can get involved.

People take action to work with a nonprofit because of a few things.

• They have the skill the nonprofit needs.
• They have a heart for the nonprofit
• They have someone who is involved with the nonprofit that they care about [ie..family or friend who they want to support]

In narrative storytelling, the hero of the story, the subject, has a problem they cannot solve alone. They need some help. Either they have someone to help them, like a mentor or a resource that helps them overcome adversity and become better because of this process.

Many nonprofits are about providing education. They need teachers, administrators, and others to help run a school. When telling a story of someone they helped, this helps to describe what they do and invite others to help them continue doing this with even more people. If the audience has people who have worked in education in some way, they may see themselves wanting to be part of the organization. A teacher who just finished 30 years teaching and retired in their early 50s may want to go and teach in a nonprofit and give back.

The storyteller must know what the audience can do to be a part of the success of the future story of the organization.

Once you understand your audience, you now know how to meet them where they are and tell the story in a way that helps them to see how they are part of the solution.

Here are some questions to consider if you engage your audience as a storyteller.

• Have you had to change the story because of the audience?
• Have you asked questions that you wouldn’t have asked but the audience may ask when working on a story?
• Have you ever created a focus group of an audience and asked them what makes them want to participate in a nonprofit?
• Have you ever created a focus group of an audience and asked them what turns them off about nonprofits?
• Have you ever dropped a great story because it doesn’t help the organization?
• Have you had to talk a client out of doing a story because it doesn’t engage the audience?

Have you adjusted how you tell a story because of the audience?

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

This past week I was in Santiago, Chile, helping Jeff Raymond, James Dockery, and Bill Bangham lead the Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Missions Workshop. We were working each day from getting up at 7:00 am until well after midnight each day.

Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I believe we trained the storytellers to be the best witnesses to what they had seen and heard of each person they were assigned to capture.

The week started with each workshop participant [Storytellers] doing pre-interviews with their subjects to get the story they would later capture on camera/video.

I was teaching the class that you shouldn’t record the video interview until you had a pretty good idea of the storyline. The reason is then you would have a much longer discussion from which you had to transcribe all that content to dig for a story.

Friendships with the subjects we were telling their stories, and the translators and missionaries were being created throughout the week.

In my opinion, the best part of the week was the one-on-one or two-on-one coaching.

We also went on location with each workshop participant to give directions.

The weather in Santiago, Chile, was winter while we were there.

We spent much time in the field and even more sitting in front of the computers, organizing and editing the projects.

When we were trying to output some of the projects to make the final movie, we ran into problems with the software. I had not seen those particular errors before. This is when having one of the senior editors for ESPN, James Dockery, as part of the teaching team made a huge difference.

Please stay tuned for the final videos. I will share them here when we have finished making the final edits.

We believe that packing all we could into one week on the field is worth the effort. We believe “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

One of the most challenging things for photographers to photograph is large groups.

Communication is key to getting the best photo where you can see everyone’s face.

One of the best possible solutions is risers. They are often called CHORAL RISERS.

Even using these risers doesn’t solve the problems with people’s heads blocking the people behind them in a photo.

No matter how often I work to get things just right, there are always a couple of folks who move and think they are OK from their perspective.

The two guys on the back row here think they are OK since they can “see” me. It would help if you had each row create enough space between people that the distance between their heads creates a “Window” space for the people in the row behind them to stand.

Staggering people works, but telling the people on a row to help create a “Window” and have the 2nd row put their heads into those “Windows” can speed up lining people up for a group photo.

If you don’t have risers, create more space between people.

I discovered that while I was overseas for three trips this year, I wasn’t covered if my gear was lost, stolen, or damaged. I thought I had done everything right. I even wrote about it on this blog on how I screwed up.

August 1, 2012 I wrote this in my blog: [Camera Insurance]

Lesson Learned

A few years ago, I read on a photography forum how people were getting great deals through their State Farm Insurance representative. I was with State Farm for my house and cars then, so I called them.

I explained that I do not have a studio, do location work all over the country, and occasionally overseas travel.  I got a quote for about 1/3 of what I had been paying. I jumped on that and had the policy for more than two years.

Just change that “State Farm Insurance” to “Allstate Insurance.” The difference in how I got burned this time was that ASMP had listed them as a benefit.

Howard Burkholtz was the representative that I talked with about switching from Tom C. Pickard & Co.

I explained that I travel and do not work out of a brick-and-mortar business. I travel to my clients all over the world.

How it all went wrong

While in Trinidad teaching in the Storytellers Abroad workshop, I got up from my chair, and my foot caught the power cord plugged into HyperDrive – USB Type-C Hub, which also my 4TB Western Digital Hard drive was plugged into. The hard drive went crashing to the floor.

Not everything on the drive was there a second copy of the files. I sent it off to get recovered. I knew that the insurance was supposed to cover this.

Well, I read in the policy they sent me to sign that the limit was $10,000 for data recovery. When I talked to the claims adjuster, they informed me it was only for $5,000.

I discovered that I wasn’t covered as told by the Allstate Representative.

When I just left my house, I was covered only by about 1/2 of the policy I had before. I also discovered that I was not covered at the requested replacement cost.

The worst thing is that I discovered that my camera gear was not covered overseas. I made three trips this year to Peru, Trinidad, and Chile. Had anything been damaged or stolen, I wasn’t covered.

So my coverage with Tom C. Pickard & Co. was around $800 a year. Allstate was initially quoting about $350. When they saw I also did a video that went up to $500.

Howard Burkholtz discovered the problem and was willing to find another policy to cover me as requested. He came back with a price of $1,800.

I canceled their policy and called Tom C. Pickard and company (http://www.tcpinsurance.com/). Allstate refunded me, and the new policy is right back to about $800 a year for all my $45,000 gear.

I learned even the insurance recommended by a professional association like ASMP could be bad for you. I recommend talking to other pros doing similar work as you and finding out what they are using.

Where there is no guidance, people fall, but there is safety in an abundance of counselors.

Proverbs 11:14

One of the most challenging things I struggle with regarding my clients is wanting to help them, but I am not invited to the table.

I have learned from my 35+ years in the industry that I have what my friend calls “accumulated scar tissue.” I have seen so many things and been in so many planning meetings that I am bringing all of this to the table when I listen to your ideas.

Just on Facebook the other day, a photographer went to an event where they had the podium in front of a window. This makes it nearly impossible to get a good photo/video of the person on the stage. This is an excellent example that someone could have spoken into the planning that has the expertise of why you are doing the event – for media coverage.

Most of the time, people will not invite you in and hold a meeting to listen to you. They are not even going to invite you to the room.

They often fear that you may only give them suggestions that benefit you and not the organization. Even if you have built a reputation for giving them advice that doesn’t help you and them, they are still so cautious they are missing out on some counsel.

How to be present when the client isn’t showing interest

Be available – Do everything you can reasonably do without being a stalker to show you are there for them. Just check in with them. Be Supportive – You are not asking for work; you genuinely offer to help in any way possible.

Be Organic – Imagine allowing things to happen naturally, and things work out, and all you did was smile and watch. To do this, you must know what you can do. You let what is going to happen, happen. Accept the outcome, good or bad. Always try and learn from the situation. If you have this attitude, when your client talks about something they are working on, you will have the perfect opportunity to offer counsel.

Do your research – Nothing is worse than having an opportunity drop in your lap and ruin it. Those opportunities come seldom, so do your homework. This is very hard to do if no one lets you know what they are working on. This is like how the US monitors North Korea; they must ask China, Japan, and South Korea to give them intel.

Model the behavior – Have you ever noticed that you want your client to open up so you can help, but you haven’t opened up for others to help you? This is probably my weakest area myself. Find someone you can talk to to help you think better and develop the necessary patience.

Set Boundaries – Realize your limitations. Don’t become a pest. You don’t want to put pressure on them in any way. They should never feel pressured by you.

Don’t Avoid Them – This is strange that I should mention this, but sometimes we treat our clients like they have lost a loved one or have cancer. We don’t know what to say, so we withdraw from them. Amazingly just being there for someone can mean sitting in silence with them. Having answers and ideas all the time isn’t as valuable as just knowing when you don’t have an idea.

The photo above is from the photo call for Show Boat performance at East Carolina to open the new theater on April 3, 1982. The camera I shot that on was a Nikon FM2. I would have been using Kodak Tri-X film pushed to ISO 1600. The shutter speed would have been about 1/60 @ ƒ/2.8.

Everyone was in place and told to freeze. Notice how all the guy’s hats are in the same position. Would that happen in a natural scene? Why was this posed? In the 1980s, the film didn’t allow you to move much, or you were blurred.

Before writing this blog, I surveyed my professional photographer friends who shoot theater. No one doesn’t prefer shooting real-time action over staged moments.

The 1826 photo View from the Window at Le Gras took 8 hours to expose the first photograph ever shot. When Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype in 1839, he managed to shave this time down to just 15 minutes.

Technology made it almost impossible to get action shots as they happen in a dress rehearsal or live theater.

I have been doing headshots for actors for 35+ years in this profession. Recently I tried to mix some real “Moments” into the photo shoots.

I asked the theater people to give me all their facial expressions in 30 seconds. Even if those photos taken during those 30 seconds didn’t turn out the best, the images that followed were far superior. The difference is going for a “real moment” and not a “posed one.”

Here is a blog post I did for actor headshots.

In 2017 I photographed my daughter’s high school production of Oklahoma and was shooting the live performance. Here I froze the peak moment when a dancer was doing a split. This was not possible in 1982.

Until the Nikon D3 was introduced in 2008, the maximum ISO sensitivity setting that you might be able to shoot at was either 1600 or 3200 (depending on the model), and even then, not remarkably confidently.

I jumped from shooting ISO 1600 to ISO 12800. This was three full stops of ISO.

Today I have the Nikon D5 & Nikon Z6 and have had to use ISO 51200 or higher to get photos. Before now, they were not possible without a flash.

Nan Melville, who shoots for The Juilliard School performances, says, “shooting in real-time in rehearsal is important – Instead of stopping and having the actors pose. I never do that.” [Nan Melville’s performing arts photos]

Alan Goldstein says, “I’ve photographed many performances and preferred dress rehearsal because I could move around the theatre. However, I have also photographed live performances from the rear of the theatre. Nothing was staged for me, and I liked the spontaneity.” [Alan Goldstein’s work]

Jeff Widner said he shot these of the broadway show “Network” during the performance. Go here to see those photos.

Michelle Heimlich says, “I know Ball State University that I shot for 15+ years ago with the move to digital photography, has gone to all real-time photography instead of dress rehearsals.”

Now when it comes to dancing, that takes things to a whole new level. If it were born in 1982 with my Nikon FM2, this photo would have been 1/2-second-long at ISO 1250 and ƒ/5.6. Also, that wouldn’t be in color. Back then, ISO for Color was about ISO 320. Your shutter speed would have been about 2 seconds.

Nan Melville says,

“With dance, I find it almost impossible to pose pix and can generally tell when I see a photo set up. Sometimes the set-up Photos with the elaborate background can be compelling, like the posters for ballet and opera, when done on a grand scale, if you know what I mean.

That is, with a setting and lights organized for a particular effect. However, these must be good, or I think they are fake.

A dancer recently asked me to take pictures during a performance because all the rehearsal pictures were so bad, and the absolute intensity did not show.”

Only recently has it been technically possible to capture the scene above that I did recently at the dress rehearsal for “She Kills Monsters.” ISO 51200 made this possible.

As you can see, the actors don’t have the emotion on their faces as they would have had during the actual scene. Stopping and posing make for poor aesthetic images.

It makes the actors look horrible. What I like about capturing a rehearsal and performance versus a photo call where we stop the scene for photos is that the emotions of the commission are lost.

Getting high school performers to look accurate in posed photos is nearly impossible. This is why I love shots like this of high school performance.

“Photography is not like painting,” Henry Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event and of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.”

Henry Cartier-Bresson

When theatre is done at its best, the storytelling becomes real and makes the audience feel. Their bodies will react to those scenes. Your body wants to run when the scary parts of the story are told and cries during the sad moment. You laugh at the times of humor.

Photography of the theatre should do the same. It should capture those peak moments and bring the audience into the moment. We kill the moment when we stop actors and tell them to hold a pose.

The TV Show “Lie to me!” is inspired by the work of Paul Ekman, the world’s foremost expert on facial expressions and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.

The research is based on the fact that people have micro-expressions that happen only at about 1/30 of a second. I know that many seasoned photographers can anticipate these types of moments. When you freeze actors, you will never capture these micro-expressions, which bring a level to the performance of a scene that is not possible without the actors in full performance mode.

With today’s camera, the technology allows us to capture theater and dance live, which was not possible just a few years ago. If you want to fill those seats in theaters with paying customers, the only thing that many will see that will determine if they come is the photos that promote the performance. It would help if you had the best possible “Moment” to enable it.

Hire a photographer known for capturing the “Moment” with the gear to photograph in low light to get the best possible images to promote your performance.

The photo above is of Brown Pelicans. The Brown Pelican is the only pelican that uses the plunge-dive while fishing. The bird flies some 20 or 30 feet above the water. [NIKON Z 6, Sigma VR Zoom 120-300mm f/2.8G IF-ED, Mode = Manual, ISO 800, 1/4000, ƒ/5.6, (35mm = 360)]

I love shooting with the Nikon Z6 camera during our family’s vacation at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.

Combining the Nikon Z6 with the Godox V860IIN flashes, I got some good group photos and portraits on the beach.

I love the ability to see what I am getting before shooting. Less chimping and checking the LCD. Also, using the Electronic View Finder, I can see what I am getting. While witnessing the histogram is always helpful, it is less necessary with the mirrorless than the DSLR.

I loved taking early morning walks each day carrying the Nikon Z6. I used the tilting LCD screen for this photo to get the camera low to the ground.

I enjoy the dynamic range that the camera is capturing as well.

I love being able to capture the family as well in candids.

I like how the face recognition and eye tracking function works.

All positives so far in using the camera during our family vacation.

My niece, the bride, asked me to take some behind-the-scenes photos of the wedding. The venue had a package that included a photographer.

They wanted me to have fun as well. Dorie, my wife, officiated the service, and Chelle, my daughter, was the wedding soloist.

I am writing this blog for those interested in the newest mirrorless camera from Nikon, the Z6, and how I set it up and used it for this wedding photo shoot.

I brought a really small kit.

• Nikon Z6
• FTZ converter
• Sigma 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0 Art
• Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art
• Godox 860II Nikon
• Magmod Maggrip w/ Magsphere

I love the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art BOKEH when shot wide open. With the new firmware 2.0 on the Nikon Z6, the eye tracking focus helps nail the eyes when focusing.

I was in the room with the Groom and all his 16 attendants. Did I say this is the largest bridal party I have seen? 30 total. They have many friends and family, which is the best way to describe this problem.

The Sigma 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0 let me go from this broad group shot inside to much tighter shots of the Groom with individuals.

My Flash Settings on Nikon Z6

• e1: Flash Sync Speed – 1/200s (Auto FP)
• Auto ISO sensitivity control – Subject and Background

For the Godox flash, I set the compensation to -1.

So during the wedding, it was raining. Just a few drops, but this tells you the type of light we had. I decided just to fill in to give a little pop to the photos. So outside, I was shooting at 1/2000 shutter speed with a flash.

Then I am inside shooting at ISO 10000 at a shutter speed of 1/50.

It worked just great on the dance floor. Here I shot at ISO 6400 with a shutter speed of 1/30 to add a little action to the shots.

I love shooting with the on-camera strobe in a situation like this. It lets me be sure there is light on the people and then allows me to record the background in natural lighting.

Sometimes the light was great without a flash. I just turned it off when I didn’t need it and turned it on as needed. The settings on the camera stayed the same.

I really love just taking photos as a guest and not the official photographer.

The other thing is if you know the people in the bridal party, you get different expressions than the official photographer can sometimes get.

I love the Nikon Z6 with the Sigma 24-105mm f/4 Art lens with the Godox V860IIN with the MagMod MagSphere for weddings. I think you can shoot 95% of the wedding with this setup. I think you need a long lens, like 70-200mm, for the ceremony.

The updated Adobe Lightroom is the other thing that really makes this system work. I love using three of the controls that, if used correctly, can help out some photos that, in the past, would have been so-so photos without these controls.

I love the Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze sliders. I cannot recommend them enough.

For sharpening, I hold the Option key on the Mac while sliding the Masking control.

I loved shooting the wedding with the Nikon Z6. I think a lot of wedding shooters will fall in love with the mirrorless Nikon Z6 as much as I have this year.

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

President John F. Kennedy

The United States has been described as a “Melting Pot” and a “Toss Salad.” I prefer the “Toss Salad” better. We live in a very diverse country, and when you get to know your neighbor, this is a beautiful place to live.

Dorie Griggs, my wife, and I have been participating in Atlanta’s very diverse interfaith community for many years now. Dorie helped to produce an interfaith dialogue TV show, and I have helped by helping create websites and photograph these different organizations through the years.

Last night Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms hosted a Ramadan dinner for the Atlanta Muslim community at Atlanta City Hall. The attendees were from many of the diverse faiths of Atlanta.

The three Abrahamic faiths: 1) Muslim, 2) Judaism & Christianity, all had speakers at the event, and people from those communities of faith in attendance as well.

From my time in dialogue with people of a different faith, I have discovered that we are more alike than others when it comes to living in the community. All religions hold education as core to their values, meaning their interest in public education is high.

While everyone enjoyed seeing their friends from their faith community at the Iftar Dinner, they were just as pleased to be in such a diverse community.

What I love about the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta is that they care about the education of the faiths, not proselytizing. They realized that when we learn about the different religions, we start to see some of our common bonds.

They also realized that they needed to help create a safe dialogue space so that people could learn about their neighbors and not feel threatened by them.

“If you let it [United States] give in to us versus them, at some point, America won’t be America anymore.”

President Bill Clinton

 “When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.  Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace.  And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race — out of every race.”

President George W. Bush

Interfaith dialogue is possible only when two convictions pre-exist in the participants:

1. No participant is seeking to proselytize any other participant.
2. The participants are persuaded of the inherent validity and integrity of all the faith groups involved in the dialogue and are persuaded that no group possesses total and absolute knowledge regarding the nature and works of God and human involvement with the Divine.

“There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.”

Hans Küng, Roman Catholic Theologian & Advocate for Interfaith Cooperation

I recommend you host a group like the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta’s Interfaith Speakers Network. It is a collaboration between the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta (FAMA) and the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta (ISB).  The ISN provides opportunities to hear and interact with a panel of local practicing representatives from six faith traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The meetings are educational and facilitate dialogue and understanding between different religions. In addition to sharing information, ISN panels showcase ways other faith traditions can work together. 

ISN programs promote religious pluralism by emphasizing shared values and practices and modeling respectful civil discourse when discussing our differences.