The British Messianic Jewish Alliance

How to Build a Viable Messianic Community in your Locality.

Summer 2001 - Issue 212

Building Messianic Communities which have size, which have maturity, which have permanence are not easy. Even those of us who know what the problems are, know that we do not always have all the solutions.

Three requirements for building a viable Messianic Community

The first requirement is maturity and humility amongst the leadership (Philippians 2:1-11). Leadership is following the model of Yeshua, who was a servant-leader rather than someone who wanted to be boss. The only people who can properly discipline pastors and make them accountable are other pastors. I am glad that I spent ten years in Baptist Ministry before becoming a leader of a Messianic Fellowship. There is an in-built accountability system. The local Superintendent’s fortnightly task is to look me square in the eye, and ask me lots of impertinent questions. For when leaders slip up, invariably it is over abusing money, sex or power. We need to have that level of accountability and humility amongst our leadership, otherwise the scandals we have seen will just repeat themselves.

The second requirement is to build disciples (2 Timothy 2). We need to reproduce disciples so that our movement has a solid base, so it does not become just a shell without a core. If you have a few hours a week, get alongside Jewish believers who are younger or less experienced in the faith than you and help to disciple them. We cannot afford to do what we have been doing over the last 10-15 years; that is, relying on the occasional “Superstar”. We need to be building a broad based discipleship movement. That involves all being like soldiers, farmers and athletes. Soldiers are willing to endure hardship and accept orders. Farmers are willing to work hard to gather in the crops when needed. Athletes need to compete according to the rules; they cannot get by with cheating, and they must train. We need trained disciples. If we want to do something for the Lord we will not be able to if we are not trained. Likewise, if our devotional life and our Bible reading are not solid, if our lives are not consistent we will be ineffective. Believers sometimes think they can do things in a burst of enthusiasm, but we need constant effort.

Thirdly, we need a sense of loving community (Acts 2:42-47). We need to live the right things, not just to say them. With people as corporately minded as Jewish people are, that means living in community. We intellectuals often make issues terribly theoretical, individualistic and abstract. Issues need to be worked out in an authentic community.

Three problems in building a viable Messianic Community

The first problem is a culture of immaturity. We tend to put people on pedestals and make them into celebrities. Making anybody else other than Yeshua of Nazareth into a celebrity does three things. It sets them up for failure; it could even set them up for pride. You also disempower yourself because when you say you need a celebrity you are saying, “I cannot do it”. We need to feel and know that, together, we can do what is necessary.

We get into Jewish practices without understanding what they are or why we do them. In terms of Torah observance, why you do things is more important than what you do. I am not really bothered by other fellowships that wear kippot and tallisim. In Richmond we do not, because our field is largely secular Jews who would be confused by Messianic Jews putting on tallisim and kippot. However, if you are ministering to the Orthodox I do not have any problem with you doing it. In a world where some of the Christian clergy dress up in dresses and skirts, should we complain when Messianic Jews wear a tallit? I did wear a kippot as a young believer, but other Christians could not understand why I was wearing it. More importantly, the secular Jewish people that I was trying to win for the Lord were actually confused by it. To them, my saying that I was an authentic Jew was more to do with my observing Shabbat and keeping kosher. If they had seen me eating a bacon sandwich they would have been really disillusioned by my lack of integrity. Are we just speaking to ourselves, or are we helping Jewish people to be won and built-up in the Faith?

The second problem is a shortage of Jewish believers. You cannot build too many congregations until you have people to put in them. Sometimes I feel there should be a national moratorium on starting any more congregations because we are just thinning out the pool of Jewish believers committed to the Messianic movement. We start with a little group which is about half Jewish and then lots of Gentiles flood in. Consequently, the focus becomes so much on making the Gentile guests welcome that the Jewish believers no longer feel that they are cared for any more and leave. It is very easy to move to a situation of a fellowship of twenty Gentiles and no Jews. You just invite lots of people who are curious and you forget the needs of the people who were there in the first place. We have to have Jewish people and Jewish ministry in a Jewish fellowship. If we are a Messianic Jewish Fellowship, then we must have some Jewish people and also know that we are actually trying to win Jewish people for the Lord and build Jewish people in the faith. Otherwise, what we are doing is farcical.

The third weakness is that sometimes we have a focus on anthropology rather than on Yeshua of Nazareth. We like to do the Jewish things, but that simply needs to be subordinate to the fact that we are worshipping the Lord. We are serving Yeshua, and we are building up His body.

(Edited from a talk given at the BMJA annual conference 2000, by Mark Surey)

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