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Many in the Messianic congregational movement refrain from what they describe as confrontational proselytism to the Jewish community. They not only prefer a more relational experience with the Jewish community, but also view themselves primarily as part of it.

For their part, some in the missions movement, to which Jews for Jesus belongs, charge that some Messianic congregations are trying to gain acceptance in the Jewish community by downplaying Jesus and overemphasizing their Jewishness. David Sedaca, former executive secretary of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance, is a reluctant critic.

"I believe Messianic Jewish congregations have dropped the ball in regards to evangelism," Sedaca says.

Mitch Glaser, the president of Chosen People Ministries, one of the oldest Jewish missions in America, says many congregations owe their very existence to missions. "We'd have a lot fewer congregations today if it weren't for the work of missions over the last 20 years."

Jewish missions, which began in the mid-19th century in both the United States and England, established many Messianic congregations. According to Yaakov Ariel, professor of American religion at the University of North Carolina and author of Evangelizing the Chosen People, New York had more than a dozen missionary organizations in the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, more than 200 full-time paid missionaries in the United States were evangelizing the Jewish community.

For the most part, those involved believed Jews should enter Christian churches and relinquish Jewish affiliations. From the 1920s through the 1960s, missions warmed up to the idea of Hebrew Christian congregations, as they were called at the time. Protestant denominations, such as the Presbyterians, sporadically tried to foster these groups through their own missions in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

It wasn't until the 1970s that missionary organizations openly supported the notion that Jews who believe in Jesus could maintain their Jewish heritage through congregations separate from established churches. Missionary organizations began to see these places as a new form of evangelism. At this time, the term "Messianic Judaism" became popular, mainly connoting those who wanted to keep some kind of Jewish identity.

Today, the two major Messianic umbrella organizations, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, count approximately 200 congregations under their auspices. Adding in congregations that link with other groups or that lack affiliation brings the total to between 400 and 500 worldwide. Leaders estimate there are somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 Messianic Jews in the United States, not counting Jews in typical churches—which would bring the number closer to 200,000, according to scholars such as Ariel.

The dispute centers mainly on identity. Saal, Kinzer, and others within the congregational movement don't believe missions should identify equally with the Christian church and the Jewish community. Saal and Kinzer consider their primary locus of identity to be within the Jewish community, although they say they are one with both communities. Kinzer says the church should consider reorienting itself within Israel, rather than perceiving itself as standing outside it. Other congregational leaders, however, prefer not to choose.

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2