Rev. Paul J. Kottke is a senior pastor at University Park United Methodist Church. Kottke is a 1981 graduate of Iliff School of Theology. He is the founding director of Denver Urban Ministries (1981).He was ordained elder in the United Methodist Church in 1982. Kottke Served at Iliff as director of development (1985-88) and as pastor at Warren UMC (1988-95).

“The notion of dialogue is that two people sit down at a table and they talk about their passionate beliefs. And usually what ends up happening is that they start just kind of yelling at each other. They are not listening. Dialogue has to go a deeper level of relationships. And I think Fethullah Gulen as the kind of initiator of this movement helped that to be understood, that dialogue is not me sitting here demanding that my positions be heard.”

“In none of my experiences, in none of those, are you using those events as a way of issuing a propaganda. In fact my experience with this events is that really the Mosaic Foundation never says anything other than welcome.”

“I believe faith-inspired people particularly in this 21st century are called to be involved in the lives of our society. That we are called to bring health and healing to our society. That our task as faith-inspired people is not to win converts, to grow our churches, our mosques, our synagogues. If we are vital and alive those will grow. But that’s not our task. Our task is to reach to people that are struggling with meaning in their life.”