Follow-up Archive

September 23, 2005

Christian Outreach in the Jewish Community
by Rev. Kevin Parviz

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Most congregations have an evangelism committee--and some are more effective than others. But not all evangelism committees include witnessing to Jewish people. There are many reasons for this, including fear, rejection, or the belief that Jewish people can be saved through their own Jewish faith. But if your congregation is willing to try, I would like to offer some suggestions about how to start reaching out to the Jewish people in your community. These suggestions come from my experience of being brought up in a Jewish home, working with various Jewish evangelism groups since 1991, being a pastor of a Messianic Lutheran congregation, and speaking to many congregations around the country about Jewish evangelism.

When Jesus said in His Great Commission that we should "make disciples of all nations," He meant both Jews and Gentiles. Most of the early church was Jewish, as were Jesus and the apostles, and most of the first witnessing was to Jewish people. Jesus had to make a special effort to instruct the church to also reach out to Gentiles, even adding a 13th apostle (in the person of Saul/Paul) to do it. Today the church often turns it around. We witness to Gentiles and need to be urged to witness to Jewish people.

Jewish people number 6,000,000 in the United States and are one of the most Gospel-resistant ethnic groups in the United States. Most have been taught that they should have nothing to do with this Jesus person and that to become a Christian is a betrayal of their Jewish heritage and their people. Some Jewish believers in Jesus have even experienced complete rejections by their own families when they came to believe that Jesus was their Messiah.

So when you call on a Jewish home, you might not be well received. You could be maligned, rejected, ignored, or in for a big argument. The "victories" may be few. You will be tempted to give this tough ministry up and seek an easier one saying, "Others can do this. I will join the 'cookie corp.'"

But there may be no one else to do it; God may be asking you to do it. And remember that whatever "failures" or "victories" you experience, they are not yours. They are God's. He is the only one who can touch and change people's hearts.

When the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod began active ministry to Jewish people in the '70's (beginning with a resolution put forth by Rev. Bruce Lieske, Founder of Lutherans in Jewish Evangelism), the major Jewish organizations began a campaign of intimidation and resistance. In public media they called such efforts "targeting the Jewish people," and labeled them bigoted, narrow, prejudiced, insensitive, anti-Semitic, and even anti-American. On the local level, the Jewish rabbi, the ministerial alliance, or even neighboring churches may use the same tactics, as the belief in the "two covenant theory" (the belief that Jesus is for the Gentiles and Jewish people are saved by virtue of their relationship with God through Abraham) becomes more and more accepted in mainline Christian churches. But we must remember that the most anti-Semitic thing we can do is to keep the saving message of the Gospel away from the Jewish people. For it is only this message that can bring life, all others are death.

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