Jews in Alabama and the rest of the United States haven’t heard the gospel enough, and that’s because sharing with them is “hard,” said Ric Worshill, president of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship (SBMF).
Often the reason it is hard, he said, is because believers do not understand how to share with Jews.
“A lot of times people who are trying to share the gospel with them are trying to use the New Testament, and Jews don’t believe that book is inspired of God,” Worshill said.
It’s best to start with the Old Testament promises they believe in and show how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of those promises, he said.
Before Worshill became a Christian, he was like the Saul of the Jews, he said. “I was brought up to be an anti-missionary, to bring Jews who went to Jesus back to Judaism.”
But one day a Christian girl who eventually became his wife began talking to him about the Old Testament laws about sacrificial atonement for sin. She asked him how Jews atone for sin now, as they haven’t sacrificed at the temple since it was destroyed in the first century.
“I began to think about how a Sanhedrin council had decided at that point it was OK not to sacrifice anymore (even though the law hadn’t changed), and that going to the synagogue was never meant to count as a sacrifice for sin,” Worshill said.
Eventually he began to consider Jesus.
Worshill said resources abound for Alabama Baptist churches and believers who want to learn more about how to share the gospel effectively with Jews.
The SBMF, its member congregations and fellowships, and partner organizations offer training for churches on a regular basis, and many of these resources are local.
Two SBMF fellowships call Alabama home — Beth El Shaddai in Bessemer and Beth Messiah Messianic Congregation in Tarrant.
“Contact us at SBMF, and we can help connect you with resources,” Worshill said. SBMF cooperates with a number of ministries in order to empower and mobilize churches to share the gospel with Jews.
It’s an urgent need, he said, as “the fields are white unto harvest, but we don’t have enough workers out there to share the gospel.”
Worshill asked Alabama Baptists to pray that God will send more workers into the field to share and that He will open more Jewish hearts to the truth of Jesus.
For more information or to ask about training, contact Worshill at sbmf@sbmessianic.net or visit www.sbmessianic.net.
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