Cover Image: Jair Lázaro via Unsplash
Mark Huey and John McKee deliver the November 2020 Outreach Israel News update and featured article.
If there is anything which can be assumed about what has taken place in 2020, it is that no one could have predicted anything that has transpired. Many of us entered into this year, barely even aware that we were entering into the third decade of the Twenty-First Century. I think that for many people, especially of the more charismatic variety, they saw 2020 as a year for clarity of vision. This makes perfect sense to somebody like me, who wears glasses! Yet as we prepare to close off 2020, I think that many of us, in retrospect, would not want the “clarity of vision” that we have witnessed! Many things have been exposed throughout this year, which not only make us uncomfortable, but even downright terrified! We are very concerned about the condition of the United States, the state of our world, and we are having to now more consciously consider the Messianic movement as the literal end-time move of God.
One year ago in November 2019, until February 2020, the three of us (Mark, Margaret, John) had the opportunity to attend four major Messianic Jewish conferences, and in the process be able to put our literal fingers on the pulse, and the future, of much of our faith community. I was genuinely pleased to be able to meet, in person, with a number of leaders and figures who I had definitely known about and they had known about me. But as frequently happens at these events, there is a lot of down time—and in my case as a single person, I have to use this down time to reflect and contemplate what I am witnessing.
The first event we attended, in November 2019, was the Messianic Leadership Roundtable or MLR, hosted by Jonathan Bernis and Jewish Voice Ministries. This was the widest encompassing of all of the events, as it brought in people from the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA), Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), Jews for Jesus, Chosen People Ministries, various independents, and even a few Christian ministries supportive of Israel. Part of the conference was held in Orlando, FL, and the other part was held on a short 2 day cruise from Port Canavaral, FL to the Bahamas. The best part of the conference, to be sure, was to get to talk to various leaders and figures in an informal setting. Many have certain ideas and preconceptions about different leaders and their personalities, which can be quickly dissipated when you are in a vacation-oriented venue! It is absolutely imperative for all of us to try to understand one another as ordinary people, who need a break, and who can let their guard down around others once in a while.
The second event we attended was the MJAA Southeast Regional conference in Orlando, FL, in late December 2019. In some ways, this was a continuation of the previous event, as many of the same people we saw were in attendance here. This was the third year that Outreach Israel Ministries had exhibited in Orlando. While we were able to continue some of the fellowship we had with different people from the MLR, we were also able to compare this conference to the previous years we had attended. In 2010, when living in the Orlando area, I had attended this event—and over 1,200 people were in attendance. By 2019, there were barely 300 in attendance. And, it was quite noticeable that a wide number of those in attendance were senior citizens.
A few weeks later, during the first week of January 2020, we were once again back in Orlando, this time to attend the IAMCS Rabbis Conference. We certainly saw a number of our friends and contacts for a third time, but as a leadership conference we were able to touch base with many more. I find it quite amusing when someone comes up to me and says that we are “friends,” not quite realizing that we really are contacts on social media! Many people know about me and my work that I am not quite aware of!
The Rabbis Conference, mainly intended for congregational and ministry leaders, did invoke the need for 20-20 vision among Messianic people this year. There was an emphasis on the need for new Messianic leaders to arise from the next generation, but also how the current generation of leaders was not departing from the scene anytime soon. Two significant Messianic Jewish Rabbis made the statements: “Moses did his best work after the age of 80,” and “You are going to have to pry this microphone from my cold dead hands!” As always, I simply make observations… But, Mark Huey, wanting to always know a little more, did ask a number of the Messianic Jewish Rabbis if they were grooming any successors to take over, or at least if they had some kind of a backup plan in the event that they might have a future health issue or something. Silence…
The fourth and final event we attended was the MJAA Southwest Regional in Irvine, CA, the second week of February 2020. Our ministry had never exhibited at this conference before. On the whole it went well, but we were aware from a number of people we interacted with, that the attendance was definitely down from previous years. And, it was quite easy to recognize how most of those in attendance were seniors.
Immediately before going to Irvine, news reports had already come out concerning some Coronavirus originating in China. At the hotel, we did see quite a few Asians wearing masks! When we returned back to Texas, I was not entirely feeling myself for around two weeks, as I had intermittent fever, a cough, and a scratchy throat. Yet, I can honestly say that because of going out to Irvine—the two day drive there and back—that as a direct result of spending all that time in the car, that we now have the weekly Messianic Insider podcast! Little did we know that within weeks of returning, COVID-19 would reach a point where lockdowns, social distancing, and masks would become mandatory.
Questions are going to continue to rage about where COVID-19 originated—but there is little doubt that the lockdowns, riots, and now Election 2020 drama are being used by the Lord to get our attention. Today’s Messianic community believes itself to be the end-time move of God, meaning that at some future point that “end-time” part is going to start kicking in. And, while there are many people who are rightly concerned about what has been happening this year—there is a widescale silence from many of the Messianic rabbis and leaders I interacted with a year ago, about how we should be approaching our changing times. We don’t even hear enough people simply noting the need for a review of end-time prophecies like Daniel, Matthew 24, or Revelation as a matter of Bible study.
Having spent some time, in the field, with a considerable bulk of the leadership of today’s Messianic Jewish movement—the worst kept secret in the today’s Messianic movement is that the average age of a Messianic Jewish rabbi is 65-75. It is a fact that many of these leaders will be incapacitated within the next 5-10 years. It is also a fact that many of them have no succession plan. They often have synagogues and congregations with no permanent building or offices, usually renting from a church or community center. If these people are removed in some way, mainly because of age, will the congregations many of them have planted at all survive? Some doubtlessly will, but others will steadily break apart into smaller groups.
I am definitely privy to a number of the things that are going on in today’s Messianic movement, as it concerns the physical condition of its leaders. I know of a Messianic Jewish rabbi and his wife, who were probably not in the best of health before COVID-19, who have both been in the ICU because of it (as the virus probably just made their pre-conditions worse). One prominent Messianic Jewish rabbi, suffered a massive heart attack this past Summer. Another prominent Messianic Jewish leader, recently broke his neck in several places. Yes, these people need prayer for their full recovery. But their conditions—and probably the conditions of various others—is stark evidence as to how we cannot be a geriatric movement with failing health. The Jewish community is astutely aware of how it is always one generation away from extinction, due to the threat of assimilation. From what I see, today’s Messianic Judaism, I fear, is in literal danger of dying of natural causes.
In Luke 21:26 Yeshua warns how in the Last Days “Men’s hearts [will be] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (KJV). Some people are literally scared to death that COVID-19 is the Black Death or the Plague, when it is really just another strain of the flu. Yet, senior citizens and those with already poor health are those who have definitely been susceptible to it. This includes people in Messianic leadership!
None of us fully knows what the future beholds. If God told us absolutely everything that we needed to know, then we would not cry out to Him every day for strength, knowledge, assurance, and protection! We would somehow think that we were invisible and untouchable, when we are frail and limited mortals.
But we also know that the Lord has given each of us minds and reasoning abilities, to witness things taking place in our world and in the Body of Messiah, and to respond accordingly. What is going to happen when the current generation of Messianic Jewish leadership is retired (in some way)? What is the succeeding generation going to look like? Are various synagogues and congregations going to even be around? Or, are assemblies going to naturally break apart into smaller, unofficial home fellowships, as it may be required to take a lower profile given the rise of anti-Semitism and the impending end-time scenario? These are not easy questions for us to be considering, but they do have to be asked.
Prayer for many of the Messianic Jewish rabbis and leaders of long standing, that the Lord would give them a few more years of adequate health, is something that each one of us needs to take before the Throne every day! Greater clarity and realism for the future is also something that we must pray for every day as well! If we do not pray for these two things, then I do have a well-founded concern that our movement, as we know it, is in terminal danger of ending within the next decade or so.
As I write this, there is still no definite conclusion to the Election 2020 drama. Regardless of who enters into the White House in January 2021, things are irrevocably different. Surely, make the regular appeal, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9, NASU). Yet, also recognize that we are steadily approaching the Battle of Battles, with the return of Yeshua in the near future!
