The Messianic Judaism congregation held their first worship service in the beginning of this month, in the youth center of Southside Assembly of God. Like traditional Jewish congregations, it observes the Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
A recent Friday evening service drew about 60 people, some dressed in suits and dresses, others casually in jeans and polo shirts. A dozen students from Southeastern College, the Assemblies of God school, were present. Typically, about 50 percent of those who attend are Christians.
There are also Jews wearing kippas and tallits---skullcaps and vests with long fringes, attend the service. Soon after the start of the service, a Torah with a colorful embroidered cover is taken from the cabinet known as an ark, which is a scroll of parchment containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, used in a synagogue during services.
Then the Torah is paraded around the room and men take a corner of their tallits, touch the Torah as it passes then touch their lips in a traditional gesture of respect.
The traditional Jewish Sabbath prayer includes the words, "Blessed are you for you have sanctified us by thy word and given us Yeshua the Messiah . . ." Messianic Jews believe that Yeshua of Nazareth was the expected Messiah. (Yeshua is called Jesus Christ by Christians.)
Although mostly patterned after the traditional Jewish prayer service, there are elements borrowed from Christian worship. A young woman offers an extemporaneous prayer, beginning with "Heavenly Father" and ending "in Yeshua's name." An extended set of praise and worship songs are sung in Hebrew and English as worshipers raise their hands in Pentecostal fashion. Dancers circle in the manner of Israeli folk dance. There are readings from the Torah and from the New Testament.
Messianic Judaism emerged in the 1970s in the wake of the Jesus movement, it is a religious movement, composed of faith groups that are mainly attended by ethnic/cultural Jews. Most Jews believe that the Messiah has yet to come while they accept Jesus is the Messiah who was to come. A Messianic Jew is defined as "a person who was born Jewish or converted to Judaism, who is a 'genuine believer' in Yeshua [Jesus], and who acknowledges his Jewishness." But they still want to preserve their Jewish traditions.
