A Conference on Understanding & Answering Islam

When it comes to Muslims, the press and the media invariably focus on politics rather than religion. But isn’t Islam more than a political movement?  After all, Muslims are ultimately members of a very specific faith, not a mere political agenda. But on a personal level, why should we care about what our Muslim neighbors believe?

On November 9th and 10th, join Dr. Stuart McAllister and the RZIM team for "A Conference on Understanding and Answering Islam." This promises to be a riveting presentation exploring what Muslims actually believe about Jesus’s identity, the status of the Bible and the Koran, as well as some of their common objections to the Christian faith.

As Christians, we are called to make disciples of all men.  We invite you to join us for this timely conference on a largely unreached people group who need our help and our understanding.

Dr. Stuart McAllister

Born in Scotland, Stuart McAllister saw his life changed by Christ at the early age of twenty. Filled with a hunger to learn more about and preach the Gospel, he took every opportunity to witness and give his testimony. This desire to serve the Lord and deepen his understanding of the faith led him to join Operation Mobilization in 1978. His service with OM took him to Yugoslavia, where he was imprisoned for forty days for distributing Christian literature. Upon his release, he continued his mission to preach the Gospel in communist countries, resulting in more imprisonments.

With a rich history of service, Stuart has served as general secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance (1992-1998) and been involved with the European Lausanne Committee. He developed an evangelistic mobilization called “Love Europe,” sending several thousand team members across Europe with the message of the Gospel. Stuart also founded the European Roundtable, bringing together a diverse group of ministries and interests that collaborated to foster “Hope for Europe.”

Stuart joined Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1998 as the International Director and today serves as North American Regional Director and Vice-President of Training. With a heavy travel schedule that takes him all over the globe, Stuart speaks in churches and other forums with the same passion for the Gospel that he found when he first became a believer. Stuart has been a lecturer at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York, where he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity. Additionally, he has been a featured speaker several times at the European Leadership Forum.

Stuart is a frequent contributor to A Slice of Infinity, RZIM’s daily reading on issues of apologetics and philosophy, Just Thinking, the ministry’s quarterly journal, as well as Engage, a magazine published quarterly by RZIM Educational Trust. He has also contributed chapters in the books Beyond Opinion (Thomas Nelson, 2007) and Global Missiology for the 21st Century (World Evangelical Fellowship, 2000).

Dr. Sasan Tavassoli

Dr. Sasan Tavassoli is a former Shi’ite Muslim from Iran.  In 1985, Sasan came to faith in Christ as the result of the ministry of a group of American missionaries while he was living in Portugal.

Dr. Tavassoli is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Church of Iran and has been involved in ministry within the Iranian communities in Diaspora as a teacher and later as a pastor for the past two decades.

Since 2006 the main focus of Dr. Tavassoli’s ministry has been teaching on Christian satellite TV.  His Farsi broadcasts are aired in Europe, the Middle East and Iran five days a week.  He also helps to equip the Church of Iran by providing theological education through conferences and seminars.  Sasan travels extensively within the US, Europe and the Middle East to preach among Iranian Christians and is extensively involved in leadership training for the growing churches inside Iran.

Dr. Tavassoli has also taught courses on Islam and Muslim-Christian relations at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Covenant Theological Seminary and Veritas Evangelical Seminary.  He has authored a number of books and articles on Islam.  His latest publication is Christian Encounters with Iran: Engaging Muslim Thinkers After the Revolution.

Dr. Tavassoli has graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary (MA), Columbia Theological Seminary (ThM) and earned his PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham, UK.  Sasan and his family live in the USA.

Jay Smith

Jay Smith has worked for over 27 years with Muslims, has two masters degrees in divinity and Islamics, and is currently finishing his Phd. dissertation at the Melbourne School of Theology, Australia, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Riddell.

UNIVERSITY WORK: Jay’s area of expertise is in Christian/Muslim apologetics and polemics.  Consequently, he has been invited onto many university campuses to teach classes, participate in panels, help out numerous Christian Unions with training, and also to do “dialogues” and debates with Muslim polemicists.

DEBATES: Since 1995 Jay Smith has participated in over sixty formal debates with distinguished Muslim scholars, statesmen, and apologists, including: Dr. Jamal Badawi (Univ. of Halifax), Dr. Mousa Pidcock (Leader of the Islamic party of Britain.), Abdul Rahman Green (Da’ist at Regents Park Mosque), Shabir Ally (President of the Islamic Propagation Center, Toronto, and world renowned debater), Benazir Bhutto (former Prime Minister of Pakistan), Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad (Founder of Hizb-ul-Tahrir-UK, and al Muhajiroun), Ishmael Muhammad (son of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of Nation of Islam), Dr. Azzam Tamimi (President of Muslim Association of Britain, and Hamas spokesman), Dr. Timothy Winter (Cambridge Univ. Lecturer & convert to Islam), AyattolahSayed Fadhel Milani (Principal UK based Shiite Cleric), Anas al-Tikriti (Muslim Association of Britain), Iqbal Siddiqui (Editor of Crescent International Magazine), Sarfraz Manzoor (Independent Muslim journalist), Sheikh Muhammad Bahmanpour (Shiite cleric and professor of theology), Mohammed Ali (Head of The Muslim Channel [TV]), Sheikh Mohammad Al Houssaini (professor at Leo Baeck Rabbinical College), Sheikh Abu Hamza al Misri (President and founder of Students of Shariah, and convicted terrorist), Abdullah al-Andalusi (President of the Muslim Debate Initiative), Adnan Rashid (Leader of the Hittin Institute), Sami Zaatari (Muslim Debater from Dubai), Khalil Meek (Convert to Islam, and Executive of the Muslim Legal Fund of America), Sheikh Anjem Choudary (Leader of ‘Islam 4 UK’), Imam Moustafa Zayed (spokesman for the scientific board of Quran and Sunnah research of Cairo), and Yusuf Ismail (heir to Ahmed Deedat and leader of the ‘Islamic Propagation Centre International’).

TEACHING: Since working his Phd. Jay has been teaching advanced Islamics to the 2nd year students at OM's Turning Point, in Harlesden, London, and has taught apologetics/polemics at Oakhill College in Southgate, London, for the last five years, as well as apologetics at Moorland Bible College in Bournemouth.  He is currently teaching 1-2 week modules on Islam in various schools, including Seminaries such as Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, and the Ethiopian Graduate Theological Seminary in Addis Ababa.  Additionally, Jay also teaches Islamics every year for Ichthus's Networkers Program in SE London, and Christian/Muslim Apologetics for the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) in Oxford.  Since 2001, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) has been using Jay to teach their evangelists Islamics in the US, England and Scotland.

OVERSEAS TRAINING: For the last 7 years Jay has been teaching 1-2 week programs in Islamics, training missionaries before they go into the Muslim world.  The countries in which he has taught include: Korea, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Kyrgyzstan, Italy, Germany, Nigeria, Ethiopia, the US, Canada and Hungary.

SPEAKER'S CORNER: Though Jay has been participating in debate at Speaker’s Corner since 1993, it wasn’t until 2000 that he began leading a workshop every Sunday afternoon (1:30 - 3:00 p.m.) at All Souls Church, Langham Place, teaching and preparing Christians who are interested in engaging publicly with Muslims.  All Souls Church has between 20 - 50 who attend every week, though the number rises to 150-200 during the summer, due to the influx of Christians who come to London to engage with Muslims.  Following the workshop, this unique group of men and women head down to Speaker's Corner and engage with the Muslims for 2-3 hours.

YOUTUBE: Most recently, Jay has been posting over sixty 5-10 minute videos on the very popular YouTube internet site (see: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PfanderFilms) answering the most frequently asked questions (FAQs), which then are used to reverse the questions, and open the site up for vigorous discussions with both Muslims and Christians.  To date, over 800,000 people have watched those videos, and hundreds of videos by Muslims have been posted in response.

CODGERS: A number of years ago, Jay helped establish a group of 10-15 men and women interested in learning and doing debates with Muslims.  Jay meets with this group to carry out debates (one person taking on the Muslim position, the other that of Christianity), to film them and then critique them. At times they carry out 1-2 debates per month with Muslims in the London area on a range of topics concerning both Islam and Christianity.

BRITISH MUSEUM TOUR: During the initiation of Jay’s Phd. he put together a tour which looked at archaeological, documentary and manuscript evidence for the Bible (both the Old and New Testament) which can be found in the British Museum and the British Library.  To date over 4,000 people have taken the tour, and it has now been filmed.  A new 6 hour DVD of the tour has been put together in English and in Persian, which you can procure at: http://www.222publications.com/catalog/

Dr. Abdu Murray

Abdu is a co-founder and the President of Embrace the Truth, which is an apologetics-based ministry dedicated to offering the Truth of the Gospel to Muslims, Jews, cult members, and skeptics.

For most of his life, Abdu was a proud Muslim, who studied the Qur'an and Islam. During the course of a years-long investigation into the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the major world religions, Abdu discovered that only the evidence for the historic Christian faith could withstand the toughest challenges. The results of Abdu’s intense search, coupled with the Lord’s drawing of his heart, led him to put his faith in Jesus as the one and only sufficient Savior. Since that time, Abdu has dedicated his ministry to reaching non-Christians with the Gospel in ways that touch the heart and the mind and teaching Christians to do the same.

Abdu has spoken in numerous venues both in the United States and internationally, including churches, convention centers, and college campuses. He has been a featured guest on radio talk shows across the United States and on numerous national and international television programs, including Newswatch, Stand to Reason with Greg Koukl, CrossExamined with Dr. Frank Turek, The Bob Dutko Show, and SRN News. Abdu hosts Embrace the Truth, a radio show heard on WLQV in Detroit and worldwide on the internet and by podcast.

As an author, Abdu’s articles have been published and translated into different languages. He has contributed chapters and content to major books on apologetics and missiology. Abdu’s first book, Apocalypse Later, was published by Kregel Publications in 2009 and his second book, Grand Central Question, will be published by InterVarsity Press in 2012.

In 1999, Abdu earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1995. He is a member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, and maintains active relationships with many ministries, including Josh McDowell Ministry, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Abdu lives in the Detroit, Michigan area with his wife and their three children.

Dr. Mateen Elass

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?” and “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’s prior ministries include 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, OK, in July 2007. Mateen and his wife Cindy have three children: Brittany and Strider and Kendall, who are all in their 20s.

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 welcome to 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 a 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.”

Friday November 9, 2012

x x x

Saturday November 10, 2012

$35 in advance, $50 at the door

Lunch provided on Saturday

Participant Study Guide also included

Register Now

First Presbyterian Church of Edmond
1001 S. Rankin Street
Edmond, Oklahoma 73034
(405) 341-3602