New Wine Fellowship Bible Study

So now we have a website! A few months ago my good friend, Michael Lederer, asked me to pray about and consider helping him lead a Saturday evening Bible study. He talked about how he and his wife Jill had done this while they were living in California and how much he had wanted to do it since his return to Dallas. Michael spoke about how the Bible study group in California had started out with just a handfull of people and how it grew in number and spiritual significance over time. I was immediately interested and we began to share our goals and desires for the Bible Study.

We both agreed that we wanted the Bible study to be deep and challenging. As the writer of Hebrews challenges in chapter 5 and 6 “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an (spiritual) infant, is not acquainted with the teachings of righteousness. …let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…”

We also wanted to have a focus on exploring the Jewish roots of Christianity. This comes naturally to Michael who some will describe as a Messainic Jew. He refers to himself as a “completed Jew” - having found a saving faith through Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Michael relishes in his connection to his heritage and experiences his Christian walk with a perspective that I believe is unique to Jews who have found Jesus. I am not a Jew. In fact, I am probably about as Gentile as they come. But I have become very interested in gaining a more thorough perspective of the Jewsih culture (particularly the culture and customs prevalent during Biblical times) and how it shaped the events of the Bible. Why? Because the Jewish people and the nation of Israel were chosen by God himself as the conduit through which he would communicate his truth and would ultimately send his son. I have found that the better understanding I have of the whole Jewish experience, the more illuminating it has been for my Bible study. This is very difficult to find in mainstream Christian churches and we wanted our Bible study fil that gap.This also where I got the idea for the name of my blog, Faith Roots.
Michael and I both wanted to integrate a time of worship through music into each of our meetings. Michael is a gifted musician. He plays several instruments, has a thorough command of music composition and theory, and has written dozens of incredible worship songs.
So we did it. We jumped right into the deep end and started our Bible study. And in just a few short months we have experienced many blessings. Our worship team of musicians and vocalists - led by Michael - always starts our meetings off on the right note (couldn’t resist) and prepares our hearts to commune with God. The teaching duties have been shared by me and our good friend Les Castro. We have stuck to the charter of pursuing depth with a focus on integrating the Jewish experience into our study. We have a core group of faithful attendees and almost always see new faces at each meeting. The discussion and fellowship are lively and I often hear attendees say that they are learning and feel spiritually renewed when they attend. This is God’s hand at work. May he increase.
And now we have our website as a communication tool for the group, as a place that facilitates and stumilates feedback, and as a way of letting other people know who we are and what we are doing. So, if you are reading this and happen to be in the Dallas area, you are welcome to join us any time we meet. Our meeting schedule and a map to where we meet is posted under the Upcoming Events section. If you have stumbled upon us by surfing the Internet I hope we can be a blessing to you. The full text our our Bible studies are posted on the site under Study Notes. You can also leave a comment - we would love to hear from you.

Tags: Bible Study