I was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist but left that denomination a few years ago as I felt that is was not where I needed to be for my spiritual growth. Since then I feel as though I've been without a home and have been considering checking out a Messianic church (synagogue?). Can anyone help me out? What should I expect and just how different from mainstream "contemporary" Christianity is it? I know my questions are somewhat broad in scope, but I'm not sure where to begin, and any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
I can pretty much just draw on my own fellowship which is a little different from most MJ synagogues and way different from mainstream churches. But here goes:
We begin our service with a liturgical prayer service. This is done using the Jewish Sidur (prayer book). There are Messianic Prayer books as well. This is done in both Hebrew and in English. During this time there is no one standing before us, he is standing among us. We also have prayer from the heart as well.
We sing a few songs at different times during this service that are appropriate at the moment such as the Sh'ma, the Alienu, the Ma Tovu. This prayer service lasts for about 90mins to 2hrs.
Then a short 30min commentary is given on the reading for the week. This reading is called a Parsha. What makes Judaism special, different from Christianity is that synagogues all over the world are reading and studying the exact same passages each week. The Five Books of Moses have been divided into 54 distinct Parshot and this is a wonderful way to maintain unity of the people.
After this Parsha commentary is given we have a short break to meet and greet each other and then we have a teaching session that usually runs about an hour or a little longer.
After that, we all gather together to share a meal and have table fellowship.
The human being is made up of spirit, soul and body and my fellowship tries to minister to all three areas: Prayer for the spirit, teaching for the soul and food for the body.
That's our service. You may see men wearing kippas, but they are not required unless you're reading from the Scriptures. Some wear tallits, but some don't. Mostly you'll just see ordinary people who love Yeshua and are there to worship Hashem and learn of Him.
So that's it.
Other people will tell you of other types of services. We are varied indeed.
