Grace And Truth Christian Congregation was founded in 1976 by a group of Israeli Christians. Today it is largely made up of veteran Israelis and immigrants from the former USSR and other countries, with some non-Jewish persons and an Arab family. The church also serves expatriate students or workers from various parts of the world, and a growing Deaf community.
Our congregational goal is to love and serve God together according to his Word. For this reason, the major emphasis in our communal life is on doctrinal and expository preaching, informed by confessional basis. We believe that loving and serving God according to His word, of necessity involves both evangelistic and social engagement with society as well as the cultivation of strong spiritual and social ties within the congregation. At the timing of writing, the congregation numbers over 400. Substantial further growth is stunted by the crowded conditions in which we are forced to meet and worship.
What are We Like? Grace and Truth was constituted on a confessional basis described in our Constitution and By-Laws. Both of these are in full agreement with the consensus of Reformed Confessions such as the Westminster, Helvietic and 1689 London Baptist Confessions. We labour to be a Christian congregation in which both Jews and gentiles are welcome, and in which they can co-operate for the glory of God and the promotion of the Gospel in Israel and abroad.
The culture of our worship is Jewish and Israeli because most of us are such. We wish to demonstrate to our people that the Gospel grew out of Jewish soil and that it can and should find its way back to that soil. Though our confession is Reformed and Baptist, we refuse to limit our fellowship to those who subscribe to that confession. Some who worship and serve God with us adhere to other evangelical professions, but warmly identify with the ministry of the word and the nature of our congregation none-the-less. Without compromising our own loyalties we maintain close relations with congregations in the country who hold to other evangelical confessions because we believe that one aspect of that loyalty is love to the brethren. We welcome into our fellowship any and all who are willing to live and worship with us in peace and in accordance with our Confession of Faith and do not expect them to compromise their own.
Our church is served by a board of Elders. The Elders are assisted by Deacons and a Deaconal Committee, by an evangelist and by an administrative assistant to the evangelist who also serves as the church secretary. Various committees administer the every-day life of the church in terms of Sabbath School activities, evangelism, social activities, womens' fellowship and so on. The congregation is involved in the production of an all-age Sabbath School curriculum and in the production of Christian literature in Hebrew and Russian, including a magazine in Russian. Recordings of sermons preached in the church are distributed throughout the country to interested persons, especially to the blind and the otherwise incapacitated. We are evangelistically committed and enjoy ongoing relations with the Arab evangelical community. Top of Menu
What Do We Do? Through the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism and through lectures overseas, Grace and Truth has actively promoted an evangelical witness to the Jewish people. Our church continues to promote a biblically and theologically informed Evangelical faith in Israel. The leadership of our church initiated the founding of the National Intercongregational Fellowship of Hebrew Speaking Congregations and of the National Evangelistic Committee. We have consistently called upon Jewish Christians to extend a hand of loving fellowship to fellow believers in the country and elsewhere, regardless of political barriers. To that end, we maintain regular contact with an Arab congregation in Galilee. We are seeking other such opportunities.
As part of our program for doctrinal education, we have hosted annual seminars organised with Westminster Theological Seminary in North America, and other periodic seminars in co-operation with the Gereformeerde Gemeenten in the Netherlands. These seminars are attended by members of our congregation and of others nearby. Similar projects are always in the making.
Preaching in Grace and Truth is translated into Russian, English and Russian sign language. At times we have provided translation into Yiddish, German and Rumanian also. Our worship service is preceded by an all age Sabbath school. We run five different Sabbath School classes for the 2-18 year olds, and two adult classes. Weekly Bible studies are held in homes in the various cities from which our congregants come. Three youth groups meet in the middle of the week. In addition, we have an active missionary interest and therefore support missionaries in Kenya and an Arab missionary working among his own people in Israel. Small annual contributions are sent to orphanages in Moldavia, Kenya and in the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority.
Grace and Truth accounts are edited annually by a Certified Public Accountant. The church has a yearly budget that is approved by the members of the congregation, and is executed by the Deacons. About 25% of our budget is devoted to evangelism and to overseas missionary work. It is our church's desire to become financially indigenous as soon as possible. Nevertheless, some of our ministries could not have been conducted if it were not for the generous support of Christians overseas, particularly Christian Witness to Israel in Britain, Patmos International in Finland, the Isaac de Costa Fund in Holland, Ordet og Israel in Denmark and Norway, and the Reformed Baptist Mission Services in the USA. Because many of the congregants are new immigrants, we have a long way to go before we achieve the goal of complete financial independence. The Deacons Committee has targeted that goal, and we are steadily making progress in that direction.
Pastor Jones (
David Zadok (
The culture of our worship is Jewish and Israeli because most of us are such. We wish to demonstrate to our people that the Gospel grew out of Jewish soil and that it can and should find its way back to that soil. Though our confession is Reformed and Baptist, we refuse to limit our fellowship to those who subscribe to that confession. Some who worship and serve God with us adhere to other evangelical professions, but warmly identify with the ministry of the word and the nature of our congregation none-the-less. Without compromising our own loyalties we maintain close relations with congregations in the country who hold to other evangelical confessions because we believe that one aspect of that loyalty is love to the brethren. We welcome into our fellowship any and all who are willing to live and worship with us in peace and in accordance with our Confession of Faith and do not expect them to compromise their own.
Preaching in Grace and Truth is translated into Russian, English and Russian sign language. At times we have provided translation into Yiddish, German and Rumanian also. Our worship service is preceded by an all age Sabbath school. We run five different Sabbath School classes for the 2-18 year olds, and two adult classes. Weekly Bible studies are held in homes in the various cities from which our congregants come. Three youth groups meet in the middle of the week. In addition, we have an active missionary interest and therefore support missionaries in Kenya and an Arab missionary working among his own people in Israel. Small annual contributions are sent to orphanages in Moldavia, Kenya and in the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority.
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