A Profile of Jewish Believers in the UK Church

Given that mission agencies have been reporting for the last two hundred years or more the number of Jewish people coming to faith in Christ, this book asks the question: where are they and their descendants now? Using a multidisciplinary approach, covering social identity theory, social memory theory, and translation theory, this book constructs a profile of Jewish believers in the UK church based upon interviews carried out with church members and leaders who are Jewish or have experience working with Jewish believers. After examining both theory and data, the conclusion is that church is a hostile environment for Jewish identity. Unlike Chinese, Ghanaian, and Korean churches whose members are encouraged to retain their traditions as diaspora communities reaching out to their own people, the church has a strongly assimilationist policy toward Jewish believers, who are encouraged--even pressured--to forget their Jewish traditions, customs, and practices in favor of blending into Gentile church and disappearing. Jewish believers are at best an oxymoron; at worst, an anathema, not to be trusted or tolerated unless--as in the days of the early church from the third century onwards--they renounce their previous lives, families, and communities. ""I have had the pleasure of working with Jonathan Allen for the three years during which he researched this book and I am delighted that it is now published. Not only is it a careful study of the experience of Messianic Jews in the United Kingdom but it is a hopeful study, one that is written to connect with Messianic Jewish scholarship, to nurture Messianic Jewish identity, and most importantly to consider a way forward. Allen's intention is missional, namely that the culture on the Jewish believer in Christ is not lost from our churches."" --HOWARD WORSLEY, Vice Principal, Trinity College Bristol, Tutor in Missiology ""At the risk of being a 'voice crying in the desert, ' Jonathan Allen lives the Pauline Ephesians vision of One New Man. Since Messianic Judaism's emergence with such strength last century, the theology and practice of Jewish belief in Jesus/Yeshua worldwide has caused migraines and heart murmurs for Christian theologians and church leaders. This research snap-shot puts the United Kingdom church on alert that there is much progress yet to be made."" --Timothy Butlin, St. Peter's Church, Loudwater, United Kingdom Jonathan Allen has recently completed his PhD at Trinity College, Bristol, researching the role of continuing Jewish identity among believers in the UK church. He has been teaching adult groups for more than twenty years. He is the author of a five-volume set of daily readings/devotional studies based on the Synagogue reading cycle, When You Lie Down and When You Rise Up (2011).