Why Attend This Conference?
By Sam Nadler
The fact that it’s in Ft Lauderdale, Florida in January (hosted by Temple Aron HaKadosh) may be enough of a reason for the northern Messianic snow-birds to attend the next Word of Messiah Ministries’ “Developing Healthy Messianic Congregations” conference over Martin Luther King weekend on January 20-21, 2019. But there are vital reasons to attend for both congregation leaders and the other leaders in the congregation (Children’s ministry, Women’s ministry, Men’s ministry, etc). As I’ve worked with numerous Messianic congregations, I’ve discovered that there are critical needs that hinder the work of God.
The 4 Major Problems Which Hinder Your Personal and Congregational Growth:
- Scriptural problems that lead to a lack of purpose.
Most believers attend services and never understand the Scriptural reasons that God has for attending a congregation, and the essential reason for being a member of a Messianic congregation – and it’s not merely because you’re Jewish! God teaches us to “not forsake our assembling together” (Heb 10:25) because of the divine importance of community commitment. God’s nature is Love and Triune; thus, “the Father always loved the Son” (John 5:18). God created us male and female as the microcosm of society so that we’d love one another and represent Him to His creation through our committed and loving relationships. You cannot be godly unless you are loving one another in community. Messianic congregations are essential to demonstrate that God is faithful to His promises to the Jew first and equally to the nations. This is what Paul taught the congregations that were mostly made up of Gentile believers, as at Rome. He taught that it must be “to the Jew first” for God’s righteousness to be fully revealed (Romans 1:16-17). He then spends 3 chapters (Romans 9-11) showing that Yeshua is God’s faithfulness to Israel, so that the Gentile believers would endeavor to make Israel desirous of Yeshua through the Jewish Olive Tree. Indeed, though Messiah was rejected by the majority of my people, He still served Israel by confirming the promises to the Fathers, and so the Gentiles would glorify God for His mercy to them (Rom 15:8-9). Most believers don’t know this and go to services for reasons that are merely traditional or experiential, and therefore don’t have long-term commitment and are never growing in the truth.
- Strategic problems that produce unclear direction
“Without vision, the people are in disarray” (Proverbs 29:18), and only the clear vision of Yeshua gives us the individual, family and congregational direction that is “according to God’s purpose” and are thereby “conformed to the image of the Son” (Rom 8:28-29). Only having a clear vision of the Head, gives the Body of Messiah its divine direction in the redemptive work by the word of the prophet, the worship of the priest and the oversight as the king. In some families and congregations, the disarray is a disgrace.
- Internal problems that reveal a lack of unity.
The sad truth is that most believers are acculturated to a community, but are not discipled in the word. They only understand their faith by the cultural expression, and if you change the cultural expression, they think you’re changing the faith! The undiscipled believer is the dysfunctional member of the Body. Messiah addressed this problem when He commanded us to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) and not just decisions. Only discipleship that has you grounded and rooted in the word helps you to attain and sustain health. Most families and congregations are nominal in their discipleship and end up with nominal disciples. This produces disunity in the community and is the cause of disorder and division.
- Implementation problems that cause a lack of growth
Many people attend conferences and leave with ideas that dissipate when they leave their mountain top experience and must live life back in the reality of the valley. Learning how to implement ideas into action is the only way to change your problems into your divinely provided opportunities for growth. Yeshua said, “If you know these things, then blessed are you that do them” (John 13:17). The blessing is in the doing, for scripture taught us that Torah was given to be lived, not merely learned (Leviticus 18:5).
This conference will address each of these 4 problems, providing insight, ideas and applicational help, and this is why you and your teams should attend. To register go to www.wordofmessiah.org, or call 704-544-1948 from 8:30 am- 5:30 pm Monday through Thursday and 8:30 am-3:00 pm on Friday (EST).
