Our Goals
The Al-Ma’idah Initiative exists to promote and facilitate friendship and conversation between the Christian and Muslim communities in Seattle and beyond.
We do this by:
Helping local churches to understand, meet and befriend their Muslim neighbors.
Networking Muslim students to Christian professionals.
Educating Muslims and Christians on the important differences and similarities between our worldviews.
The Mission
The word Al-Ma’idah in Arabic, means ‘the Table’ but the word means more than a piece of wood, it conjures an image of a table filled with food and conversation.
We have been working on building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world for 5 years and have been able to facilitate meaningful conversations and real friendships between people of different beliefs and cultures.
One of our key values which allows us to do this as Christians, is a belief in the total sovereignty and power of God.
We believe God’s plan for individuals and nations is unstoppable, that truth is invincible and history itself has a destination!
Because of this, the pressure is not on us, to ‘convert’ people or change anyones mind, but rather to speak the truth in love and leave the results to God.
Many Muslims have a similar belief, which gives us a unique opportunity to talk and even disagree about life's deepest issues and still go home as friends at the end of the night.
What about you? Do you want to distance yourself from those who think differently from you? Or will you join us at the table, eat good food and talk about what’s really important?
Islam and Christianity are the two biggest ideas on the planet and we really need to talk…
We want this conversation to happen everywhere, but we believe this conversation needs to happen where we are first.
There are over 150,000 Muslims in the Greater Seattle area...
So we want every Muslim in Seattle to know a Christian who cares about them as an individual.
We are working towards this by focusing on three things, we call them our 'Pillars.'
Educate. Equip. Engage.
Educate.
Training Christians to understand Islam as a worldview and Muslims as human beings.
We have been reading the Islamic source materials, interacting with and studying the Muslim world for more than 6 years and have begun developing resources to help Christians fearlessly meet and befriend their Muslim neighbors in true companionship where an open two way discussion of faith is a a natural part of the friendship.
We want Christians and Muslims to be well acquainted with the people and world-views around them and to know their own and each others source materials well.
We believe that when people are educated for themselves, instead of relying on the words of others great things will happen!
Because of this, we are committed to making Christian resources easier for Muslims to access through translation into languages and dialects, with a special focus on Khaliji and Hejazi Arabic.
Equip.
Helping Christians feel confident and competent to interact well with their Muslim neighbors.
So often we want to share the deepest things of our life and faith with others, but don't feel like we have the words or skills to do so. Our hope is to help Christians to understand the Muslim community in such a way that we are able to share what we believe in a respectful and friendly way that cuts past superficial interactions and rehearsed arguments, so that we can communicate in friendship, but also with courage and clarity.
Engage.
Helping Local churches connect their people to their Muslim neighbors.
As well as providing training we want to use our network to build real tangible relationships between local churches in the Seattle area with the Muslim community, through keeping them up to date on Muslim activities in their regions that Christians would be welcomed into and training leaders in each congregation to rally people to meet their Muslim neighbors.
We then provide ongoing coaching to our partner churches to help them have consistent connection and communication with the Muslim world.
One of the greatest needs and opportunities in the Muslim community is tangible support and and mentoring from people outside of the Muslim community. Have you been wanting to find ways to meet your neighbors in the city? Have you ever wondered how you could use what you do for work to have conversations about what's most important in life? We can help!
We accomplish these goals by hosting training events at local churches and then using our network and haphazard people skills to connect them to a local Muslim community.
We aren't just here for academics, we want to make sure everyone we work with is committed to practical engagement of the Muslims in their city.