[ updated 1/07 ]
1. What is it that you hope to "restore"?
2. Can you serve and/or work with believers who don't identify with everything in your 7-fold vision?
3. Your vision is so large and broad, how can you expect to do it all?
4. If you are encouraging Jewish things so strongly, how do you relate to the non-Jewish believers in Israel?
5. What is your position on the deity issue that is currently splitting the Israeli Body?
6. Are you affiliated with a congregation or organization?
7.
Do you get paid for the work you do in Restorers?
1. What is it that you hope to "restore"?
We are dedicated to a 7-fold
vision:
1. Restoring economic,
spiritual and emotional stability to troubled Israeli believers.
2. Restoring the Jewish
believers to the Land.
3. Restoring Biblical
integrity among Israeli believers, especially in business.
4. Restoring unity
and teamwork in the Israeli Body.
5. Restoring the Covenantal
signs to a place of honor in the Messianic community.
6. Restoring full Gentile
partnership in this calling.
7. Restoring the Jewishness
of the Gospel in Israel.
For more details on these
points, go to our Comprehensive
Outline.
2. Can you serve and/or work with believers who don't identify with everything in your 7-fold vision?
Yes. We realize that not all followers of Yeshua are going to identify with all of our points. There can be acceptable reasons for this, such as a different focus for ministry. Or perhaps it's the first time certain believers have ever been presented with some of these as Scriptural mandates, and they need time to think and pray about it.
What we do ask such people is whether they can work with us, or be served by us, knowing everything that we stand for. If so, we do not require them to do anything more than (a) to allow us the freedom to follow our convictions, and (b) to refrain from activities that would sabotage any of the things we are working to restore.
3. Your vision is so large and broad, how can you expect to do it all?
Actually, we don't expect to do it all. No ministry could possibly cover all the areas mentioned above. It's doubtful that we could cover even one area completely.
We are called to be facilitators of all these goals. Our job is to find the needs and match them up with the resources (and vice versa - there are people who want to serve the Israeli Body and have asked for help in finding those who need them). Once the two halves have found each other and are working together, our job is finished.
When setting out to match needs and resources, we usually begin locally; wherever possible, we try to link people in the Land to help each other. If there is no answer locally, we turn to our partners and supporters abroad. When the Lord moves us, we become part of the answer ourselves, and make our personal time, talents or funds available for the Lord to meet the need.
Sometimes this facilitating effort takes a sustained amount of searching and praying and waiting, while at other times it happens almost effortlessly. But for every need, we turn first to the Lord for wisdom on how to proceed and where to direct our efforts.
For certain needs that are widespread and continual, such as requests for financial aid, we work in partnership with others to whom we can delegate the job of identifying and verifying the needs. We believe that this is a proper function of the "deacon" in a congregation (or "shamash" in Jewish terms). Not only are we meeting needs more efficiently this way, but a responsible leader in a congregation is sure to know the members far better than we ever could - even if we were to personally meet with each one requesting help.
You can learn more about
our Shamash Network by clicking here.
4. If you are encouraging Jewish things so strongly, how do you relate to the non-Jewish believers in Israel?
One of the Jewish concepts that needs to be restored to Israel is the understanding that we are obligated to care for the ger toshav, the Torah term translated as "the stranger that dwells among you". In the same passages that affirm our claim as Jews to the Land of Israel, we are also commanded to love the stranger.
To our sorrow, there are segments of the Israeli population who are ignorant of this responsibility before G-d. And even though the government formally supports equality among Jewish and non-Jewish citizens and residents in the Land, there is often a habit of neglect and discrimination toward non-Jews. It is true that most countries of the world tend to look after their own and leave foreigners to look after themselves, but we are not called to be like other countries. Wherever G-d admonishes Israel to look after those most likely to be poor and needy, the "stranger" is always found in that list.
The Israeli Body of Messiah should be leading the way in restoring this understanding to Israel -- and all the more so because in Messiah, the "wall of division" between Jew and Gentile doesn't even exist anymore. While we are still obligated to continue in our various earthly callings (I Cor. 7:17-24), wherever citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven comes into play, there is no distinction in rights and responsibilities.
We at Restorers have the
opportunity and privilege to demonstrate this oneness by serving several
congregations in Israel that minister to Israeli Arabs, foreign workers,
refugees from South Lebanon and non-Jewish residents from the former Soviet
Union. Likewise, we are working hand in hand with both Christian
and Jewish believers as partners, without distinction - one Body working
together to meet the needs of the Israeli Remnant.
5. What is your position on the deity issue that is currently splitting the Israeli Body?
We are convinced that the Scriptures teach that Yeshua is fully G-d, and that He came in the flesh as fully human. Moreover we have established that it is a thoroughly Jewish concept to regard the Messiah as both G-d and man (a concept with strong rabbinic support, although this is a well-kept secret in the Jewish community...).
We are also convinced that the more we try to capture the oneness of G-d and Yeshua in words, the more muddled we can become, moving farther and farther from the Big Picture into one narrow corner or another. The apostle Paul wrote of "mysteries" that G-d has revealed to us (but not explained). It is a mystery that we are contemplating here.
Therefore, we prefer to stand in awe and humility before Him, rather than try to "explain" how such a thing could be. The image that we have been given by Yeshua Himself (Father and Son being One) cannot be improved by human commentary.
It is a Greek (logic-based) approach to try to "fix" the "contradictions" so that the ways of G-d can be made more intelligible to our rational minds. It is a Jewish (Torah-based) approach to let G-d's mysteries stand just as they are, taking the difficulty or paradox as proof that His ways are indeed beyond our understanding.
But where understanding cannot reach and the mind is unfruitful, those born of G-d in the Messiah have a major advantage over both Jews and Greeks. The Holy Spirit can feed our spirits directly with the richness and the wonder of His nature, enabling us to defy logic and to "know the love of Messiah that surpasses knowledge", causing us to become walking "contradictions" ourselves -- finite beings who are nevertheless filled with "all the fullness" of the boundless and infinite G-d (Eph. 3:19).
Don't "go figure".... Just rejoice in your inheritance as a child of the living G-d!
6. Are you affiliated with a congregation or organization?
No. The individuals who work with Restorers come from various backgrounds and theological persuasions. The co-directors (Hannah Weiss and Arye Powlison) have been submitted members of a small, intimate home fellowship for over 15 years, one that grew independently of any congregation or organization in Israel or abroad.
This lack of affiliation is a freedom that enables us to serve many different factions and groups who wouldn't necessarily receive service from someone identified with "the other side". In this way, we can become a bridge to foster greater unity in Israel.
7. Do you get paid for the work you do in Restorers?
No. All registered members of Restorers (the board of the amuta, or the non-profit legal body) are strictly volunteer. The co-directors, who are responsible for the ministry operations, are likewise volunteer. Eventually we plan to pay our Office Manager (who is not a registered member) a salary as an employee, but at the moment she is volunteering her time as well. For more details, see the notes at the end of our Outline.
We are, however, willing
to offer financial compensation to those ministering as partners with us,
with regard to two categories:
* If their financial stability
is being undermined by an extensive time commitment to Restorers projects,
which takes time away from making a living;
* If they are practicing
their chosen profession (their means of livelihood) and wish to be compensated.