Yes once again we are breaking our no-spam-of-our-members rule by sending you this email. Short of a bat kol, we would not have sent this out, but the changes at JerusalemCouncil.org have been too exciting to keep silent any longer. We are growing, and growing fast.

First, we turned a year old. We started out as a placeholder website for the future Jerusalem Council. It soon became apparent to us that there much need in the Messianic movement to get Messianics together and collaborate and resolve many of the issues that divide us. We created the message board forum for this purpose and promoted it last year as a central place to discuss halakha, and Messianic theology.

In case you haven’t visited recently, our primary goal is focused on the initial development of Messianic halakha so discussions on differing views can be highlighted and worked on as a global community. Messianic Judaism needs your help, and the changes on the site have made it very easy to meet this challenge!

First, we have the forum, which has been reorganized to focus on halakhic development. The main halakha forums are moderated, but Torah-observant Messianics are free to post without approval. General apologetics and study forums are available for all believers irregardless of their view towards Torah-observant Messianic Judaism.

Second, we have a chat room. It is IRC - internet relay chat, based, which is great, because you can download and install any program like Miranda (for PCs) and connect to the IRC chat room #Jerusalem_Council on the irc.ircstorm.net IRC network. Using a free third-party IRC program will allow you to stay connected to the chat room at all times, and help support the online Messianic community that is growing at JerusalemCouncil.org!

Third, we have a Google Apps backend. Which is awesome, because now dedicated volunteers can communicate in private over Google Talk, using their own private jerusalemcouncil.org email addresses. Secure collaboration on documents is also possible, and has been used extensively to discuss development of JerusalemCouncil.org, as well as collaborate on research requests and teaching materials. Trusted contributors can collaborate on shared documents, presentations, spreadsheets, share files, share contacts, work together on team wiki pages, and more. Soliciting feedback on an article or paper you are writing has never been so easy! Click on the volunteer application on the main JerusalemCouncil.org home page and get started today! There is no commitment required to join as a contributor, however volunteers willing to at least stick around on the forum or chat room are greatly appreciated so that answers to many halakhic questions can be responded to quickly and with well-informed opinions.

Fourth, we have finally created the Global Messianic Link Directory at http://portal.jerusalemcouncil.org. This is an awesome project in its own right, as it aims to collect every known Messianic website in the world. Volunteers are needed to collect, review, and share websites, and your contribution to the directory in any way will be greatly appreciated!

Fifth, in an effort to reach out to our volunteers and provide them a personal space with which to publish their thoughts, studies, and more, we have created the Messianic Blogosphere, a free Messianic blogging website based on Wordpress MU, at http://blogs.jerusalemcouncil.org. Get yours today and import your current blog from Blogger, Wordpress.com and other popular blogging sites and software.

These changes aim to help foster a close-knit global Torah-observant online Messianic community, so that ourselves, our families, our ministries, and our local congregations may be encouraged, built-up, and connected to other believers worldwide, and to our audience who so desperately needs the teaching of the Truth of the Word of God.

We desire to eventually focus in a direction of Messianic Apologetics, making it easy for the online community, and the global community to defend what it believes easily, and effectively, but we can’t do this by ourselves. The work is too great. This is why we have decided to contact you.

Please share the vision of the Jerusalem Council with your friends, family, and congregations, and encourage them to participate as the Lord leads. We aren’t in a hurry, but we are certainly busy – as Yeshua’s words ring true to this very day: “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

Let’s discover the halakha of the Messiah together, so that we may develop a common unity among our scattered communities! Let’s develop compelling apologetics to defend what we believe and so help many from denying the truth of Torah, and the divinity of the Messiah. And finally, let’s edify one another in all love of the Messiah and for one another, as the Bride makes herself ready for the Bridegroom’s return. You are invited.

Shalom,

JerusalemCouncil.org