Our Manhattan Messianic Center not only serves as our international headquarters, it is home for many of our ministries, including Bible studies for a Jewish professional men’s group, congregational ministries, evangelistic lectures, and discipleship programs. It also has a studio space which we have used to film testimonies of Jewish believers—the I Found Shalom videos have been hugely successful in reaching millions of seekers and new believers on the internet. This past spring, the I Found Shalom video outreach received the National Radio Broadcasters (NRB) award for “Best Short-Form Video.”
The Center also accommodates many larger meetings throughout the year, such as our national leadership team meetings and the meetings of our U.S. Board of Directors. Regional missionaries are coached and mentored from this facility as well. We regularly receive inquiries from people walking by who want to know more about Chosen People Ministries. We are in a convenient location for countless New York City visitors from all over the globe.
New York has the largest concentration of Jewish people outside of Israel and more Jewish people than either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem! In many ways, New York is the heartland of the Jewish community in America. Many Jewish people in America today trace their lineage back to New York, to an ancestor who came through Ellis Island with a hope for a better life.
In 1892, a young Hungarian rabbi, Leopold Cohn, came to America literally in search of the Messiah. Two weeks after he arrived in New York, Cohn came across a church with a sign in Yiddish letters saying “Meetings for Jews.” He received a copy of the Hebrew New Testament, and accepted Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.
In 1894, Rabbi Cohn and his family started a mission to the Jewish people in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn out of a renovated horse stable. This was the beginning of Chosen People Ministries. Now, in our one hundred and twenty-fourth year, Chosen People Ministries operates with a ministry presence in seventeen countries, including Israel, where we have served for the past seventy years.
But, our headquarters is in the heart of the largest concentration of Jewish people in the world—New York City!
A Messianic Jewish Center is necessary to meet the needs of three distinct Jewish groups:
- To meet the needs of a growing Messianic Jewish population by having a place to worship, a place to grow in discipleship and a place to interact with other believers.
- To meet the need of teaching the greater church ways to share their faith with Jewish people and help them understand the Jewish roots of their faith.
- To meet the need of reaching the Jewish community with the gospel by means of outreach, ministry, education and cultural events.
What is a Messianic Jewish Center?
It is the messianic equivalent of a local Jewish community center. It contains public spaces: a reception area, a bookstore, a visitors’ sitting room, a library, classrooms, a multi-purpose room with kitchen facilities for worship services, banquets, movies, and lectures, and possibly a lounge. It also contains administrative offices: a reception/secretarial area, offices, conference facilities, a small pantry, a missionary bullpen, and possibly a bullpen for volunteers.
Perhaps of equal importance to its functions, however, is its presence in the Jewish community which proclaims that Yeshua of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and that acknowledging Him as the Holy One of Israel is a very Jewish thing to do.
What is the importance of Messianic Jewish Centers?
Chosen People has been doing ministry since 1883. In those years we have done a variety of ministry in various ways. We have established offices where ministry was done out of. In the 1980’s there was a shift to minister out of Messianic Congregations. Our strategy to establish centers is based on the growing need for CPM to be more complex in its ministry than simply running out of an office or messianic congregation. The model of a center will allow us to do a variety of work and also provide opportunities for those in our midst to be creative and think outside the box in ways to reach our fellow Jews.
Update: July 1, 2018
Renovations at our headquarters in New York City are well underway. Bob Seemar, our Director of Facilities, is overseeing the construction work and making sure that everything moves along smoothly. Currently, Bob is working with a total of twenty people on our renovations, both onsite and behind-the-scenes, including architects, engineers, and expeditors. His wife Emily handles all the technology and clerical work.
Renovation of our headquarters began on May 1st, 2018, when an asbestos company came to remove the roof. Facade work also began in early May, when Bob and his team removed the stucco and foam board from the front of our building and applied wire mesh and scratch code, which must be done before they apply insulated pre-cast blocks. Along the way, Bob also began the electrical work on the second floor to prep for the removal of the wooden beams and he also removed the carpet throughout the building.
The front and back of the building are the main challenges in our renovation. In the front of our building, Bob will replace the rotting steel plates which hold up the facade. Normally at least half an inch thick, the steel plates have eroded down to a mere quarter of an inch. This can be dangerous if left alone, as it could cause the facade to fall apart in the future.
The main goal of the renovation is not to change our building, but to update it and bring it into the 21st century, both cosmetically and structurally. At the core of the renovation, though, we want to make sure we remember our roots.
“My goal is that people would not just look at it as a building but also as a place from which the gospel goes out,” said Bob.
As of right now, our renovation is projected to finish in October. We want to thank you for all of your prayers, donations, and continued support of Chosen People Ministries.