The reemergence of Messianic Jewish congregations in the late twentieth century North America is not directly linked to the Messianic Judaism of the first through fourth centuries nor to the European Messianic developments such as that of Rabinowitz or the London Mildmay Mission.  Rather, it is an outgrowth of evangelical Protestantism that flourished in the absence of a State Church.  Independently minded North Americans have approached church development with the same pioneering spirit that impelled coast to coast expansion.  In every locale, adjustments were made to existing church models to fit geographical, social, and cultural requirements.[1] 

American Messianic Jewish congregations represent another adaptation of Evangelical Protestantism to the diverse American context.  And it is the very diversity of the American context that complicates description of North American Messianic Judaism.  Presently, there are as many as 200 to 250 Messianic congregations in North America.  David Brickner of Jews for Jesus comments:

We have surveys from over 800 Messianic congregations in our files.  They start up and go out of existence almost overnight.  There are probably no more than 150 to 200 in existence at any one time.[2]

Sources

In this section, I will not attempt to treat every facet of the constantly changing American Messianic Jewish landscape.  Rather, I have selected individuals and congregations to characterize it.  Such a characterization must certainly leave out much of what some will consider essential elements of Messianic Judaism.  The sources for this characterization include 62 surveys completed by congregational leaders and interviews with Roy Schwarcz, a Messianic pastor; Suzanne, a new convert; Steve Katz, a Messianic worship leader; Jeff Feinberg, a scholar; and Rich, a member of “Generation X.”  The subsequent sections on fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism will draw on these sources as well as Messianic literature, my personal visits to congregations in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisville, and Cincinnati, as well as conversations with Messianic leaders from Boston, Atlanta, Hartford, Houston, and New York.

The Surveys

In November 1996, I mailed written survey forms (Appendix I) to 200 addresses of known Messianic congregations in the United States and Canada.  Ten survey forms were returned for incorrect addresses and sixty-two were completed and returned by congregational leaders.  The purpose of the survey was to provide a statistical base for an analysis of Messianic congregational fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism.[3]  Not all of the survey forms were completely filled out and often there were multiple responses by one congregation to the same question.[4]  In the data cited here, I have tabulated all of their responses.  Where there was no reply, I assumed that the respondents were unable or unwilling to respond.[5] 

Of the congregations surveyed, 3 were missions of other churches, 12 were started by denominational or mission agencies, 31 by groups of individuals, and 11 by the current congregational leader.  Only one congregation was founded before 1970, with 4 founded in the seventies, 13 from 1981-85, 11 from 1986-90, 23 from 1991-95, and 5 since 1996.  Most meet for worship on the Jewish Sabbath, 30 on Friday evenings and 47 on Saturday mornings.  For the most part, smaller congregations (40 participants and less) have the largest attendance on Friday evenings, while the larger congregations have the greatest attendance on Saturday mornings.  Only 10 congregations had Wednesday evening meetings and only one congregation met on Sunday mornings.  Other midweek meetings included prayer meetings, Israeli dance classes, Hebrew lessons, and home fellowship groups.  Most congregations meet on borrowed or rented church premises, while ten owned or leased their own buildings. 

Table 1.–Meeting Times, Attendance, and Locations

Time	Average Attendance
	1 to 5	6 to 10	11 to 20	21 to 30	31 to 40	41 to 50	51 to 75	76 to 100	101 to 150	151 to 250	250+
Fri pm	1	2	5	6	2	2	3	2	2	3	3
Sat am	1	2	2	5	3	6	5	6	2	5	1
Sun am									1
Sun pm			1
Wed pm	1	2	5		2	1	1				1
Other	3	4	7	2	1	1	2

Location	Fri pm	Sat am	Sun am	Sun pm	Wed pm	Other
Own Building	11	10		1	4	8
Another Church	15	22			1	6
Public Premises	1	3	1		2	2
Private Home	3	2		1	3	4

Respondents in 45 congregations believe that their congregations are growing, while 17 were concerned about declining attendance.  Survey data showed that 38 were maintaining slow but steady growth in the number of “committed members” with 12 decreasing significantly over the last five to ten years. 

Table 2.–Number of Committed Members in Congregations

Number of Members
1 to 5	6 to 10	11 to 15	16 to 20	21 to 30	31 to 40	41 to 50	51 to 60	61 to 100	101 to 150	151 to 200	201 to 250	251 +
1	8	2	12	11	4	4	4	6	3	2	1	1
Number of Congregations

A total of 58 congregations reported total committed membership of 3,111, 40% of whom are Jewish by background.  The congregational leaders of 31 congregations claimed a Jewish upbringing, though only 11 were Conservative or Orthodox.[6]  The backgrounds of the Jewish members are 9% Orthodox Jewish, 22% Conservative Jewish, 31% Reform Jewish, 34% secular, and 4% second generation Messianic Jews.[7]  Most couples are mixed marriages with one Jewish and one Gentile partner.  Only a very few members (less than 1%) maintained membership in a traditional Jewish synagogue. 

The survey indicated a pattern of congregational polity equally divided between the traditional American “pastoral” model and a “plurality of elders” modeled after the synagogue.  Most leaders take the title of “Pastor” or “Rabbi,”[8] with others who have not had ministerial training preferring “Congregational Leader.”  Of the 56 congregational leaders who listed their ages, 41 are older than forty.[9]  Half of the congregations have part-time or bivocational ministers, and 21 congregations have others who minister under the authority of the Pastor/Rabbi.

A Messianic Pastor (Roy Schwarcz)[10]

Roy Schwarcz began his ministry to Jews in the early sixties as a missionary for Chosen People Ministries (The American Board of Missions to the Jews).  His initial success was in personal evangelism, especially on college campuses in the Northeast. 

I have had success at book tables at college campuses, finding points of contact [with other Jews].  College campuses are places where you can network together with other believers and be a resource for them to bring Jews, or as a place where Jewish people can come.  I had book tables at student unions in upstate New York in Albany, Cornell, Ithaca College, Colgate, Syracuse, Harvard, the Northeast.  I would set up a table once a month and work with the student groups and make contacts to have a monthly Bible study.

At that time, there were not yet any Messianic congregations and his mission agency was opposed to them in principle because:

. . . they saw it [the Messianic Jewish congregation] as a wall of partition [between Jewish and Gentile believers].  I was never really comfortable with that stand.  I thought that a Messianic congregation would be an effective place to disciple Jewish believers.  [Later,] I came out to Chicago to go to Bible school and was associated with a Baptist regional director of missions.  His perspective was church planting.  So, between the two of us, his desire to plant churches and my desire to disciple Jewish believers, we began to look at planting a Messianic congregation in Chicago. 

Schwarcz felt at the time that the Messianic Jewish movement was “theologically eclectic at best” and this was reflected in the congregations that were just beginning in other cities.  He thought it counterproductive for Messianic Jews to forsake the fledgling congregational movement, especially since it was beginning to attract a number of believing Jews out of the Gentile churches. 

Jews were flocking there.  We needed Messianic congregations which were theologically sound.  So we started one.  [In the process] I saw the benefit of the local church [as a venue for both evangelism and discipleship] and really came to see the benefit of the congregation and discipling Jewish people through the congregation. 

The first congregation Schwarcz planted was The Olive Tree Congregation in Glenview, a prosperous (and largely Jewish) suburb of Chicago.

It went from thirty people at the first service, to when I left, it was running about a hundred.  Now it is an ongoing viable congregation that continues to lead Jewish and Gentile people to the Lord.  Two years later, I began another congregation in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.  It, too, now is viable.

He found that Messianic congregations have a number of benefits over the traditional American evangelical church.

Positively speaking, the benefits are that here is a venue for Jewish believers who feel in someway estranged from the church to put together their essential Jewishness with Jesus and to understand how the two relate.  A second benefit is providing a venue for mixed married couples.  Primarily this has been the greatest benefit of the Messianic congregation.  This is because there are couples who are uncomfortable in both the church and the synagogue.  They think, “What are we going to do?”  Then they see a sign for a congregation called “Light of Israel” or “Olive Tree Congregation—A Jewish Christian Fellowship” and think, “Maybe this is something for us.”  And so they will come, maybe through a Gentile Christian who has been praying for them, who brings them to a Passover or Rosh Hashanah service.  All these various Holy Day programs [in Messianic congregations] are points of contact, because to be a Jew is to have a point of contact at one of these times and seasons that God appointed.  So here is an entrée into God from a Jewish perspective that opens the door to the possibility of Jesus.  From that comes the personal contact that leads them to overcome some of the objections they have to Jesus or, in the case of the other spouse, objections to Judaism, and to learn how the two merge together in Jesus. 

The socialization of children in which life’s values are passed on to the next generation, is most often done in the context of religious education.  Schwarcz sees this as another benefit of the Messianic congregational life.  The congregation becomes a place where Messianic Jews can imbue their children with a strong consciousness of both Jewish and Jesus-believing identities. 

One of the delights for me has been with my daughter (age 10).  When we moved to a new neighborhood and she came home from her first day at a new school, I asked her if she met any Jewish kids.  She answered, “Well they say they are Jewish—but they don’t believe in Jesus.  Daddy, how can they be Jewish and not believe in Jesus?”  That kind of assurance and confidence came through participation in the Messianic congregation.  That is the blessing of a Messianic congregation.  It is a real loss when there isn’t that Messianic Jewish contact for our kids.  Then there is a disconnection between their Jewish identity and Jesus.  That is the advantage of the whole Messianic congregational movement, it promotes identity. 

Schwarcz values the fellowship he has in Messianic circles, and continues to fellowship at the congregations he has started.  Recently, he has started a new Messianic fellowship as part of Moody Church in downtown Chicago.  They meet twice a month on Fridays to draw together believing and unbelieving Jews who desire to further explore the claims of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

A New Convert (Suzanne)[11]

Suzanne is in her thirties and lives in the Glenview suburb of Chicago where Roy Schwarcz started The Olive Tree Congregation.  I met her at a convention for Messianic Jews sponsored by the Chicago office of Jews for Jesus.  She was most eager to share the story of her recent discovery of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

I came to the Lord one year ago, the day after Thanksgiving.  What brought me to the Lord was really coming to the end of my rope.  I really went through a great bout [of difficulty] where I really couldn’t function [effectively in life] any more.  There was really nowhere I could go to get any kind of help or support or hope because I had really kind of exhausted all my choices.  I had been through every kind of self-help, psychotherapy, New Age, past lives, everything, and I was still looking for peace.  I finally got to a point where I really didn’t have a choice but to turn to God and ask him to tell me the truth.  I needed God to show me the way. 

She had a virtual mental breakdown and although she was not hospitalized, she found herself totally adrift and in mental stress.  A Gentile Christian friend of nine years was the only person who supported her during this time of crisis.  At the same time, she met some other Messianic Jews.

The week I came to the Lord, He started placing Jewish believers in my path everywhere I went in coincidental ways.  Before that week happened, where I really went into breakdown, I was in contact with a friend of nine years that was a Christian.  She always served as the kind of example of the kind of life that I wanted to have and the kind of hope and peace that I wanted to have.  At the end of a week of tumult and confusion, I accepted the Lord in her home.  That was one year ago next week.

Living in Glenview, she had often passed by The Olive Tree Congregation.  She was fascinated by their sign that read, “Jews and Gentiles Sharing New Life in Messiah.”  She had always been a liberal and open-minded thinker, and she wondered how “Jew” and “Jesus” could fit together.

I have always been on the periphery in my thinking.  The word “Jews” said to me that it was a place where Jews go.  It was always very appealing to me.  But because I knew that somehow Jesus had something to do with it, I felt that I had to rest my curiosity and stay away from that place.

After her conversion experience her Gentile friend suggested that she visit Olive Tree.

The day I walked in there, the worship leader quoted from the Haftarah [a scripture portion from the Prophets] that I had [read] when I was Bat Mitzvahed.  That was another revelation to me that God was really with me and that was where He wanted me to be.  I have attended there ever since.

Her continuing attachment to Olive Tree as a Messianic congregation is a result of her strong identity as a Jew.

What I love about the Olive Tree is that it appeals to my strong Jewish background.  I am Jewish through and through.  I didn’t know that when I accepted the Lord that I could still be Jewish.  I didn’t think about that.  I just needed to know the Lord as true.  I needed to know God.  I didn’t know that I was going to have the privilege of still being Jewish.  Praise God that I can still be Jewish!  This is important because Jewishness is just a very rich part of my life, part of the fabric of who I am.

The music and the liturgy generate an intense inner response.

What I love about the worship at Olive Tree is mostly  the music.  The music is a big part of worship.  We have a nice combination of the Jewish kind of music I grew up with and prayers which I recited in the synagogue.  We say the Shema, and other traditional prayers, but there is a contemporary flavor there too.  We do contemporary songs—songs I have heard on the Moody station or that I heard at Willow Creek [a contemporary style evangelical church].  There is still that Jewish solid base, but it is also contemporary in the way that I can be expressively joyful in my own worship.  And that is what I love about Olive Tree. 

Suzanne understands the life of faith to be Jewish at its root.

The Christian experience there is really a Jewish experience.  I know there are some people who will say Messianic congregations shouldn’t exist, they are biblically wrong, or they shouldn’t be, or they put up walls and barriers, and I suppose that for some people, they might.  But, I think that there is a right home for each one of us.  The Olive Tree provides a real home for me in that I can experience Christianity really from the experience of my Jewish roots and that it is a completely Jewish experience.  Really Christianity is a Jewish faith.  That is the truth.  The truth is that Christianity stands on Judaism and is the fulfillment of Judaism. 

Even New Testament epistles addressed to predominantly Gentile churches are part of her Jewish experience.

When we go into the New Testament, we are not going into a Gentile experience or a Gentile interpretation of God.  It is God’s Word and we can experience that as Jews and not feel alienated because the New Testament is God’s Word to Jew and Gentile alike. 

It was a surprise for Suzanne to find out that the New Testament was not written by Gentiles but by Jews:

Another thing that is important that you learn at a Messianic congregation that I never hear at Gentile churches—I’m not putting Gentile congregations down—is that the writers of the New Testament were Jews.  That is the truth!  At Olive Tree, it is acknowledged that the New Testament is Jewish stuff.  It makes it a home for me.  I treasure that.

Olive Tree has indeed become her new home, as she has yet to be able to share effectively with her family about her new life of faith.

I have told my mother and father, and my sister and brother-in-law.  They are the only ones in my family who know about my faith.  I have had conversations with my mother and sister.  My father cannot handle this right now.  My family are Reform Jews and they don’t hear the reasoning about Jesus as Messiah.  It is very threatening for me right now to try to share my beliefs with my Jewish friends.  I have one girlfriend who is resistant to my even talking about it with her.  I have another girlfriend who is very accepting of me as a Christian and supports me in it and yet, I am threatened to say to her, “How about for you?”  It is scary for me.  I pray for them.  In the meantime, I am close to my Jewish and Gentile family at Olive Tree.

A Messianic Worship Leader (Steve Katz)[12]

High school in the seventies was a time of rebellion for this Jewish young man from Chicago.  He was not serious about religion; neither was he serious about his studies, so he went to college without really having a sense of any future career.  He went because this was what his parents expected.  One of his college professors, who was also Jewish, assigned him a research paper on why Jews had traditionally rejected Jesus.  Steve read the New Testament, spoke to two local pastors, and consulted two rabbis to gain an understanding of why this “very Jewish” Jesus had been rejected as Messiah.  The more he studied, the more he entertained a suspicion that the Jewish rejection of Jesus had indeed been a mistake.  Although he was not ready to admit this publicly, he was beginning to believe that Jesus might have been the promised One after all. 

During his college years, he became deeply involved with a Gentile woman who had grown up in a Christian home.  Although they were from different religious backgrounds, their strong attraction to one another overcame their religious and cultural differences.  Sometime later in their relationship,

. . . she rededicated her life as a Christian.  I began to see a real change in her life.  And then, this may sound silly, but our dog played a part in my salvation.  We had this dog, a puppy we really loved.  One day we lost him in a snowstorm.  We were both devastated.  I suggested that she pray that God would bring him back.  She said, “You pray.”  I mumbled some sort of appeal to God, though I hadn’t prayed since I was a child in the synagogue.  The next day our puppy was found and returned to us!  A few other events like this for which I had no explanation other than that God was actively answering prayer, began to open me up to faith. 

Before long, he started attending Christian Bible studies held on the campus.  His new-found faith in Jesus awakened memories of his childhood synagogue experiences and he began to yearn for a reconciliation of his Jewishness and his Christian faith.  In 1976, he joined B’nai Maccabim, a Messianic congregation.

I felt really at home there.  I was from a Conservative Jewish background and so I enjoyed the Hebrew songs, the Torah readings in Hebrew, and the liturgy of the synagogue which they adapted for believers.  Because I was talented musically and was comfortable singing in Hebrew, I began to be the worship leader.  The congregation was built on the Plymouth Brethren model of plurality of elders, and after I had been there for a number of years, I was made one of three elders.  Two of us elders were Jewish and one was a Gentile.  I was there for fourteen years.  At the same time, I was working with Campus Crusade as a minister.

Today he is Minister-at-Large with Jews for Jesus at their San Francisco headquarters.  He attends Congregation Teferet Israel where he continues to lead the worship. 

I really love the Hebrew liturgy and language, but I get upset when Messianic Jews try to make things “too Jewish.”  One of the problems that I have with the Messianic congregational movement is that often the emphasis of the teaching is not about the spiritual life, but is focused on being Jewish.  This was one of the objections that I had to our worship at B’nai Maccabim when I first visited there in Chicago.  There is a beauty in our heritage, but when it gets overdone, “Yucch!”  This is particularly disgusting when Gentiles try to become more Jewish than Jews!

In his capacity as Minister-at-Large with Jews for Jesus, he is in regular contact with Messianic congregations throughout North America.  He tries to keep abreast of their growth and development so that he can refer other Messianic Jews to these congregations for fellowship.  As an observer of the Messianic congregational movement, he has two concerns that trouble him:

Some of the Messianic congregations are fudging on the deity of Christ.  What I mean is that they are either obscuring the clear scriptural teaching concerning Jesus’ deity so as not to offend Jews, or they are actually drifting away from an understanding of his deity.  Another thing that concerns me is that more and more congregations are pushing people to be increasingly Torah-observant.  This has progressed from just keeping the Sabbath, kosher, and biblical festivals and Holy Days, to a legalistic imposition of the burden of the Law on Jewish believers.  This makes me wonder what kind of person is being attracted to these congregations.  I recently had some correspondence with a Messianic rabbi in another state who said, “There is no way that Jesus is co-equal with God.”

Despite these concerns, Steve is confident that there is much in Messianic Judaism that bodes well for the future.  Thousands of Jews are becoming believers, over a thousand last year through Jews for Jesus alone.  Congregations are springing up everywhere, and there is reason to believe that the Messianic Jewish congregational movement is maturing.  More and more Messianic congregational leaders are seeking ministerial and theological training.  His own pastor, Scott Rubin, is completing his doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary.  These trends leave him encouraged about the future of American Messianic Judaism.

A Scholar (Jeff Feinberg)[13]

There are not many Messianic leaders who can claim to be scholars.[14]  Jeff Feinberg, leader of Etz Chaim, a Messianic congregation that meets in the Buffalo Grove suburb of Chicago is an exception.  Jeff had an Orthodox Jewish upbringing with a strong background in Talmudic and Hebrew language studies. 

He became a believer while he was doing graduate studies at University of California at Berkeley.  He received his Ph.D. in educational development after studying at Stanford.  In the seventies he moved to Chicago where he has taught Jewish Studies as an Adjunct Professor at Trinity Evangelical Seminary.  Since moving to Chicago, he has been active in the Messianic movement, serving as an elder in a Messianic congregation and as a leader in the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC). 

Feinberg writes Shabbat School materials for the UMJC in which he carefully explains the Torah, incorporating rabbinic and Talmudic materials and a detailed exposition of the Hebrew language of the text.  A few years ago, he moved with his family to Israel.

We went to Tel Aviv, not certain of whether it was the place for us or not.  We thought that we ought to try living there for a while as an experiment.  We didn’t really feel at home there.  We lived in a neighborhood where there were many government officials, businessmen, and educators, but we never were able to connect.  To add to that, we were very unhappy with the educational system for our children.  We want them to be able to do doctoral studies in America, but they weren’t getting adequate exposure to English language training which would equip them for American university life.  Although they quickly mastered Hebrew, they were already too old to master the vocabulary they would need to effectively interact in Israeli Hebrew graduate studies.  So, we came back to Chicago where we can relate to other Messianic Jews and continue to develop our own educational materials for congregations, teach occasionally at the seminary, and see to it that our children are properly educated as Jews, believers, and English speakers.

Presently, Feinberg serves as leader and teacher of a new Messianic congregation that meets in a school auditorium.  Thirty to forty gather to hear him on Friday evenings as he teaches the Torah and leads the worship.  He has a pleasant demeanor and a gentle teaching style.  His teaching starts in the Torah, explaining some element of the Mosaic Law, then moves to the Haftarah expansion of the concept in the Prophets, and concludes with the fulfillment in the B’rit Chadashah (New Testament).  He chants the Hebrew text of his lessons, explaining the reasoning behind the rising and falling intonation.  He demonstrates extensive knowledge of rabbinic teaching.  His commitment to scholarship is strong, and his congregation is gaining a depth of understanding of their Jewish faith that goes far beyond the surface understanding that has previously characterized much of the Messianic movement.

A Member of “Generation X” (Rich)[15]

At a lecture by Jhan Moskowitz of Jews for Jesus on the contextualization of the gospel message for Jews, a young man, whom we will call Rich, addressed the speaker:

It is obvious that Jews for Jesus and the Messianic movement have been oriented to the Baby Boomers and those who came out of the sixties counterculture.  My question is, “Can Jews for Jesus and the Messianic Movement develop a strategy for reaching those of us in Generation X?”

Moskowitz agreed that this is a problem that the Messianic movement needs to face if it is going to succeed in reaching future generations of Jews.

After the lecture, I sought Rich out to gain an understanding of his perspective as a member of Generation X.  He is a medical doctor who lives with his wife and two young children on the East coast.  He comes from a Reform Jewish background, but like so many liberally-educated Jews, he finds Jewish religious practice impractical for everyday living.  While he was doing his undergraduate work, he became a believer in Jesus independently of Christian evangelistic efforts.

I became a Christian in college in Pittsburgh.  I was surrounded by Christians, but my revelation of Jesus as Messiah was a directly personal one.  It wasn’t by anything that anyone directly said to me.  Over time, as I considered what I knew of Jesus from my day-to-day exposure to Christian doctrine and teaching, I found that I was convinced of his Messiahship.

While in medical school, he began attending a charismatic Messianic congregation that did not emphasize much Jewish tradition.  Dissatisfied with that experience, he found another Messianic congregation that integrated Jewish and Christian teachings in a manner that was relevant to the concerns of those in Generation X.

I am concerned about reaching Generation X because I am in that group.  I wonder whether Jews for Jesus or any Messianic group has begun to grapple with what it will take to reach this generation.  Our congregation was able to relate.  It was personally oriented.  They didn’t make a big deal out of legalistic structures like how you dressed, obeying the Law, or whether you wanted to worship on Friday or Sunday.  They had services both times.  They didn’t have an “our culture is better than yours” attitude which most of the other places do.  They didn’t have an “our doctrine is clear as ice and twice as cold” approach.  This was the perspective of a Messianic congregation led by a Dallas Seminary graduate which we were part of for a time.  What he said was true, but it just didn’t have anything to do with my life Monday through Friday.  On top of that, people there were always talking about how great the pastor/rabbi was.  To me, that was a turn off.  The real issue is how the congregation is when the pastor/rabbi isn’t there.

Rich believes that the doctrinaire emphasis of so many Messianic congregations is irrelevant to his generation.  In particular, he does not like the legalistic interpretations of those who call themselves “Torah-observant.”

I don’t think my generation responds well to this Torah stuff.  I think that there is a certain group who need that emphasis, the “Conservadox” and Orthodox.  If you are going to reach them, you need to identify with them.  But most Jews, and especially those of my generation, are not “Conservadox.”  Most Jews are much more liberal than I am and what they want to know is how I as a Christian deal with life, with kids, or with them as Jews when they do something I don’t like.  How do we interact with each other when we don’t agree?  That is why I think that we need to grow out of this arguing as Jews.  I  don’t think it is just our culture to argue;  I think it is bad.  A hearing needs to be earned by loving.  It won’t be earned by wearing a yarmulke.  They don’t listen to the Orthodox Jews; they aren’t going to listen to us if we act like Orthodox Jews.

Rich is convinced that Messianic Jews do have a message that Generation X Jews will hear.

The number one thing we need to do is love and then speak the truth.  The Law does not need to be the number one issue.  We are in the same situation as the first century people were.  What is written we understand word for word.  What they read and were looking for wasn’t what they got.  I think we are in the same circumstances.  We must find a way to communicate the love of Jesus in real and practical everyday ways.  That will speak to my generation.

Rich, like Roy, Suzanne, Steve, and Jeff, has struggled with his identity as a believer in Jesus.  Each of them seeks to be faithful to his/her Jewish heritage while exploring faith in Jesus.  To one degree or another, they have succeeded in the context of the Messianic congregation.

Fellowship

In this section, we will describe how American Messianic congregations function in fellowship.  There is no typical Messianic congregation, but there are those that are prototypical for many of the congregations in the North American Messianic movement.  I propose to describe two congregations, one on the East coast and one on the West coast, which represent two ends of the spectrum of Messianic congregational expression.

First, we will describe Friday evening Shabbat service of Beth Yeshua in Philadelphia.  We will then compare it with Teferet Israel in San Francisco.  These two congregations are differentiated by a number of factors.  The Chernoffs and the Finkelsteins founded Beth Yeshua in the seventies.  It has become the flagship congregation of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) and the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS).  Beth Yeshua is charismatic in worship style, with a lively musical tradition.  It is the home for the Messianic musical groups “Lamb” and “Kol Simcha.”  It freely incorporates Jewish symbols and elements of Jewish tradition in its furnishings and religious observance.  Teferet Israel is a Baptist congregation, with a number of its congregation from the Jews for Jesus organization.  Its worship style is less formal than Beth Yeshua, non-charismatic and employing few Jewish symbols.  As the “home congregation” for many of the Jews for Jesus staff members, it, too, has had wide influence in the Messianic congregational movement.

Beth Yeshua

Beth Yeshua Congregation is located in the Overbrook Park suburb of Philadelphia, an upper-income neighborhood with a large Jewish population.  Its building is a remodeled restaurant in a neighborhood shopping area.[16]  As many as two hundred adults gather on Friday evenings.  The late model cars in the parking lot give the impression of affluence.  The building itself is contemporary in style, freshly painted, and neatly appointed.  On the inside, people are well dressed in casual clothing.  The majority of people are Baby Boomers, with a significant number of young adults.  There are many young children, but few teenagers.  The Israeli and American flags are prominently displayed next to the “Ark” that contains the Torah scrolls.  There are banners with Hebrew inscriptions hanging from the walls with the Shema, the Decalogue, and various scripture portions.  Men, women, and children sit together without the Orthodox mechitzah (a partition that divides men and women).  Seats are arranged in a semi-circle around the bimah (a raised speaker’s platform).  There is a large open space in front of the bimah for congregational worship in dance.  Next to the podium, a musical combo is set up with drums, keyboard, bass guitar, and saxophone.  There is no choir section, nor is there a mikveh (baptismal pool) in evidence. 

The service begins with a Torah reading in Hebrew by Joe Finkelstein, one of three Messianic “rabbis” who serve the congregation.  Finkelstein wears the traditional kippah and tallit, as do as many as twenty or thirty other men in the congregation.  Another thirty or so wear only the kippah.[17]  After the Torah reading, which Finkelstein chants in traditional Orthodox fashion, he leads lively Israeli-style music.  The congregation is called to worship with fast-paced “praise choruses” that continue for at least thirty minutes.  The instrumental accompaniment is exceptional and of professional quality.  Finkelstein leads the singing in Hebrew and English, assisted by two women and a tallit and kippah clad “cantor.”  The praise choruses mix Israeli-style folk melodies with songs common to American evangelical charismatic churches.  The lyrics lack theological sophistication and are repeated over and over.  Israeli-style dancing is encouraged and a dance troupe in Eastern European costume leads fifteen to twenty adults in dance in front of the bimah.  Rabbi David Chernoff, his spouse, and a female guest remain seated on the bimah while Finkelstein, the worship team, and the congregation stand for worship.

When the musicians finish, the children are dismissed for Shabbat School, and David Chernoff addresses the congregation.  He introduces his guest, “Dr. Rabbi” Ruth Fleischer, who claims to be the leader of the London Messianic Fellowship.[18]  Following her testimony, Chernoff made a strong appeal for financial support of Beth Yeshua’s ministries.  After the offering, Chernoff descended from the bimah to address the congregation.[19] Chernoff’s message was a development of Exodus 17 entitled, “Whose Banner Are You Under?”  There was no apparent organization to his sermon.  He moved from topic to topic without transition.  He spoke of Moses as an intercessor, applying it to the congregation,

You have to keep your hands up or Israel loses . . . .  That’s the rules that God made up. . . .  [If you don’t intercede,] Amalek can take away all the things in your life.  But, when you are under the banner of God, God is behind you.

The implication was that if you did not intercede for the ministry of Beth Yeshua, holding up your hands in support, then you could not be in the center of God’s will and He would not protect you from Amalek or Ha Satan.  There were constant allusions to the modern Israeli nation and Chernoff consistently fanned flames of anti-Arab passion.  

Everyone is after the Jews in Israel.  Everyone wants to push them out of Jerusalem.  The reason that the Muslims want to get the Jews out of Jerusalem is because there is a big reservoir of oil underneath Jerusalem. 

The “invitation” at the conclusion of his message called for people to come forward to receive Yeshua as savior, to be healed, or to have spiritual needs met.  There was a thirty second prayer for those who desired “salvation” and then another short prayer asking God to “supernaturally heal everyone tonight.”  Following these two brief prayers, Chernoff turned the ministry over to Finkelstein and a “Prayer Team” of ten men and women.  While they continued to minister to the needs of the congregation, the Chernoffs and Fleischer exited the service.  Finkelstein, the Prayer Team, and most of the congregation lingered, praying for one another for over an hour after Chernoff had left.

The overall impression of Beth Yeshua is of a charismatic church with an overlay of Jewish symbolism, music, and liturgy.  As is typical of many charismatic evangelical churches, the congregation of Beth Yeshua enthusiastically supports the vision of their leader, David Chernoff.  Carol Harris-Shapiro’s research at Beth Yeshua showed:

Both the rhetoric of “family” and the rhetoric of “individual spontaneity” that is so much a part of this congregation masks strong communal control and power.  While the elders, and to a lesser extent the shammashim [deacons] serve as an advisory council for David, decisions are still made from the top down.  This hierarchy is enhanced because the leader’s pronouncements are not just his opinions.  As the leadership appointed by God, there is an assumption that God is leading David and other leaders in the congregation.  This “pastoral” model mirrors both Charismatic Catholic leadership structures as well as Spirit-filled Protestant churches, both known to allow for a strong degree of authoritarian control.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Not only does the leadership keep a firm control on worship, but even shapes dating practices.  New members are not allowed to date other congregation members for one year, and Gentile members are strongly discouraged from dating Jewish members.[20]

Visitors were officially welcomed with a packet of materials explaining the vision and mission of Beth Yeshua.  Though there were ushers strategically stationed around the periphery, there was no effort to make visitors feel comfortable.  The distance that the visitor notices may be the result of Beth Yeshua’s experience of dealing with infiltrators and others who are hostile to their mission.  In spite of the distance the visitor feels, it was obvious that Beth Yeshua was a vibrant and growing congregation.  Although it evidences a great deal of theological confusion, it nonetheless exhibits an exuberant devotion to Yeshua.  The Chernoff family has played a strong leadership role in American Messianic Judaism.  This, along with their evangelistic impact in the Jewish community, makes Beth Yeshua an important model for charismatic Messianic congregational expression.

Congregation Teferet Israel

Three thousand miles to the West, Teferet Israel meets in an old church building in an older residential area of San Francisco.  The sanctuary is furnished with wooden pews, has carpeting that is old and worn, a piano, and a small raised platform with a pulpit.  There is a small choir loft, and a baptismal pool with a banner that hangs over with “Yeshua” in Hebrew. 

There are about forty people gathered on this Friday evening and everyone seems to know each other.  Visitors are greeted as they come in the door and made to feel welcome by those around them.  A table by the door has copies of the evening’s order of worship.  The words to songs and corporate prayers are in Hebrew and transliterated English with a translation below. 

Steve Katz leads the worship on guitar.  The congregation begins worship with responsive reading from Psalm 92.  Congregational singing follows with scripture songs, taken mostly from other psalms.  There is no Israeli-style dancing and only Steve and two others wear the kippah.[21]  Congregational prayer follows with the reciting of the Barchu-Aleinu-Sh’ma in Hebrew and English:

READER:

Praise the Lord who is worthy to be praised!

CONGREGATION:

Blessed be the Lord who is worthy to be praised forever and ever!

READER:

It is our obligation to praise the Master of all, to exalt the Creator of the Universe.  He alone has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light through the sacrifice of His only Son, our Lord, Y’shua Ha-Mashiach.

CONGREGATION:

We bend the knee and bow, acknowledging before the supreme King of kings, that it is He who stretched forth the heavens and founded the earth.  For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah Y’shua.

READER:

May all bow in worship before You and give honor to Your Name, accepting the demands of Your reign as we affirm through our confession of faith:

Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai elohenu, Adonai echad.

Baruch shem k’vod malchuto le’olam va’ed.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one! Blessed be His Name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever!

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

READER:

On these two commandments pivot the entire Law and the Prophets.[22]

This is followed by reciting the Apostles’ Creed and more singing.  The Amidah (standing prayer) comes next with more singing, a scripture reading in English, and the evening message.

David Mishkin, a Jews for Jesus campus missionary, brought the message.  Mishkin is articulate and has a good grasp of the use of humor in biblical exposition.  His message recapped the three responses to Jesus in John 9:  rejection (the Pharisees), apathy (the parents of the blind man), and reception (the blind man).  He related this to an experience he had in sharing the gospel with a Jewish student at Berkeley:

I was passing out Broadsides [gospel tracts] and a Jewish student asked me if I would meet him the next day to discuss the gospel further.  I agreed, but when he showed up, it was with another Jewish student who was extremely argumentative and who kept challenging everything I said.  Finally, I turned to the first young man and said, “You are an intelligent young man.  I think you are smart enough to read the New Testament and work this out for yourself.  Don’t depend on what I have said or your friend here has said.  Read it for yourself and see what you think.”

The congregation responded well to this practical application of a Bible story.  It encapsulated the issue of Messianic Jewish witness, getting Jewish unbelievers to consider the claims of Christ for themselves.  Mishkin’s thorough preparation was evident in his use of allusions to Talmudic and rabbinic thought, and his tasteful appeal to the Jewish background experience of his audience.  Rather than giving an invitation at the end of his message, there was a time of further corporate worship in song and prayer.  Afterwards, the congregation gathered in the fellowship hall downstairs for refreshments and fellowship. 

It was apparent that this congregation was not as socially upscale as the congregation at Beth Yeshua.  Neither the building nor the dress of the members spoke of affluence.  In addition, there were several who represented the margins of San Francisco society and who might have seemed socially out of place in Philadelphia.  Nevertheless, the congregation at Teferet Israel exuded a warmth towards one another and to visitors that indicated a loving family, close to one another, but open and accepting of outsiders.

Teferet Israel represents a minimalist approach to congregational Messianic Judaism.  They are openly Jewish, meet on Shabbat, and include many elements of synagogue liturgy that would be familiar to many of their members or Jewish visitors.  Yet, they are forthrightly and unabashedly disciples of Jesus first and Jews second.[23]  Their carefully arranged and explained Jewish liturgy was quietly compelling.  One concludes that Teferet Israel had crafted an environment into which an inquiring Jew might enter and be convinced of the essential Jewishness of faith in Yeshua. 

Additional Elements of Messianic Fellowship

Other significant elements in the fellowship of North American Messianic congregations include the celebrations of the biblical feasts of Passover, Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, Pentecost), Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Purim, Sukkot (Tabernacles), and Chanukah (Feast of Dedication, John 10).  Passover in particular, although traditionally celebrated in the home, has become a time of congregational corporate celebration.  The secular nature of American Jewish life[24] means that many of the participants in Messianic congregations had little exposure in their childhood to any of these holidays other than Passover, Rosh HaShanah, and Yom Kippur.  For the many Gentile members[25] the Messianic congregation has been their first exposure to much of Jewish belief and practice.  Consequently, it is common for these holidays to be a time of instruction (and often redefinition) of their Jewish meaning.  An example of this redefinition to conform to Messianic belief is the Passover celebration.  The Passover meal includes a tradition of breaking of the “middle matzah.”

The breaking of the middle matzah and the wrapping of the middle matzah and the hiding it away represents death.  Death is separation.  Physical death is a separation of the material part of man from the immaterial, the flesh from the soul and the spirit.  Spiritual death is eternal separation from God.  The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death—that it was through Adam that death came upon mankind.  As long as the matzah remained hidden it symbolized that death reigned.  But when the broken matzah was found and returned it symbolized life and resurrection.

The origin of the broken matzah is unclear, but many scholars believe it was instituted by Yeshua (Jesus) Himself at His last Passover.  Even the origin of the word “Afikomen” is lost in antiquity.  Jewish tradition says that it means “dessert.”  However, other scholars believe it comes from a root word meaning “I have come.” 

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

Is it not significant that it is this middle matzah, which was broken and then hid away, finally to be brought back, broken and distributed, that Jesus points to and says, “this is MY [emphasis in original] body which is given for you”?  Is it not significant that Afikomen means—“I have come”?[26]

This reinterpretation of traditional worship to give it a Messianic meaning contributes to the development and enhancement of Jewish identity for Messianic Jews.  For the American Messianic Jew, Jewish identity is of prime importance. 

The self-appointed task of Messianic believers is to claim an ongoing Jewish identity, despite their belief in the divinity and saving power of Jesus of Nazareth.  Herein lies the greatest struggle of all. . . .  [T]his identity claim is clearly contestable, and thus the congregation continually works to re-create and re-establish this identity claim in sermons, music, dance, conversation, and even dress.[27]

Some Messianic Jews feel the need for more identification with the Jewish community than that provided by their mostly small Messianic congregations.  For these few, regular Jewish synagogue attendance and participation in Jewish Community Centers, B’nai B’rith, Hadassah, and other Jewish organizations affords an enhanced sense of Jewish identity.[28]  Unfortunately, these avenues are often closed to Messianic Jews when their identity as believers in Jesus is discovered. 

The congregation is, then, the place where that identity is formed and fortified.  Jewish symbolism, language, furnishings, and rituals serve to establish and affirm that Messianic Jews are indeed Jews.  The congregation becomes the very center of a Messianic Jewish identity that is often questioned by the Gentile church and is consistently denied by the Jewish community.

This does not mean that Messianic Jews uncritically accept the definitions proffered by the American Jewish establishment.  Messianic Jews do not merely want to legitimate their perceived Jewish identity, but to change this identity.  As “saved” people, they understand themselves to be fundamentally different from “unsaved” Jews.  Thus, Messianic Jews seek to actuate two messages:  “We are Jews!”  “We are Messianic Jews!”  The different emphases, on “Jew” and “Messianic,” describes the tension that leads not just to an affirmation of American Jewish identity, but also to a transformation of that identity to fit the new image of a “saved” Jew.[29]

Discipleship

In an effort to return to a genuine Jewishness in their faith in Yeshua, many Messianic congregations have espoused Torah observance as an essential for the Messianic Jew. 

Table 3.–Positions on Torah Observance

What is your position on:	Observing the Mosaic Law?	Keeping the Sabbath?	Keeping Kosher?
Permissible as part of Christian liberty	35	32	34
Mandatory for Jewish believers	8	14	9
Recommended for Jewish believers	33	33	29
Recommended for Gentile believers	19	19	24

These data indicate the importance of Torah observance for Messianic Jews.  Half of the congregations surveyed asserted that not only was observance of elements of the Mosaic Law permissible and recommended for Messianic Jews, but between 13% and 23% thought it mandatory.  Advocates cite effective discipleship as the outcome of Torah observance.  Their position is that while Torah observance is not necessary for salvation according the Romans 3:20 and Galatians 3:23-25, it is enjoined upon Jews throughout all generations.  Dan Juster asserts:

David Stern and myself see Messianic Jews as being under the New Covenant, not under the Mosaic Covenant.  However, the New covenant assumes the continued applicability of the Law as is fitting the New Covenant order in which we now live. . . .  The purpose of the New Covenant is to establish the Torah.[30]  [Emphasis mine]

Ariel Berkowitz explains further:

It seems that the people of Israel have more of a special relationship to all of the teachings of Torah than non-Jewish people have.  Torah was a covenant which God made between them and Himself.  Israel seems to have a unique national calling that individual non-Jewish believers are not given.  Part of fulfilling that calling is to walk according to the Torah as a holy community by means of the Spirit of God.  God desired that there be a nation among the nations to demonstrate His Lordship.  And He has never changed the purpose. . . .  Believing Israel in the first century was a mighty light to the nations, and as a result, many from those nations came to faith and were “grafted in” to the holy community.  Thus, on the other hand, the holy community is the Torah community. . . .  The Torah is for the holy community! [31] [Emphasis mine]

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

When we study Torah, we can learn a great deal about God Himself and His eternal attributes.  And when we practice Torah, we are therefore practicing that which is holy, righteous, and good.  We are participating in our new life—the life of God.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

The Torah describes a lifestyle of built-in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly reminders.  If we embrace it, the Torah will help us to live our lives in continual remembrance of who God called us to be.[32]

The fruit of Torah observance is, then, righteous living that is pleasing to God:

There is a difference between being a Jewish person and living out our Jewishness.  One’s birth and ancestry determine whether one is Jewish or not.  But only the Torah can define what Jewishness means, or how to live out our Jewish birth.[33]  [Emphasis mine]

For these  Messianic Jews, Torah observance becomes the essential element in discipleship.

Most Messianic Jews exempt Gentile believers from Mosaic regulations, even those Gentiles who are members of Messianic congregations.  They base this on their understanding of the ruling of the Jerusalem council of believers in Acts 15:22-29.

The Messianic movement was entirely Jewish at its inception.  The question in the first century wasn’t, “How much of the Law of Moses should we abandon?” but, “Can a Gentile believe in Yeshua without first becoming a Messianic Jew and observing all the Jewish laws?”  That was the question.  In Acts 15 there was no argument that Messianic Jews were to continue to live Jewish lives.  It wasn’t even debated.  It was the Gentiles’ relationship to observe a full Torah lifestyle that was under discussion.  It was normative for Messianic Jews to live a Torah-observant lifestyle.[34]

Even so, 30% of those surveyed recommend observance for Gentile disciples. 

In congregations that emphasize Torah observance, training in righteous living, instruction in godly behavior, and spiritual growth come first of all from the Law.  There are those who go even farther in asserting the importance of the Law in discipleship.  They insist that the Oral Tradition concerning the Law contained in the Talmud is necessary for godly living:

The Torah is divided into two parts, the written and the unwritten Law.  The former is the written text of Scripture, the Pentateuch, which was divinely revealed to Moses at Sinai.  The latter consists of expositions and interpretations.  In order to understand the relationship between the oral and written Law, it is necessary to understand their goal.  The goal of the Oral Tradition and its teachings is to get one to integrate the written Law into one’s own being.  The most important tools to allow one to arrive at this goal are the many and varied Mitzvot.  Mitzvot are deeds reflecting the correct interpretation of Scripture, i.e., the Oral Tradition.

The whole emphasis of Mitzvot (for example laying tefillin, not driving a car on the Sabbath, not eating pork) is not on the actions that an individual must go through to perform a deed.  Rather, the importance of Mitzvot lies in the inward quality the actions stimulate.  A Mitzvah is not a Mitzvah because of the physical actions an individual performs, but because it stimulates in the individual an understanding of Scripture.  Thus, the thoughts and intents of the heart are the more important aspect of Mitzvot.  In the final analysis, the Lord is concerned with intent rather than action.  This is not to say that the actions do not play a role, but should be a natural by-product of the intent.  For example, two individuals can go through exactly the same actions, and it will be a Mitzvah for one and not for the other.  The difference would be one of “intent.”  If one understood God’s Law the way He designed it to be understood, one would not be performing it as a list of instructions but would perform it as a natural result of his understanding of the world.  In fact, it would never occur to him to do anything else.[35]

Disagreement over just what “Torah” means exacerbates this controversy.  Positions include the five scrolls of the Pentateuch, the 613 commandments given through Moses in the Pentateuch that are ceremonial, legal, and sacrificial in nature, the entire Old Testament, Talmudic traditions, and Jewish customs.  Various proponents of Torah observance include the Sabbath and circumcision, both of which predate the Sinai covenant.  In addition, there are varying understandings of the Greek nomos, translated “law” in the New Testament.[36]  Some see this as only referring to legalism in religious observance.[37] 

Some Messianic Jews value the Mosaic Law for an understanding of their Jewish heritage and an aid to living out a believing Jewish lifestyle.  However, many are concerned that overemphasis of Law leads to “rebuilding the wall of partition” between Jewish and Gentile believers.  Advocates of Torah observance counter that observance does not erect a partition because Jews and Gentiles are forever equal before God.  This leaves Messianic Jews free to keep the Torah without erecting an artificial division.

The cited verses [Gal 3:28, Col 3:11, and Eph 2:14] mean that Jewish and Gentile individuals are equal before God in regard to salvation from sin, as are men and women.  Yet men and women still exist, as do Jews and Gentiles.  Each have their own functions, rules and promises in God’s economy.[38]  [Emphasis mine]

This emphasis on separate function troubles many.  In the first part of the twentieth century, this conflict troubled the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America.  John Mark Levy, a Messianic Jew and Episcopalian minister advocated Jewish festival observances from the Torah.  The Alliance rejected his suggestion as a revival of the Judaizing heresy of the first century.[39]  The issue continues to divide Messianic Jews.  Stern recognizes that there are those who understand the call for Torah observance “as promoting the Judaizing heresy.”  Nevertheless, he insists that “Judaizing” does not refer to “encouraging New Testament believers to investigate the Jewishness of their faith.”[40]  For Stern, Judaizing refers only to teaching that Torah observance is necessary for salvation. 

Theological arguments aside, it is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of Torah-observant congregations in the discipleship of their members.  Survey responses echoed a concern for a stronger commitment to discipleship in observant and non-observant congregations alike.  Recognizing the need for effective discipleship, Arnold Fruchtenbaum founded Ariel Ministries.  He had been engaged in Jewish evangelism and planting Messianic congregations, but was disturbed by the lack of sound doctrine being taught in Messianic Jewish circles.  Ariel Ministries produces discipleship materials and holds summer camps for children of Messianic Jews.[41]  Lederer Messianic Publications and Purple Pomegranate Productions (Jews for Jesus), offer a wide selection of discipleship materials.  Other publishers include Chosen People Ministries, First Fruits of Zion, and a variety of independent Messianic ministries and organizations.  Jeff Feinberg has developed a series of Shabbat School materials for the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.  He is field-testing these in his Friday evening meetings at Etz Chaim in Chicago.  These materials focus on the Torah, are well written and informational.  However, they offer little support for the Messianic Jew who desires a better understanding of the New Covenant and its application to the believer.

Both the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations offer instruction through correspondence courses.  Messianic Bureau International, led by “Rabbi” David Hargis, has recently begun offering an “online” yeshiva (college of rabbinic learning) on the Internet.  Although only 7 of survey respondents indicated completion of Messianic yeshiva courses, 27 used discipleship materials published by Messianic ministries.[42]  Survey responses show that only 18 of 62 congregational leaders have had formal ministerial training.  Fourteen others had only a high school education.  This situation must certainly affect the ability of Messianic congregations to provide adequate discipleship training for their members. 

Messianic leaders tend to emphasize the Old Testament rather than the New Testament in their teaching.[43]  What little attention is paid to the New Testament in Messianic discipleship materials is usually confined to those passages that directly play into Jewish identity issues, or serve as a refutation of accusations of Judaizing.  Few writers pay significant attention to developing a genuinely New Testament halakhah (way of walking) for Messianic Jews.  Even fewer Messianic writers deal with the important issues of the relationship with the Gentile church and the corporate history, destiny, and mission of the body of believers, both Jew and Gentile. 

Instead of an outward focus that seeks to be inclusive of Gentile believers, the emphasis is on Jewish distinctiveness and how Gentile believers should relate to Messianic Jewishness.  David Hargis’ response to the inquiry of a Gentile Christian interested in Messianic Judaism illustrates this emphasis:

I know that most Christians do not know two important things:

1.  It is not necessary to be surprised that we Jews believe in Yeshua (Jesus).  It is Jewish to believe. Why would you expect us not to believe?  Jesus is Jewish and He is our Messiah.  (It is anti-Semetic [sic] propaganda that Jews are denyers [sic] of Messiah.)

2.  Believing in Yeshua as Messiah does NOT make one a Christian, as Christian has been historically understood.  I do not claim to be a Christian by religion, since it was Gentiles who gave believers that name.  Jews who believe in Yeshua do not have to carry the baggage of Christianity.  They can just be Jews who follow Yeshua and have been brought in the the [sic] New Hebrew Covenant of personal relationship with the Most High through Him.

It is just not possible to know the faith of anyone today by a label.  Look at the life and the truth they follow.[44]

Dan Juster, who is himself an advocate for Torah observance, considers this separatist tendency as one of the dangers facing the Messianic Jewish movement:

Although Messianic Jews have a distinct calling from God, they are part of the Body of the Messiah universal! We cannot fall into the danger of compromising Biblical truth for the sake of cultural identity.  This is manifest by words and deeds.  Words can be used so as to put distance between Messianic Jews and other believers so that the Jewish community will not perceive us to be one with the Body.  But we are one with the Body.  Jews and Gentiles are one in Him, and a Messianic congregation has non-Jewish members too.  Although we seek to be part of Israel, we are also one with the Body of Messiah Jesus.  Our words should reflect this.  Our deeds should reflect this as well.  There should be joint services, cooperative fellowship with leaders, etc.  We can learn from the whole Body as we hopefully enrich it as well.[45]

Stuart Dauermann brings the issue back into focus with a call for disciples who are strong in their identities as Jews and as believers.

I take second place to no one in my conviction that Jews and Gentiles are full and equal partners in the body of Messiah.  However, before you can be effective as someone’s partner, you must know who you are. Ambivalence and uncertainty concerning identity are widespread among Jewish believers.  Only through intelligent and bold contextualization can we adequately rediscover and reinforce our own cultural identity.  For many, this may well call for reacculturation.[46]

Where this reacculturation is successful, Jewish disciples will have a worship and community experience that is contextually appropriate.  Furthermore, Messianic Jews discipled in this environment should be effectively equipped to instruct the larger Gentile church in the Jewish roots of their common faith.

Evangelism

Since American Messianic Jewish congregations are struggling so with discipleship, it is not surprising that they are uniformly unsuccessful in evangelism.  Others have noted that healthy disciples make effective witnesses.  Robert Coleman suggests that the key to the success of the evangelistic strategy of Jesus and the early church was discipleship:

While ministering to the crowds, He [Jesus] concentrated upon making disciples who would become workers in His harvest.  As the number of disciples grew, He selected twelve especially to be with Him. . . .  He came to save mankind, but while here, He spent more time with a handful of disciples than with everyone else in the world.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

As the community of faith rapidly expanded, believers regularly met together in their homes, building relationships much like the disciples had with Jesus. . . .  With the conversion of Paul, . . . churches were planted across the Mediterranean world.  Yet amid his evangelism, he does not neglect training some persons to reproduce his ministry . . . constantly lifting up the vision of reproducing workers. . . .  [This pattern holds] true throughout history whenever/wherever there has been dynamic, long-term church growth.  Disciple multiplication is basic to world evangelization.[47]

The converse is also true.  Unhealthy disciples, those whose spiritual growth is impaired by inadequate teaching, are inactive and ineffective in convincing others of the truth claims that they espouse.[48]  American Messianic congregations are consistently unsuccessful in attracting Jewish converts.  Schiffman’s 1988 survey showed that 47% of Messianic congregations saw themselves as only slightly effective or not effective in reaching Jewish family members.[49]  He notes that the adoption of “Jewish cultural elements in worship seem to have little value in outreach.”[50]  Data from the 1986-1991 Jews for Jesus “Jewish Believer Survey” support this observation.  Analysis of a sample of 300 of 5,000 surveys showed that only 4% of believing Jews were evangelized by Messianic congregations.  Schiffman’s 1987 survey indicated that only 2% of American Messianic believers had come to faith as a result of Messianic congregational evangelistic activity.[51]  Respondents to my own surveys indicated a total of less than 300 Jewish converts as a direct result of evangelistic outreach of 62 congregations.  Only half of these have continued attending the congregations that evangelized them.

Special Jewish holiday celebrations are the most effective evangelistic activities according to respondents.  Most congregations record a steady flow of new visitors each month, but few indicated significant evangelistic results from them.

Table 4.–Average Number of Visitors Each Month

Visitors	0 to 3	4 to 6	7 to 10	11 to 15	16 to 20	21 to 25	26 to 50	50+
Congregations	10	10	19	6	4	7	4	1

Some Messianic congregations presume that their simple existence is a significant element in establishing a witness to the Jewish community.  Some respondents indicated a hope that eventually the Jewish community would take positive notice of faith in Yeshua as a viable option for Jews, a fourth or fifth branch of Judaism.[52]  Recent expressions of anti-Messianic Jewish sentiments by leaders of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and “Jews for Judaism” make this recognition unlikely. 

Hebrew Christianity is not a form of Judaism and its members, even if they are of Jewish birth, cannot be considered members of the Jewish community.[53]

Recent Southern Baptist efforts to promote Jewish evangelism have provoked a negative response toward Messianic Jewish congregations.  Rabbi Leon Klenicki of the Anti-Defamation League refuses dialogue with Messianic Jews:

I think that [Messianic Jewish existence] is completely out of place and an insult to me as a Jewish person.  I’m not criticizing them, but I don’t want them in the dialogue [between Southern Baptists and Jews] because they are not Jewish and they are not Christian.  And they are playing a very confusing theological game.[54]

Klenicki’s point is that the Messianic Jewish claim is illogical.  They are no longer authentically Jewish (according to Jewish tradition) and refuse to be called “Christians.” 

Survey data indicate that Gentiles attracted to Messianic doctrine and worship style account for much of the membership growth of Messianic congregations.  These Gentiles experience little cognitive dissonance with traditional Jewish practice because, for the most part, they are wholly ignorant of it.  Some of the most enthusiastic proponents of American Messianic congregational expression have been Gentiles.[55] 

Stuart Dauermann highlights the need for genuine contextualization to counteract defective American Messianic models:

It would be a grave error to imagine that a standardized model of contextualized Messianic Jewish worship and synagogue life should be implemented across the United States.  Rather, these principles must be applied differently according to the varied contexts where they are being implemented.  Jews in different cities and even within the same city differ sharply in their experience and preferences.  Reaching them and ministering to them as they are where they are requires that we develop service models and models of congregational life that represent a good fit for the particular communities being served.

We will need to develop a wide variety of congregational expressions if we are to reach and to serve the members of the American Jewish community in all their diversity.  As our movement matures . . . we must develop varied congregational expressions rooted in Jewish cultural precedent, building on traditional Jewish structures, while maintaining a balance among historical continuity, contextual relevance, and situational flexibility.  My vision is for the development of a network of Messianic congregations analogous to Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform models in the mainstream community.[56]

Those congregations that have sought to be “more Jewish” without resorting to extreme applications of Torah observance or developing an exclusive mindset, have had better success in reaching other Jews.  Rather than attempting a total recreation of New Testament congregational existence without connection to nineteen hundred years of church history, they have accommodated twentieth century Evangelicalism to contemporary American Jewish life.  Teferet Israel in San Francisco is a good example of this.  It is very much a typical evangelical congregation with a Jewish style.  In this, it is similar to other ethnic congregations on the North American evangelical landscape.  This ethnically-oriented approach makes future integration of Jewish converts into the mainstream of American church life possible.  In the same way, it makes it possible to attract Messianic Jews from traditional churches to Messianic congregations and offers a culturally homogeneous venue for Jews to explore faith in Yeshua.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum suggests that an approach that preserves the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the Body of Messiah is more effective in attracting unbelieving and believing Jews alike:

The main problem with a Hebrew Christian church, however, is that it goes against the biblical ideal of Gentile and Jewish believers worshipping and functioning together in the local church. . . .

Establishing Hebrew Christian churches is not the solution to the problem.  By and large the attempts have been few and not very successful.  Even Hebrew Christian churches in cities have not been able to attract most Hebrew Christians of those cities.[57]

His proposal is the establishment of Messianic Jewish fellowships in and between local churches or ethnically oriented Jewish churches.[58]

Traditional Protestant Evangelical churches have been far more successful in Jewish evangelism than Messianic congregations.  The apostle Paul saw Gentile salvation as God’s primary method for Jewish evangelism (Rom 11:11).  That his perception was correct is born out by current statistics.  Of the estimated 50,000 to 60,000 believing Jews in North America, only 5,000 to 6,000 are involved in Messianic congregations.[59]  In my survey 98% of the Jewish members of Messianic congregations were brought to faith by Gentile Christians.

In our concluding chapter, we will examine issues of obfuscation of identity of Messianic Jews with other Jews, Gentiles masquerading as Jews, and the refusal to acknowledge Christian connections.  These issues affect the perception of Messianic Judaism by the Jewish community and influence the success of evangelistic efforts.  We will further examine the genuineness of the North American expression of Messianic Judaism and its effectiveness in fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism, as well as the impact of Messianic Judaism on the Gentile church.  However, before we can form our conclusions, we must pay attention to the Messianic Jewish congregations in the land of their first-century predecessors, Israel.

Notes

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[1] Jim Ernest Hunter, Jr., “A Gathering of Sects:  Revivalistic Pluralism in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1945-1985” (Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1986), 15-18.

[2] David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, interview by author, 21 November 1996, Delavan, Wisconsin.

[3] Jews for Jesus conducted a survey in 1982 of 8,000 Messianic Jews from which they received 1,014 responses.  This data was compared with statistics for the general American Jewish population.  Mitch Glaser and Beverly Ross Jamison, “Jewish Believer Survey:  Demographic, Social and Spiritual Profiles of Jews who Believe in Jesus,” a statistical report, Jews for Jesus, August 1983. Jews for Jesus surveyed another 5,000 Messianic Jews from 1986 to 1991.  I examined a representative sample of 300 of them in San Francisco, 20-22 February 1997.

  Another survey was done in 1984 to compare the effectiveness of evangelistic effort by Messianic congregations with Gentile churches.  Fenton M. Ward, “The Implications of Rabbinic Thought for Jewish Evangelism in the Southern Baptist Churches” (D.Min. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 1984), 301-6.

  Michael Schiffman surveyed fifty Messianic congregations in person and by mail in 1987.  Michael Harris Schiffman, “Communicating Yeshua to the Jewish People:  A Study of Variable Factors which May Influence Growth in Messianic Jewish Congregations” (D.Min. thesis, Ashland Theological Seminary, 1988).  A 1992 update is available in Michael Schiffman, The Return of the Remnant:  The Rebirth of Messianic Judaism (Baltimore:  Lederer Messianic Publishers, 1992, 1996), 161-70.

[4] Nearly every survey participant checked at least two of the multiple choice responses concerning observance of the Mosaic Law.

[5] This was particularly evident in the responses to my question about the number of Jewish “converts.”  This is a sensitive issue for Messianic Jews.  Many crossed out the word “convert” and substituted “completed” or “fulfilled Jew.”  A few offered no answer to the question after having edited the phrasing.  Others offered ambiguous answers such as “many” or “a number.”  In these cases, I had no choice but to presume that they had no statistical data to cite.

[6] The significance of this is that two-thirds of Jewish congregational leaders had little Jewish religious schooling in childhood.  This means that 47 of 58 congregational leaders were schooled in Judaism after their Messianic conversion experiences.  Most of their understanding of Judaism has come from Messianic study courses provided by the Messianic Jewish Assemblies of America and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.  Leaders in these two organizations have also had much of their schooling in Judaism after conversion.  Several of their founding and influential members were reared as Gentiles.  Stan Telchin, interview by author, 5 March 1997, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[7] This compares favorably with most estimates of Jewish diversity.  Jacob Neusner, ed., World Religions in America:  An Introduction (Louisville:  Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), 170.

[8] The title “Rabbi” is problematic for Messianic Jews in their relationship with the larger Jewish community.  There are no Jewish authorities who recognize them as such.  Indeed, historically, when ordained Jewish rabbis have become believers in Jesus, they have been stripped of their ordination.  Jews for Judaism, “Meeting the Challenge:  Hebrew Christians and the Jewish Community” [Online], available http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/webdocs/-chalenge.html, 16 May 1997.

  None of the survey respondents indicated that they had ever been ordained according to rabbinic tradition.  Furthermore, few have any ministerial training at all.  Only 16 have a Masters degree in religion or ministry.  Fourteen have only a high school education.

[9] This explains something of the influence of the counter-culture of the sixties and the Jesus Movement.

[10] Roy Schwarcz, Messianic pastor, interview by author, 22 November 1996, Delavan, Wisconsin.

[11] Suzanne, interview by author, 22 November 1996, Delavan, Wisconsin.  I have given her a pseudonym here to protect her from exposure to hostility from the Jewish community.

[12] Steve Katz, interview by author, 2 February 1997, San Francisco, California.

[13] Jeff Feinberg, interview by author, 28 March 1997, Chicago, Illinois.

[14] My survey revealed only two of the sixty-two congregational leaders had a Ph.D.  Five others had earned doctorates in the secular disciplines of medicine or law.

[15] Rich, interview by author, 23 November 1997, Delavan, Wisconsin.  I have employed a pseudonym to preserve his anonymity.

[16] The congregation has had its share of controversy over its meeting places as it has grown.  It has chosen locations next to an Orthodox synagogue, a predominantly Jewish apartment complex, and adjacent to a Hebrew high school.  This last location was particularly threatening to the Jewish community and the congregation was forced to cancel its plans for purchase by the specter of extensive litigation.  When it bought its present building, the Jewish community organized demonstrations and negative publicity in the media.  Carol Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism of Struggle:  The Case of Messianic Judaism” (Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 1992), 49.

[17] In traditional Jewish practice, the Torah reading is never done on Friday evenings, nor is the tallit worn at this time.  Torah and tallit are in evidence on Saturday morning and on Holy Days only.

[18] Apparently, Fleischer has not been ordained as a rabbi.  Her claim to fame is her former marriage to Rabbi Charles Snow.  Snow was a Reform rabbi who embraced Messianic Judaism for a time.  He and Ruth moved to London in the eighties to begin a Messianic congregation.  He later divorced her and denounced Messianic Judaism to return to Reform Judaism.  Susan Perlman, Jews for Jesus, interview by author, 4 March 1997, Philadelphia.  Fleischer did not mention any of this, but instead personally took credit for the success of all of the Messianic congregations in Europe.

[19] By this time, the service had already gone on for well over an hour and a half, with the entire service lasting more than three hours.  Long worship services are typical of many American charismatic churches.  This was in contrast to Teferet Israel’s service that began promptly and lasted exactly one hour.

[20] Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism or Struggle,” 55-56.

[21] Their pastor, Scott Rubin, was out of town on this evening.  I did speak with him the next month in Philadelphia at a meeting of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism.  He told me that some of the congregation had expressed an interest in dancing as a part of worship as is common in many American Messianic congregations.  His position is that this type is Israeli rather than Jewish.  “We never danced in the synagogue.  Why should we dance now?  Is it just to prove to ourselves that we are Jewish?”  Scott Rubin, pastor of Teferet Israel, interview by author, 5 March 1997, Philadelphia.

[22] Congregation Teferet Israel, “Order of Worship,” 21 February 1997, San Francisco, 4-5.

[23] This was not the case at Beth Yeshua.  One would have been hard-pressed to have seen the “Yeshua-ness” of Beth Yeshua’s worship.  I heard only one reference to the New Testament in Chernoff’s message and there was little mention of Yeshua himself.

[24] A 1983 Jews for Jesus study showed that 75% of Jews celebrated some Jewish holidays.  A 1992 update found that the situation had changed with only 48% of American Jews celebrating any Jewish holidays at all.  Jews for Jesus, “Jewish Believers in Jesus:  Problem Children?” [Online], available http://www.jews-for-jesus.org/-case/yshua_challenge/yc16.html, 14 May 1997.

[25] My survey showed 60% Gentile membership.  Schiffman’s 1987 survey revealed Gentile membership between 75% and 50%.  Schiffman, Return of the Remnant, 132.

[26] Harold A. Sevener, ed., Messianic Passover Haggadah (Charlotte, NC:  Chosen People Ministries, n.d.), 36-37.

[27] Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism or Struggle,” 2-3.

[28] Membership in 42 of 62 Messianic congregations in my survey was less than fifty.  Participation in traditional Jewish synagogue worship was usually noted in congregations of less than 15 members.

[29] Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism or Struggle,” 3.

[30] Daniel Juster, “Messianic Judaism and the Torah” in Kai Kjær-Hansen, ed., Jewish Identity and Faith in Jesus (Jerusalem:  Caspari Center, 1996), 116.

[31] Ariel and D’vorah Berkowitz, Torah Rediscovered:  Challenging Centuries of Misinterpretation and Neglect (Lakewood, CO:  First Fruits of Zion, 1996), 65.  Berkowitz now lives in Israel, but he is an American and this book is written to make the case for Torah observance to the American Messianic Jewish community.

[32] Ibid., 39, 42.

[33] Ibid., 40.

[34] Loren Jacobs, Messianic pastor, discussion on Torah observance, 22 November 1996, Delavan, Wisconsin.

[35] Andrew P. Pliant, “In Defense of Talmudic Law,” in David A. Rausch, Messianic Judaism:  Its History, Theology, and Polity (New York:  Edwin Mellen Press, 1982), 254-55.

[36] Loren Jacobs, discussion on Torah observance.  See also David H. Stern, Messianic Jewish Manifesto (Jerusalem:  Jewish New Testament Publications, 1988), 127-33.

[37] An excellent discussion of this whole issue is in Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Israelology:  The Missing Link in Systematic Theology (Tustin, CA:  Ariel Ministries Press, 1989, 1994), 857-916.  In this section, Fruchtenbaum and Daniel Juster present their differing views in detail.

[38] Stern, Messianic Manifesto, 14.

[39] Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism or Struggle,” 33.

[40] David H. Stern, Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel:  A Message for Christians (Clarksville, MD:  Jewish New Testament Publications, 1988, 1990), 3.

[41] Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Nature and Goals of Ariel Ministries,” tape recording, Tustin, California, n.d.

[42] Dan Juster’s books were most often mentioned in connection with discipleship materials.

[43] Of the seven American Messianic congregations I visited, only one speaker treated a New Testament text in his sermon.

[44] David M. Hargis, “Who We Are!” [Online], available http://www.-messianic.com/wwwboard/messages/398.htm, 11 April 1997.

[45] Daniel Juster, Jewish Roots:  A Foundation of Biblical Theology for Messianic Judaism (Rockville, MD:  Davar Publishing, 1986), 249.

[46] Stuart Dauermann and Fana Spielberg, “Contextualization:  Witness and Reflection, Messianic Jews as a Case,” Missiology 25, no. 1 (January 1997): 19.

[47] Robert Coleman, “Encouraging a Vision for Discipleship in the Local Church and Pastor,” in NACIE 94:  Equipping for Evangelism,  ed. Charles G. Ward (Minneapolis:  World Wide Publications, 1996), 925-26.

[48] John Fischer, “Theological Education and Jewish Evangelism,” Bulletin of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (August 1991): 242-46.  Fischer relates successful Jewish evangelism to education and the development of leadership in Messianic congregations.

[49] Schiffman, Return of the Remnant, 150.

[50] Ibid., 157.

[51] Ibid., 163.

[52] This is reiterated in Stern, Messianic Manifesto, 184.

[53] Jews for Judaism, “Meeting the Challenge:  Hebrew Christians and the Jewish Community” [Online], available http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/-webdocs/chalenge-.html, 16 May 1997.

[54] Richard Ostling, “Spreading the Gospel” [Online], available http://www1.-pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/jews 5-14.html, 16 May 1997.

[55] Two of the seminal works on Messianic congregations were authored by Gentiles.  See James Milton Hutchens, “A Case for Messianic Judaism” (D.Miss. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 1974), and Phillip E. Gobel, Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Messianic Synagogue (Pasadena, CA:  William Carey Library, 1974).

[56] Dauermann, “Contextualization:  Witness and Reflection,” 32-33.

[57] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Hebrew Christianity:  Its Theology, History, and Philosophy (Tustin, CA:  Ariel Ministries Press, 1983), 94.

[58] Ibid., 96-98.  Fruchtenbaum is not totally opposed to independent and free-standing Messianic congregations.  His Ariel Ministries has helped to plant and disciple Messianic congregations in numerous localities.  His objection is to congregations that become exclusive in their Jewish orientation, forsaking and demeaning traditional Gentile churches.

[59] David Brickner of Jews for Jesus postulates a number between 50,000 and 75,000.  Some estimates are as high as 100,000.  Harris-Shapiro, “Syncretism or Struggle,” 41.  Harris-Shapiro concluded that there were at the most 6,000 Messianic Jews in Messianic congregations in 1992.  My surveys recorded 1,297 Jews in 62 congregations.  By extrapolation the number would be 5,000 to 6,000 in 200 congregations.