This article was posted January 26, 2017.
We live in extraordinary times as the events of the last days described by Jesus seem to be unfolding before our very eyes.
…See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (Matthew 24:4-8)
Do you see it? This makes fulfilling the Great Commission of reaching the world (Matthew 28:19-20) for Jesus all the more important as we see the day drawing closer.
As Jesus’ disciples, we are moved and motivated by the hope of the Second Coming of Jesus!
This raises the importance of training evangelists to the Jewish people to an even greater magnitude. The Apostle Paul reminds us that the Gospel is “to the Jew first…and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).
This is why we founded the Charles L. Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies in the heart of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn.
The Center is a unique seminary program awarding a Master of Divinity degree in Messianic Jewish Studies, and is a partnership with the Talbot School of Theology of Biola University, and fully accredited by the New York Board of Regents and the Association of Theological Schools.
It is our goal to train and equip an army of Jewish evangelists to serve the Lord today and tomorrow. We have our eyes on the present, but because of what the Bible promises, we also have our hearts set on the future.
- Your Mission to the Jewish People is now in 18 countries and in 25 cities around North America, presenting the Gospel to the Jew first and also to the Gentile day in and day out.
- We minister heart-to-heart and person-to-person.
- Our media evangelism is already reaching millions. We are ministering on campuses and in urban areas with high concentrations of Jewish people like New York, Los Angeles, South Florida, Chicago, Toronto, London, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv!
- We are helping the poor and planting Messianic congregations as part of our efforts to help those coming to faith in the Lord to become true followers who can lead others to the truth.
All of these ministries require leaders. This is why training missionaries to the Jewish people is so critical!
Feinberg Students are Learning on the Job!
Our Feinberg Center is in Brooklyn — the home of almost a million Jewish people! The center houses two Messianic Jewish congregations, one English-speaking and one Russian.
The students who live in the housing at the Center are involved with the congregations and are learning firsthand what it is like to worship Jesus in a Jewish setting. They are able to serve the Lord in the congregation through discipling new believers, teaching children’s programs, doing evangelism, greeting visitors and accompanying the pastoral staff on visitation.
As the following testimonies show, it is a rich and multifaceted education. Tanya, one of our students who comes from Ukraine writes,
Living at the Feinberg Center has given me a unique opportunity to commit to the Russian-speaking congregation that meets downstairs and better connect with many of the people who attend support groups, Bible studies, concerts, etc. I highly value the blessing of being so easily available when somebody needs me. Living here helps an international student like me to be more involved in the community life.
-Tanya K.
Another of our student’s reports,
Living in Brooklyn is of great advantage to my training in Jewish ministry because of the abundance of natural interactions with unbelieving Jewish people this setting provides on a daily basis. Here, I can converse with the Jewish people as a normal part of their environment in Brooklyn.
-Joel M.
Campus ministry is also important, as there are thousands of Jewish college students attending school in New York City. Doug Pyle, who serves as mentor for the student workers, tells us about the eager participation of the students who have been going with him on a regular basis to various campuses in the Greater New York City area:
This past fall, four students from the Feinberg Center — Elisabeta, Tanya, Austin and Jessica — have gone with me weekly to university campuses such as Queens College, NYU, and Columbia University. I haven’t words to tell how grateful I am to see Feinberg students engaged in giving out the Gospel to Jewish students and others on university campuses. I am trusting that their exposure to campus ministry will result in some of them going into campus ministry here and elsewhere when they graduate.
Graduates of the Program
Since the program began in the spring of 2007, there have been 15 graduates now trained to reach Jewish people with the Good News of the Messiah. Our students usually graduate without student debt, because generous and sacrificial supporters like you help underwrite the costs of the program.
Brian Crawford, a graduate of the Class of 2015, shares this:
The Feinberg Center provided me with the tools and the knowledge to interact with the sea of Jewish thought in multiple languages. Since graduating, my focus has been on building a Messianic apologetics website with an innovative design and a unique series of apologetics articles for Jewish audiences.
Darlene Line, from the Class of 2013, tells us:
Since graduating from the Feinberg Center in 2013, numerous doors have opened allowing me to share the Gospel with Jewish people and to train the church to do the same. I serve as a missionary with Chosen People Ministries in New Jersey and New York, as well as on the Mission’s Leadership Advisory Team. I am teaching weekly and bi- monthly Bible studies in Staten Island and Brooklyn, and also coordinating Jewish evangelistic outreaches on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Denise Chung, who graduated in the spring of 2016, is from Hong Kong and is now serving the Lord among the Jewish people in New York City:
My four years of seminary training at the Feinberg Center and on the Biola campus has consolidated my Bible knowledge and personal application of the Word. The well-roundedness of Talbot’s Messianic Jewish Studies program has equipped me with both theological and practical training to serve in a unique Jewish ministry.
We are grateful to see the Lord using these graduates to be a light to the Jewish people! All of our graduates tell us that the training at the Feinberg Center was life changing and ministry shaping and so very valuable in their witness to the Jewish community.
Our Partnership
We believe the cause of Jewish evangelism will grow more successful as our highly qualified workers enter the Jewish harvest field during these last days!
A gift today to support the overall ministry of the Feinberg Center in the heart of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn would be so helpful…and I know the Lord will lead you as you pray about giving.
Thank you for your prayers, for taking the time to read this letter and for your generous support this month. By supporting the Feinberg Center you are investing in God’s future plan for Israel and the Jewish people.
Thanks so much for caring.
Thank you for your gift!
Please consider sponsoring all or part of a student’s educational costs, which is about $500 per month — approximately $6,000 per year.
