My Ordination Story at NID

http://www.peopleablaze.org/Index.asp?PageID=13127


Leader of Arabic Outreach Now Ordained, Installed
September 2010


Above: District President Rev. Dan Gilbert, right, bestows the blessing on Hicham Chehab during his ordination at Peace, Lombard. Below: Other scenes from the ordination.




Pastor Hicham Chehab grew up in a world of bitter animosity between Muslims and Christians, which he experienced personally in a physical attack when only about 7. By age 13 he was recruited by an extremist Muslim group, but a study of the Sermon on the Mount, during college, brought him to faith. Pastor Chehab later earned an M.A. in the history of the Arabs and did Ph.D. studies in the history of Islam. He emigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon and completed his pastoral education at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

While enrolled in the seminary, Chehab came to Northern Illinois to work in Arabic outreach through a partnership that included the Northern Illinois District LCMS, Trinity Lutheran Church in Roselle, and a board representing POBLO (People of the Book Lutheran Outreach mission society out of Detroit) and other area congregations.

This summer, a new local mission society was formed to work with this ministry. Chicagoland Lutheran Muslim Mission Association includes sustaining congregations:
Peace Lutheran Church, Lombard
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Brookfield
St. John Lutheran Church, LaGrange
Trinity Lutheran Church, Roselle
Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle
And supporting congregations:
St. John Lutheran Church, Lombard
St. Mark Lutheran Church, St. Charles
Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Alsip
Tabor Lutheran Church, Chicago
Hicham Chehab was ordained as a pastor in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and installed as associate pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Lombard, Illinois, on August 15, 2010. He will continue to serve as missionary of the Chicagoland Lutheran Muslim Mission Association, which planted Salam Arabic Church, conducts campus ministry and provides assistance to new immigrants and refugees.