Celebrating Biblical Holy Days in Christian liberty
Executive Summary
The LORD has called me into ministry. I have felt this calling for decades, but the Enemy has assaulted me with a weapon called "busy." It is now time to re-claim my calling form the LORD. What He has been impressing upon me is to begin a ministry that is focused on the grace of God and upon the miraculous abundance of signs in the Old Testament that point to Christ. I contend that every page of the Tanakh points to Jesus.Trinity Festival Ministry will meet 7 times a year and celebrate the 7 Festivals ordained in the Torah – not as legalistic commanded occasions, but in the joy and freedom of the Lord! Each celebration will include extended worship, a message focusing on Yeshua in the Old Testament. Then there will be a lot of fellowship and eating - excepting Yom Kippur, of course.
Background
The name of the ministry includes the word "Trinity" in it because I see so many groups involved in the Hebrew Roots movement, Messianic Judaism, and various splinter groups of Armstrongism who do not understand the three-fold nature of God. I hope to immediately impress this important distinctive on any prospective participants.Most large churches have a ministry for just about everything. But even though they go to Jerusalem every year, love the Jewish people, and look for their turning to Yeshua Hamashiach in these Last Days, they have no ministry that a Jewish convert could walk into and immediately feel at home.
The Ekklesia was called out of the Jewish people first, then the gentiles. As such, worship and traditions in the Church were suffused with Jewish flavor. Records indicate that during the first 100 years, the church continued to keep the Festivals and worship in house churches and in synagogues. Indeed, this is indicated by many New Testament scriptures.
All of that changed with Constantine. Soon Christianity became "Big Church." It turned into a distinctly Roman institution. The church spiraled downward until the 95 Theses. In 1517 the Church began to recapture what was once lost.
Then, in a well prophesied miracle, Israel was gathered from all the countries and brought back into their own land! Today, in services all over the world God's people continue to look back at the tree into which they have been grafted – yet not under law, but under grace, and under the blood of Jesus Christ.
This has resulted in some very interesting changes in the Church of God. Some of these changes include:
1. The recognition that Israel IS truly Israel in the New Testament, not "spiritual Israel."
2. The support of Jews and Israel, instead of the Church condoned anti-Semitism that existed from Augustine to Auschwitz.
3. The appearance of Jewish themes in preaching and worship – often Shofars are used; and Jewish worship is used in Church e.g. Marty Goetz.
4. Books have been written about reconnecting with our roots, like "Christ in the Passover," "Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles," and "The Messianic Church: Discovering Our Lost Inheritance," to name but a few.
The Feasts might well be called, "the once and future" Feasts because it seems we will be keeping them in the future (Zech. 14:16). It will be exciting to get a head-start and learn more and celebrate them in these Last Days.
Purpose
Trinity Festival Ministry will be a ministry that meets seven times a year to celebrate Christ in the Biblical festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Atonement, Trumpets, Tabernacles, and Last Great Day (Shimini Atzeret).Though we will be celebrating Feast Days from the Bible, this will not be a Messianic Jewish celebration. There are Messianic Congregations in town. This will not be a Jewish group. There are many Jewish Synagogues in town – and all they need Jesus. This will be a Christian meeting to worship, fellowship, learn, and celebrate during the Feast days. Therefore, although much of the ritual of each Festival will be spoken about and studied for the purpose of revealing Jesus, the gatherings will be essentially ritual-free. They will be focused on the Word of God, Worship, and celebrating what the Lord has done and is doing.
During the meetings there will be messages extolling the freedom in Christ, salvation through His blood, emphasizing how Yeshua is written into the pages of the Torah, and into the meanings of each particular Festival.
As these are Festival celebrations, services will have extended worship, allowing the worshipers more latitude for expressing their love of Jesus in worship. Seating and setup will facilitate this; more room for people to move. Feast-goers will be allowed to bring hand instruments and worship flags.
This ministry is for those who have perhaps attended a Seder and wonder about the other Feasts. It is also to strengthen Messianic Jews in our congregation. It will also strengthen the average church goer as they see the miracle of Christ written into Festivals thousands of years before Incarnation. This will also provide an outlet for Christians who want to celebrate a Festival, but don't want to go to a Messianic congregation, or other pseudo, or non-Christian organizations.
Though there will be more of a Jewish feel to the modern worship and an emphasis on the "7 mile sermon" (Luke 24:27) on the road to Emmaus, worship and teaching will be within the Calvary distinctive style if not a slight variation on the theme (e.g. worship).
Proposal
Trinity Festival Ministry is meant to "plug in" to an existing church ministry schedule, or as a stand-alone ministry where people from local congregations.We will book a local venue and advertise the festival celebration in local churches and Christian radio using an Internet/Social media RSVP so that we can gauge numbers.
We will likely start with the Feast of Tabernacles and Passover.
It will begin locally, but can go national and beyond due to the Internet.
Kevin king Biography, pedigree and Beliefs
I have been a Christian since I was a child. My turning point occurred when I was eight years old.
From birth I had been going to church with my mom. She was a very God-oriented woman and her Christianity saved my parents' marriage for many decades through abuse and trouble – before its eventual demise.
I was born into a musical family. And my dad lived the life of a pop musician. He was a gambler and persecuted my mom's church attendance. He remained irreligious until the death of my little brother Roddy.
His son's death hit him so hard, he finally turned to religion – he became a Jehovah's Witness (JW).
Though it eventually improved the state of the family, and stopped the physical abuse, my dad's religious conversion caused other problems.
The day Jesus began to change my life was the first day my dad made us start going to church (meetings) with him. As all of the kids (my mom never became a JW), went to the car to drive to that first day of entrenched cultism, I, feigning forgetfulness, ran back into the house, knelt down behind the door in my bed room and begged God for His protection, His guidance, His help, as I walked into this false religion. I gave my life to the Lord – submitted to Him, and He honored the supplication of a desperate 8 Year old boy.
The LORD provided. He gave me a tremendous covering that allowed me to make it through a decade of JW meetings (4 times a week) and come out a Christian. During this time God did so many miracles in my life that it is unforgettable even almost 40 years later.
Here's the clincher; my mom was in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) – a Sabbath keeping, Feast going church back then. There is another entire story there; but I got to see the Feast Days kept in legalism for over a decade after I fled the JW church.
The WCG went through a tumultuous and miraculous change about 15 years ago. I was in the thick of it; and what to me was a great correction, moving an entire group from error into orthodoxy, was for many as horrendous as allowing witchcraft into a Christian congregation.
I threw away all of the legalistic practices of the old ways. No more Feasts. No more Sabbaths.
Yet after another decade of throwing away these days because of the legalism associated with them, and watching the Worldwide Church of God (now Grace Communion International) go from cult, to orthodoxy, to liberal mainstream dead church, I began to experience and study the Feast Days from a completely different perspective.
As one who has come from such a background, I know how legalism begins, I also know the freedom in Christ – and I am not willing to give up this freedom to lapse into legalism.
This is why in every gathering of Trinity Festival Ministry, the blood of Christ, His covering, freedom in Him, and Christian liberty will be emphasized strongly throughout. We don't go to church on a Feast day because Deuteronomy says, "Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh your God…" but rather because Hebrews says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." and because Acts says, "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."
