FEATURED SPEAKER
Fr. Mathias Thelen

Fr. Mathias has been the pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Parish since 2017. He is both a graduate of St. John Vianney College Seminary and of the University of St Thomas in St Paul, MN where he earned bachelor degrees in both Philosophy and Catholic Studies. He attended Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit for his graduate seminary formation and after graduation was ordained a priest on June 11, 2010 for the Diocese of Lansing.

He served in several parishes for four years before joining the faculty of Sacred Heart as a spiritual director and assistant professor of theology. In 2016, Fr. Thelen earned his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Angelicum in Rome. He is the author of the book, Biblical Foundations for the Role of Healing in Evangelization (Wipf and Stock, 2018) and has appeared in the documentaries Fearless (2017) and Revive (2020).

In addition to serving as Pastor of St. Patrick, Fr. Mathias is the co-founder and President of Encounter Ministries which exists to form and equip people to demonstrate the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of their spiritual gifts. He loves being a Pastor and helping people to know the saving love of Jesus.