Relationships between ministry leaders and science professionals are a powerful way to engage faith and science. That fellowship often already exists—it is just a matter of acknowledging it and intentionally leveraging it. And then what happens?
These are all activities churches have done. Science is not just a domain of knowledge that churches occasionally put into conversation with Scripture and theology. You can literally bring science to church… Science can inform the praxis of ministry, especially when we invite scientists to become partners in ministry.
Our dream that science no longer be a barrier to faith will require the church to plant new ideas—and recapture some old ideas—in the minds of believers that suggest compatibility rather than conflict. In other words, knowledge and ideas are part of how we seek to strengthen the church through engagement with science.
For most people, relating science and religion is more about what we do than what we think. We ask, “What’s the impact on our lives?” And that means the story of science and religion is more about morals than knowledge.
Our appreciation of creation and the Creator come less from understanding the Galileo affair or responding to Richard Dawkins’ anti-religious screeds, and more from looking at what science can tell us about the glory being told by the heavens and how fearfully and wonderfully life has been knit together.