What Have We Done?

When asked, “What religion and/or denomination are you?” I would usually reply “Christian and/or Independent Protestant.” Over the years we have attended a slew of churches: Independent, Baptist, Alliance, Pentecostal, Methodist… you get the picture. Where we felt God lead, we followed. Almost four years ago, for the fun of it, my family and I visited a Messianic Synagogue a couple times and had a blast. Our weekends were pretty jam-packed and we were members of a Baptist church at the time, so we didn’t go back.

About a year and a half ago we left that Baptist church and have been on the lookout for another place to worship. Twice we thought we found what we were looking for but after six months or so we went our separate ways. In our town, churches are slim pickin’s. There are the mega churches, the wanna-be mega churches and maybe five teeny-tiny ones.

Where to go, we asked ourselves. Then we remembered the Messianic Synagogue that we visited a while ago. We had to rearrange our schedules but decided to try it again. It was a little bit different from the previous time; they met in the basement instead of the sanctuary (a Methodist church lends their building to them) and they have a different Rabstor (Rabbi/Pastor) but we liked it. The Shofar is blown. Men and woman both wear the Tallit (Jewish prayer shawl). Blessings are given to the children. Messianic songs are sung and prayers are said first in Hebrew, then in English.

My family and I- we’re not Jewish. We speculate we may have Jewish heritage, but none of that has been proven. We are very much Gentile, if you catch my drift. Yet, I have always been drawn to Judaism and Jewish history. At first I only read about the religion for a novel I was writing, but now it fascinates me. I always thought that if I didn’t believe in Jesus, I would convert to Judaism.

So, I guess this Messianic Synagogue gives me the best of both worlds. Jesus is the center of it all and it is Jewish. I hope to post more about our adventures in regards to this new way of worshiping.