Background and Beliefs

-Who do you say that I am?-

“What are you?” (i.e. What religion are you?), “What denomination is that?”, ”What do you believe in?”. These questions and many like them are the type that will usually happen at some point in the conversation when the other party and I have made the transition away from small talk to the deeper things in life; such as family, faith, and the ideals of what this life we’re living is all about. When I go into the particulars of the God in Whom I stand in Awe, Who Yeshua (Jesus) is and what He has done for humanity, what Scripture means to me and the life of faith associated with it, some of my family, friends and occasionally a complete stranger will often times be somewhat puzzled. “You believe in Jesus and yet you talk about a lot of Jewish things?”, “Jews don’t believe in Jesus do they?”, “Are you Jewish?”, ”So you’re a Christian but you go to a synogogue?”, “What does Messianic mean?” ”How can you mix Judaism with Christianity, isn’t that like mixing oil and water?”. These are all actual questions along many others like them that I have been asked by others over the past few years. These are all valid and fair questions that I have also asked myself!

-Where I’ve Been is not where I’m Going-

For the first 24 years of my life, especially from the age of 14-24 I was consumed with myself and this world. I didn’t have a heart, mind or the eyes that could see the boundless love of The Creator or the inherent dignity of His creation, at least nothing more than that which was superficial and self-serving. Slowly this started to change sometime in 2003 (at least from my inadequate vantage point). God began gently whispering, wooing, chiseling, building up, tearing down, shifting, transforming and restoring my brokenness, changing my wickedness and completing my incompleteness into the image of His Son, according to His will, all for His glory. This process, since the beginning, has and will not continue to be an easy road to follow. In fact, without His grace and love towards me, I would surely fail on my own accord. I have been scarred heavily by years of pride, guilt, fear, idolatry and immorality. I still struggle daily with my old nature rearing its ugly head. Negative thoughts will spring forth out of nowhere and bring along fear and doubt to play in my mind. But Praise be to God for the sanctifying work of His Spirit, for His grace is sufficient and the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) and all the truth associated with it is truly life shattering, life altering, life energizing, life that will go into the next world - Good News!

I was raised in a “Christian” home. I put “Christian” in italics because it would be considered a liberal Christian upbringing at best. My family rarely attended church other than the annual Easter and Christmas services. My parents did teach me a few things about Jesus and to generally be a ”good” person. That seemed simple enough for me, not to time consuming or anything that would interfere with my so-called ”real” life I thought. My paternal grandparents were Baptist and my maternal grandparents were somewhat Pentecostal. I would occasionally go to a church service with them before I became a teenager and I would usually find myself bored out of my mind while there. Growing up, I did have a best friend whose father was a pastor and I would stay at his house on many weekends and attend thier church or go to a summer camp, of which I enjoyed the entertainment and social aspects. I always felt kind of out-of-place and too uptight at most church services and that I couldn’t just be there and be myself - initially this was a stumbling block to getting me really interested in the Bible or the idea of God. This type of practice continued throughout High School and College except by this point in my life when I did occasionally go to a church service with a friend, it was usually to impress or shall I say, try to impress some girl I liked.

Then something started to change. Somehow I began to have a different perspective about these things. It was sometime I think in 2003 (it shouldn’t be this hard to remember) while at a keg party (now I understand why it is hard to remember), that a guy I barely knew told myself and one of my best friends about this church he was going to and he was really excited about and said we should go check it out sometime. He said they had this young pastor who was funny and genuine and that he could communicate the Bible in a fresh way. This sounded completely opposite of the places I had grown up going to. At the time I thought ”yeah I’d like to check it out at some point, but for now I’m not to interested in limiting the life I have.” My friend Coley did go and check it out not too long after that keg party and God begin to really move in his life. Not just a few months had come and gone before I finally had to find out what this church with the young and hip pastor was all about. I could tell that my friend Coley was beginning to show evidence of a life change for the better and I was curious about what was spuring this on. Finally, I went with him to visit this church with the young exciting pastor, and it happened to be The Village Church and the pastor was Matt Chandler. There was something about The Village Church and Pastor Matt that did feel different from my experiences in churches growing up. I couldn’t really place my finger on it, but the message was undiluted, the worship music had depth, the setting felt authentic. Up to this point in my life, I had postured as a “Christian” for the past 10 years but now my faith journey was about to begin. I didn’t expect it and I wasn’t looking for it, but now here it was and I with it wasn’t completely sure why. Within 2 years of “investigating” I had become a Covenant Member at The Village Church, joined a great homegroup and was baptized in a backyard swimming pool at a homegroup party. To make my encounter with The Village Church even more interesting, I had just met my future wife (Elizabeth) in early 2004 and within an hour or two of talking to each other, we both realized that we had just started “visiting” The Village Church independent of each other. We were on the same trajectory and were married in April of 2006. Exactly 9 month later to the date of our wedding, our daughter Braylee was born. Within just a few short years, my life had been eternally changed. Everything was rocking along and we were a young family with an increasingly growing passion for God, and the largest part of this was due to the teaching and leading of The Village Church.

Then in the spring of 2007 my faith paradigm was rocked when I went to see a Biblical Hebrew Linguistic teacher named Brad Scott. Brad has a teaching organization called Wildbranch Ministries with which he travels all over the world teaching the Hebraic and Jewish roots of Christianity, including the culture and context of the Scriptures. In the ensuing weeks following Brad’s teaching, my heart and mind were stirred with a passion and desire for God, His Messiah and His Word that I had never experienced before in my life. It was a few months after seeing Brad that my brother told me about Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue (more about this below). I was eager to share what I had learned about the Hebrew and Jewish roots of Christianity with my family and friends, only to quickly found out that this feeling of excitement wasn’t mutual. In most cases I was met with great resistance from even those I had close relationships with (in hindsight, I was probably not very tactful when I first started to share this newfound knowledge of mine). I didn’t understand this reaction from my family, friends and other Christians that I spoke with and I became frustrated and angry with them. I even started to become jaded with Christianity at large. Thankfully, God didn’t leave me to my own judgment and confusion, but continued to burn an unquenchable fire inside of me for Him and His Word. After a couple of long and challenging years of faith contemplation in 2008-2010, I emerged with a still growing sanctification and maturity in relationships with family, friends and the faith community whose views and interpretations were no longer the same as mine.

In July of 2010 we felt led to make the difficult transition away from The Village Church after more than 6 years together. This also meant that we had to leave our beloved homegroup with The Village Church that we had been a part of for more than 3 years. We feel blessed to have been a part of The Village Church and all the equiping and experiences we had while there helped to grow and strengthen our faith immensley. The primary reason we made a transition away from The Village Church is that we wanted to get involved with a congregation that had an emphasis on Jewish Evangelism. We wanted to see the “Good News” proclaimed in its original context “to the Jew first and as well as the Gentile”. Don’t get me wrong, all nations need to hear the Good News of Yeshua (Jesus) presented in a culturally sensitive way and The Village Church is the best we have seen or been a part of at spreading the Gospel in an effective way to all people a la The Great Commission. The other main reason we felt compelled to leave The Village Church were theological differences in respect to Israel, Torah and Judiasm.

To be perfectly clear, I am not Jewish and I don’t have any Jewish descent as far as I know. It is probable that Elizabeth has Jewish descent from her maternal grandfather, but that is not why we felt we were drawn to Messianic Judaism. We simply have been given a heart for the land and people of Israel. We want to see the Jewish People come to faith in Yeshua as Messiah and King of Israel, while at the same time remaining distinctively and culturally Jewish. This is their covenantal heritage and it will be a tremendous blessing to the Church as this message continues to be spread and embraced. Unexplainably, we feel drawn to the expression of faith and theology as espoused by mainstreem Messianic Judaism, which as odd as it may sound, is the oldest form of “Christianity” in existence. Messianic Judaism is an ancient movement that is being restored for the end of this present age and the dawn of the next. In December of 2011, we completed the requirements (4 month class, 3 books, test, interview) to become members at Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue. Being involved with the Messianic “movement” in some form or fashion for the last 5 years, I can say first hand that it is a movement full of many ”messy antics” out there. There are far too many independent teachers without solid credentials and accountability. There are also far too many independent “congregations” and “congregants” with a unhealthy view of Christianity and Judaism along with the scholarship and traditions involved in both. These are areas where Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue is a cut-above the rest when it comes to a mature and balanced appoach of teaching Biblical truth while incorporating the rich traditions of both Judaism and Christianity.

Ephesians 4:1-7  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Messiah’s gift.