Pastor Saleem Shalash is the senior pastor and founder of Home of Jesus the King Church, located in Nazareth, the hometown of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Saleem is a born-and-bred Nazarene, and grew up in the town of Nazareth in a Catholic family. He attended Catholic church for many years, until as a teenager he decided to leave the church and to live a normal life like any other teenager in Nazareth.
After Pastor Saleem graduated from high school, he went on to study tourism at the Hebrew University and successfully received his qualification to function as a travel agent in Israel. Pastor Saleem also served in the Nazareth police force for more than 4 years as a volunteer.
On the 6th of August 1994 Pastor Saleem’s life took a dramatic turn. One of his oldest and dearest friends, who was a believer, was involved in a devastating car accident which she did not survive. Shortly after this event Pastor Saleem started seriously contemplating life and the meaning thereof. The Lord spoke to him one day, saying: “Saleem, someone died so that you might have a brand-new life through rebirth. This message was directly from the Lord for me, and he couldn’t do anything else except throw himself at the Lord’s feet. He prayed and asked Jesus to become his Lord and Savior right there and then.
After this the Lord lead him to a Baptist church in Nazareth where he found his family in Christ. A hunger for the Word of God had been developing within him, and so he started his journey into the Word of God. The Pastor of that church also gave him his very first Bible to which he was so overcome that he broke down in tears.
Shortly thereafter the Lord led Pastor Saleem to start his studies at the Bethlehem Bible College, where he successfully graduated and received his B.A. degree, upon which he continued to serve the Lord at another Baptist church in Nazareth. He served there as a minister for 3 years while continuing his studies in theology at the ICB college in Netanya, where he received his M.A. degree in ministry later on.
At the time of his studies at the ICB (Israeli College of the Bible) there were 12 Arab pastors and 12 Jewish pastors studying together, day after day, in the same auditorium. These assembled Pastors felt that they were seeing the manifestation of what God had spoken about the last days in the book of Revelation, that “Arab and Jews will love God together,” as well as in Deuteronomy 32:43 that reads “Rejoice, you nations, with his people.” They truly felt that they were living a historical days, performing the will of God in Israel.
Pastor Saleem continued his studies online and through correspondence, and during May 2018 he received his doctorate degree in theology from the international bible college in Los Angeles. Pastor Saleem has been serving as the Senior Pastor at Home of Jesus the King Church for the past seven years. He is married to a wonderful woman called Nisreen, and they have two beautiful children, a son Suleiman and a daughter Nardeen. They live together in Nazareth and are walking in faith and obedience to God as a family established in Jesus Christ.
