1. Recognizing the need for an international
forum for accountability and connection among leaders of our congregations,
we fully commit ourselves to the success of the Union of Messianic Jewish
Congregations. All NEMJC congregations shall be members in good standing
of the UMJC.
2. We are committed to forming deep covenant relationships among our New
England congregations and we embrace a visionary yet relaxed and deferential
leadership style in achieving this goal. Mutual helpfulness, good will,
and a sense of common destiny shall govern our dealings with one another.
3. We are committed to a culture-engaging faith. We recognize the magnificence
of God's work of creation, tainted by the Fall but still glorious. We
affirm that God's creative power can be expressed through human endeavors
such as music, art, literature and all other worthy human affairs. We
affirm the value of the intel lect as a gift of God given for the purposes
of discovering His truth. We rejoice in His self disclosure revealed through
the sciences and other disciplines and his unique revelation in the Tanakh
and B'rit Chadashah (Hebrew and New Covenant Scriptures).
4. We seek to live in the creative tension revealed in Scripture between
our unique identities as new creations in the Messiah and as human beings
who share with all people a common human experience in all its joys, sorrows,
pains, hopes and delights.
5. We appreciate the collective wisdom, worthy values, hopes and aspirations
of both our people Israel and the historic Church. We embrace the challenges
inherent in our belonging to both these communities and commit ourselves
to offering to both the best of our Messianic Jewish insights and understandings.
6. We affirm the present reality and value of the gifts of the Spirit
and all God's supernatural self-disclosure in our world. We desire to
express the manifestation of His gifts in a culturally-relevant and responsible
manner.
7. We affirm the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam (Restoring the World). We
reckon the world as worthy of our redemptive involvement in the spheres
of medicine, the arts, politics, humanitarian endeavors and all such society-building
efforts. Through Messiah Yeshua and His Spirit we are enabled to make
a qualitative dif ference in the world and bring a taste of the Olam HaBaah
(the World to Come) into our present reality.
8. Providing for the spiritual and emotional needs of the children of
our constituent congregations is a high priority for us. Our congregations
endeavor to be child-friendly in every way possible.
9. We are committed to the primary task of planting significant numbers
of like-minded congregations throughout New England and surrounding areas.
10. We affirm the principle that planting of new Messianic Jewish congregations
is a matter of spiritual crafts manship. That is, we will accept others
into our association who accept the rigors of building according to the
highest standards of theological clarity, professionalism, responsiveness
to peer authority structures and love for the people in our care. We welcome
those Messianic Jewish congregational leaders and planters in our area
who share our deepest values expressed in these Ten Commitments and the
standards of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.
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