Middle America Wee Kirk Conference 2009
What are the odds that a son born to a Muslim father, raised for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia, schooled in western philosophy and psychology, and then trained in eastern mysticism, should become a resolute Christian and a minister of the gospel? Small odds indeed, when counted by human probability. But Rev. Mateen Elass sees this prelude to his pastoral ministry as witness to the amazing power of God to find and call his children to service-regardless of the odds.
Mateen was the second of four children born to a Syrian Muslim who had married an American while studying at the University of Wisconsin. Some years after Mateen's birth, the family moved to Saudi Arabia where his father worked as an oil company executive. During his early teens Mateen began a search for God, largely through reading. For six years he focused on eastern mysticism and meditation including a stay at an ashram in India. Yet his nagging questions, Who is God? How can I know him? remained unanswered.
God guided Mateen toward an answer to those questions by bringing him into contact with genuine Christians. They repeatedly pointed him to Christ and challenged him, "Read the four gospels of the New Testament. Get to know Jesus." He took up the challenge. After days of reading, study, and prayer, at the age of twenty Mateen became a follower of Christ. As is common in Middle Eastern families, he soon paid a high cost for his newfound faith: isolation from his father for more than a decade.
By the end of his college years, Mateen sensed God's call to Christian ministry. After completing a B.A. at Stanford University, he graduated from Fuller Seminary earning M.Div. and M.A. degrees in Biblical Studies and Theology. After several years of pastoral work he returned to school earning a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Durham University in England.
Mateen and his wife Cindy have three children: Brittany and Strider who are in their 20s and Kendall, 19, who has Down's syndrome. Mateen's prior ministry includes an associate position for a small-town Presbyterian church in Wyoming, solo pastor of a young suburban church in Arizona, and Minister of Adult Education at First Presbyterian of Colorado Springs, a church of more than five thousand people. He served as senior pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Illinois prior to coming to First Presbyterian, Edmond, in July 2007.
His heart is for those who walk where he once walked, those who search but have not yet found the love of Jesus. For that reason he particularly appreciates the church's acceptance of visitors, its willingness to walk beside them as they move toward God, and its growing enthusiasm to move outside the confines of the church campus to share Christ's love with all who wish to hear.
A frequent speaker about Islam, Mateen sees his experience on both sides of the Christian-Muslim divide as providing unique opportunity to create bridges of understanding. His great hope is that God will use him to reveal the love of Jesus to both sides. "God will provide guidance to those who seek him, and will equip his people to do his will."
Jesus Through Muslim Eyes: Challenges for the Church
Islam paints a highly attractive but deeply flawed picture of Jesus. As Muslims and Christians interact increasingly throughout this coming century, it is crucial for us to know the points of harmony as well as of friction between our two rival Christologies so that we will be better able to share the gospel with fewer misunderstandings and with greater effectiveness. Whether or not you have Muslim friends and neighbors, you will benefit by considering afresh the bold claims of Christ upon our lives.
