BA: Hello, this is Brian Auten of Apologetics 315. Today, I’m speaking with Ellis Potter. Ellis is the pastor of the International, English-speaking Church of Lausanne in Switzerland and former member of L'Abri Fellowship. He was born in California and was a Zen Buddhist for many years before becoming a Christian. And he has lectured and preached all over the world but his main area of ministry work has been in Eastern Europe for the last 20 years.
Today I will be asking Ellis about his conversion from Buddhism, his interaction with Francis Schaeffer and his approach to Apologetics. So thanks for speaking with me today, Ellis.
EP: Glad to be with you, Brian.
BA: So before we talk about your story - What sort of ministry work are you currently involved in?
EP: Currently I am pastoring the church in Lausanne. I live in Basel and it’s a 3-hour commute but I only work 20% for the church. I go two weekends a month and one of the reasons for that is because my work involves a lot of travel and I go as you said to Eastern Europe and in a couple weeks I am going to go to Australia and I will go to Norway in October and in December to Romania and in January to Hawaii and there are a lot of places to go and I lecture and preach in churches and lecture at universities and in schools of various Christian organizations.
BA: Now there are a lot of different things we could talk about today and lets start with your past experience with Zen Buddhism. You were a Buddhist monk and you got acquainted with Francis Schaeffer's work at L'Abri and you ended up converting to Christianity. Now could you tell our listeners about your overall journey?
