Last weekend’s National Shabbat in SC, organized by Tommy and Dorothy Wilson, was terrific. I loved the dancing and worship as well as the abundant fellowship with Messianics from across the state. The highlight, though, was corporately declaring God’s Word concerning HIS regathering of His people from the nations.
Sarah Washburn posted a video on her YouTube channel of this special portion of the gathering. May it bless you!!
If you would like to learn more about the National Shabbat concept, desire to find out about one in your area, or would like to help organize/host one, please visit http://nationalshabbat.com/ and then login to register for more info or to participate.
natsab 
This is wonderful, Pete! The Word is being lifted up!
On that topic, a friend here in Jordan approached me with what I believe is an excellent suggestion for the National Shabbat gatherings, and addresses a critical issue.
She reminded me that one of the primary reasons for the NS gatherings is to prepare Ephraim for fellowship with brother Judah, so it is important that the NS find ways to build bridges of connection. The primary means by which Judah has retained his identity over the centuries has been the weekly reading of the Torah Portion in the synagogues. Though the different branches of Judah may differ on their interpretation of those scriptures, they all identify strongly with one another simply because they share that weekly reading. What better bridge of connection with Judah could NS have than sharing that public reading of the weekly Torah Portion? There is no need to teach it – merely to READ it.
This matter came to my friend’s attention because she has contacts all over the world, and one of them attended a NS meeting with a dear orthodox Jewish friend of your and our acquaintance. He was shocked that Torah was not read, and arranged with the contact and some other friends to read it together privately. This should not be! Brother Judah should be able to attend a National Shabbat and find reasons to CONNECT with Ephraim, not draw apart from him!
Another consideration is this: the NS meetings occur one Shabbat out of four, so if Torah is NOT read, then for ¼ of the year, Ephraim is ignoring the very foundation of his faith and simultaneously neglecting the opportunity to strengthen his bonds with the rest of Ephraim by acknowledging this shared solid foundation of the Word. In Acts 15, James made is clear that he expects every believer to hear Torah every Shabbat.
Please feel free not to post this suggestion, or to edit it as you see fit, but do please prayerfully consider it and discuss it with the other NS leaders. It is the Living Torah Who unites us – may His Living Word be the foundation of the NS.
Many blessings to you and yours, Pete. We pray for you and the NS movement regularly!!
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Thanks!
I’ll pass this along to the right person.
In SC we gather quarterly, not monthly like another NS. The concept is still developing. One reason we have chosen to avoid teaching and doctrinal issues is to sidestep pet doctrines and divisive issues. In this way we can gather fellowships without stepping on leader’s toes.
We’ll have to ponder this more…
Shavua tov.
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Thanks, Pete
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Sue directly spoke about the possibility of merely reading the current Torah Portion – not the teaching of it. I can see where teaching Torah could possibly undermine part of the purpose of NS, but am having a harder time understanding what the problem with just reading it would be. We all do that anyway. This would just be a corporate reading – nothing new biblically there. I can think of a few “what if” scenarios, but there will always be those. Was there something specific that immediately came to mind that you thought posed a serious concern as connected to just reading Torah, sans any dicussion?
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Several thoughts played into it.
– We all can and do read the parasha on our own.
– We did read other Scripture.
– With a limited amount of time there were a number of things we wanted to get in that promote building fellowship, unity and corporate worship.
Because SC only does this three or four times per year, we felt that for the above stated reasons, we could alter the normal routine.
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Hm. I can only get audio and not video. I tried on the Washburn site as well. IS this just me?
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I played the video last night from the blog and from YouTube….
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