I believe firmly that Christians who have known the Lord for a long time can offer much to Jews," said Herb Zwickle. "A long-time Christian with a soft heart is a great blessing."

Zwickle grew up in a traditional Jewish farming community outside New York City. He serves as a minister to Jews through the North American Messianic Association, which serves a growing population of Jews who consider themselves "completed" by having recognized Jesus as the Messiah.

Zwickle describes Christians who were gentiles rather than Jews before coming to faith in Christ as non-Jewish Christians. He says that not only are such non-Jewish Christians a blessing in ministering to Jews, he believes they are often better witnesses to Jews because it is part of Christians' primary purpose in the eyes of God.

Romans 1:16, a verse many Bible believers can quote, is one that isn't often fully grasped: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (KJV). Most Christians fit the "and also" category, which may explain why some of them miss the significance.

"Gentile Christians have received God's mercy. It is time for gentiles to bring that mercy back to the Jew," Zwickle said. His own ministry in the northeast United States has the primary focus of mobilizing Southern Baptist churches in the pursuit of pointing Jewish people toward Christ. He makes people aware of the chasm that exists between gentiles and Jews and that the Messiah has come for both.

One way the Southern Baptist Convention has addressed reaching Jews is through the development of the North American Messianic Association (NAMA), previously known as the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship.

Initiated in 1990, NAMA now has 15 congregations across the country, according to Jim Sibley, coordinator of Jewish Ministries for the North American Mission Board.

"Jesus is the King of the Jews. Christians make a mistake when we forget this and neglect taking the gospel to Jews. If He is not the King of the Jews, then He is not the Savior. If He is not the King of all, He is not the Messiah," Sibley said.

Jim Austin, president of NAMA, wants to see the number of messianic congregations increase.

"We want to plant Jewish congregations in all cities where there are non-believing synagogues. We want to demonstrate and experience the Hebrew concept of worship. Basically we want to put Jewishness back in the gospel by recognizing the beginnings of our faith. People forget that the early church, the church in Acts 21, is Jewish," Austin said.

"Each congregation operates under what the leader feels comfortable with," said Donna Wiegle, a member of the Springfield, Illinois, Pitzah Tikvah (Door of Hope) messianic congregation. "Ours tends toward the more orthodox, a blending of Jewish tradition with a celebration of the gospel. For me, it has made me feel closer with God," Wiegle said.

Most congregations offer Friday night services that signal the beginning of the Sabbath. There is a celebratory meal and a time of blessings, according to Don Hettinger, a member of the messianic congregation Beth Shalom in Montana. The Shabbat services vary by congregation in form, but each honors the Jewish custom of the Sabbath, from the blessing of the Torah to the Aaronic Benediction and times of messianic dance. Portion (Bible) studies take place on Saturday afternoons and/or Tuesday evenings.

It is not uncommon for Hasidic Jewish visitors to come with curiosity and return to research this Yeshua (Jesus) to see if He fulfills the prophecies of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).

The barriers to reaching people who are the chosen of God often seem insurmountable. In Romans, the pleas of Paul to the gentiles on behalf of the Jews remind us that the barriers are not insurmountable. He also reminds us of their favor with God and His covenant with them for their faith:

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them ... And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree ... Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either ... For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:13-14, 17, 20-21, 24, NKJV).

James Boucher, a member of Beth Yeshua HaMashiach (House of Jesus the Messiah), a congregation in Houston, sees the barriers for Jewish people in much the same light as the barriers for gentiles.

"The major problem to be overcome in sharing the gospel message with Jews is what I might call spiritual-religious pride," Boucher said. "This is based on the modern rabbinical definition of what it means to be a Jew combined with the truth that Jews are identified by God's Word as a chosen nation of people. It seems as if Jews have a fence around their beliefs, therefore, they don't even question their belief system."

Herbert Zwickle cites the persecution suffered by Jews at the hands of so-called Christians as a continuing barrier. His family members have also received death threats from Jews for their public stands for Christ.

"In New York, you can actually be excommunicated from your family, lose your rights and inheritance, which has actually happened to us. Our lives have even been threatened," Zwickle said. But the hostility unfortunately goes both ways.

"Churches have not always been friendly to Jews. So it just boils down to the simple belief for many Jews -- although I don't agree with it--that all gentiles hate Jews and all gentiles are Christian.

"When I finally had an understanding [of Christianity], I asked a minister friend, 'Are you telling me that Christ-ians don't kill Jews? Are you telling me all gentiles are not Christians?' I had it broken up, like in the Old Testament: Jews and gentiles. I assumed gentiles will hurt Jews," Zwickle explained.

"It was a tremendous discovery for me. I said to him, 'You're telling me there are three kinds of people? Jews, gentiles and Christians?' When it was explained to me, it must have taken half a year or more for me to reach this understanding: I can be a Christian."

The solution, however, is always the same: the grace of God prompts a person to lower the blinders just enough to get a glimpse of the truth, the truth that the Messiah has come. That prompting must come from the efforts of believers, Jews or gentiles, who are willing to tackle those barriers. Zwickle believes sensitive Christians can deliver the message.

"With the non-orthodox, a typical Jew is indistinguishable from the others," said Zwickle. "My opinion on how to reach them is--through the church. That is, if I go and talk to a Jew about Jesus they get mad. If a gentile does the same thing, the [Jews] have a different attitude and may give a hearing I could never gain."

Amy French is a writer and mother of two living in San Antonio, Texas. Joe Conway is managing editor of On Mission.