Larry Feldman
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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. Wherever my feet planted, my vision is to start a Messianic congregation. I probably have the gift of evangelism, that's my heart, but the way I feel the best way to reach my people is to start a Messianic Jewish congregation.

Welcome to First Person. I'm Wayne Shepherd. And our guest this week is Larry Feldman, who as a young Jewish man placed his faith in Yeshua, the Messiah. We'll get the full story in a few moments as you stay with us. These First Person conversations are all about Jesus Christ and the way that He leads people to faith and ultimately service in God's kingdom.

Through the years, we have met hundreds of people and heard their testimonies of lives changed through a relationship with Christ and His gospel. And if you'd like to review past programs, please visit FirstPersonInterview.com and browse through the list of downloadable programs. That's FirstPersonInterview.com. You can also look for First Person as a podcast.

Well, let's meet our guest. Larry Feldman was suggested to me by a friend. He was raised in a conservative Jewish home in Philadelphia, but since his conversion has lived all over the country establishing Messianic congregations. As we talked online recently, I began by asking him a very simple question. Who is Larry Feldman? I'm a Jewish believer in Yeshua. His Hebrew name is Yeshua, Jesus. And I come from Philadelphia.

a middle-class Jewish neighborhood. I was born in 1948, and I grew up in Philadelphia. And I grew up in the synagogue. I had my bar mitzvah, a typical young Jewish man, conservative in our upbringing. And the only thing I ever knew, which I think is very common for Jewish people, the only thing I ever knew about Jesus was he was for them. Hmm.

I don't say this badly. I just say that the world's divided up into two groups of people, them and us. Them, non-Jewish world, us, the Jewish people. That's the way it was, and that's the way we accepted it, and it was fine with us. And until, I'm a little older now, late teens, I guess, someone moved into our neighborhood by the name of Finkelstein.

Now, if your audience is not aware, that's a Jewish name. Yeah, I'll say. So the Finkelsteins moved in, but they were a little different. They were a great, great couple. He was a chemist, and he started teaching and starting the Bible study and started teaching the Jewish neighborhood that Jesus was the Messiah.

Well, you move into a Jewish neighborhood, watch out. That's them fighting words, right? They were fighting words. And our whole neighborhood had plenty to say. And so his house probably looked a lot like the people that Yeshua ministered to, Jesus ministered to, with down-and-outers and drug addicts. And we looked down on that house, except he confused us because he was a chemist.

He was straightforward, very conservative, sharp, intelligent man. And so he challenged the neighborhood. And a lot of the kids started coming over his house. His house became known as the Fink Zoo because of all the weird people there. And many, many people over a period of two years, he was there longer, but about two years for me, 70 to 72, many, many young Jewish men in the neighborhood prayed to receive Jesus as their Messiah and Savior.

And so we got the whole neighborhood talking. Me, I was very strong, opinionated. I was my own self, my own boss. And so I resisted. I fought them for a long time. I grew up, like I said, in a Jewish home and I graduated college, Temple University, psychology major. And so I wasn't sure about these people, but they kept on challenging me and I watched their lives or change. And I had a very, very good friend who

who lived across the street from the Finkelsteins. Jewish guy, my best friend, grew up with him. And he came to me after about two years and said he prayed to receive Yeshua, Jesus, as his Messiah. Well, I wasn't too nice. I kicked him out of my house, slammed the door in his face, kicked him out of my house. I told him never to come back. Never. Never.

So what did he do the next day? He came back with someone from the Finkelstein. Now you have to understand the people in the Finkelsteins were scared of me. They looked at me and didn't say a word.

My friend, he talked to me. He would share with me. Now, the reason they were scared of me was because I'd been in the Army Reserves, and I always wore my Army shirt. I always wore my jeans. It was the late 60s, early 70s. I had long hair. Yeah, yeah. We know what that was like. Yeah, we remember, don't we? I had long hair, and I had a big mustache, beard, and they used to call me behind my back the caveman. Huh.

They were afraid of me. I was maybe 40 pounds heavier than I am today. And so they would just stare at me. My good friend would share with me no matter what I wanted to talk about. Sports, politics, current events, girls. He would look at me and say, that reminds me about a story in the Bible. How he always got the Bible and he always did. And finally, after a while, I started listening to him and he made a lot of sense.

And I said, you know, but he said to me, I want to read to you from the Bible. I said, well, if you read from the Bible, it's got to be the Old Testament. That's my book. So he said, OK, I want to read to you from the prophet Isaiah. And I said, is that the Old Testament? It was my book, but I didn't know Isaiah was in it. But and he would say, why don't you pray and ask God if it's all true? And I go to sleep at night.

And I just quietly said, God, is he crazy or is it true? And God answered my prayers by having him kept coming over my house. And he started sharing with me all the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. And I became convinced over those prophecies that Yeshua, Jesus was the Messiah. And then he says, but that's not enough.

I said, what do I have to do? He says, you have to pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart. Well, I didn't know what that meant. How do you get him in your heart? And so I go to sleep at night, and I wanted to feel, say it. I wanted to feel what he was saying. So I jokingly, laying on my bed, looked up to God in heaven, and I sort of went like this. Come on in. Okay.

And I was inviting him in, but I wasn't serious because I told my friend if I didn't like it, I was going to tell him to get back out. So I told my friend and he looked at me, he says, you're getting close. And so finally, after, you know, two and a half years of arguing on January 15th, 1972, I went to a movie in the neighborhood, someone's house. They were showing a movie called Dry Bones.

It was put out by Lynn. I forget the name now, but they put out a movie. It was a believing movie. And at the end of that movie, a Jewish man stood up and he said, how many tonight for the first time would like to ask Jesus in their heart?

He said, he used his Hebrew name, Yeshua. I raised my hand and all the people from the things who were there and they go, the caveman raised his hand, the caveman raised his hand. And that night I prayed January 15th, 1972. And he asked Jesus to come into my life. Forgive me my sins. And so I became a believer that night. Must've been upsetting for your family though.

Well, yeah. My parents were divorced and remarried, but I was living on my own at this point. And one of them, I forget which one, one thought I became a Catholic, the other thought I became a Baptist. They didn't understand it at all. But they loved me. I loved them. And so they just said, don't talk about it.

And they were upset. They were upset with me. But I just kept on, you know, I started going to Bible study after Bible study, reading the Bible. And it was amazing because I was at that point, I was already accepted for the fall semester in September of 72 to go to Temple Pharmacy School. I was going to go into pharmacy school. And I kept on having more and more an interest in the Bible. And I didn't want to go to school. I wanted to study the Bible.

And some people told me there were schools that they had the Bible. And I said, what? That can't be a school. They said, yeah, you study the Bible. And so different people recommended. I finally decided to go to Chicago to Moody Bible Institute. I had already graduated college and I heard that this was like an institute and I could take courses there. And so I enrolled and

And like I told you at first, I didn't know because I hadn't been off drugs for over a year. I think they had a requirement for at least a year. You have to be off drugs or believer for a year. And so I found the professor of Jewish studies there who I didn't know. He saw my application and he went to back behind the scenes and they accepted me at the end of August. And I quick ran out to Chicago and,

And I started Moody Bibles in 72. I did not know that until talking with you earlier today. And we nearly crossed paths at Moody because I was at Moody at the same time as a young radio announcer. And the Jewish professor is Dr. Lewis Goldberg, who I have very fond memories of. And it's just thrilling to hear how God provided for you to go to Moody for that length of time. Well, yeah, it's funny because he said God provided. In the middle of August.

I got a call from Moody. They said they were looking. They called this family's house, the Finkelstein's. Do you know where this guy Feldman is? We've accepted him. He's got to come out of the school.

And so I found out in the middle of August, I was going to Moody. I packed up my Vega. I was living in someone's house at the time renting. I packed all my possessions in the back car of my Vega. Yeah, that luxury car. I remember Vegas. Right, right. I used to pull it into a gas station. They'd fill it up. They said, with what? I said, oil. But I actually drove out Route 80. Someone said to me, where are you going? I said, to Chicago.

They said, yeah, I know. I'm going to Moody Bible Institute. They said, where in Chicago are you staying? I said, Chicago. They said, no, you have to have a place. I said, I have no place. I had no place to go when they called me. I got in my car and literally drove to Chicago.

Not having no place to live, knowing no one in Chicago. Amazing. It is amazing. The story is a long story. God found me a person, this place, this place. And I spent the next couple of years at Moody studying, learning. And I just couldn't believe there was a school that I could study the Hebrew, the Greek, theology, church, history. It was the greatest experience of my life. That's fantastic. I'm shocked.

I just loved Moody. And then you went on to Dallas Seminary after that. Well, when I got out of Moody, I got out of Moody. I was just a believer two years. And I joined Stanford, this organization called, right now it's called Chosen People Ministries. Back then they were called the American Board of Missions to the Jews. And they hired me to go to Brooklyn and work with this missionary woman by the name of Hilda Kozer, had been there for 30 some years.

And I started stamp with them in 1974. And I worked in Brooklyn with them for five years, doing ministry there, starting a Messianic congregation with them. And at the end of those five years, 79, I know I needed more. And that's when I applied to Dallas and went there in 79. We're getting to know Larry Feldman on this edition of First Person, and there's more to his story coming up in just a moment.

Here's Ed Cannon on the Vision for FEBC's weekly podcast. The primary purpose of Until All Have Heard, of course, is to share the experience that FEBC has because we have staff on the ground in so many oppressive places. But in addition to that, we're trying to speak to you in a way that only the kind of testimonies you'll hear from around the globe can do. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.

Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org.

My guest is Larry Feldman. Maybe I should call you Rabbi Feldman. Would that be appropriate, Larry? It is appropriate if you want to introduce me to Jewish people who are nonbelievers. Otherwise, I go by Larry. Okay, all right. Well, I refer to the rabbi part of your life because you do lead a Messianic congregation in California these days, and we want to talk about that. But after seminary then, just briefly tell me about that part of your life, Larry.

You've been in a lot of places and done a lot of things. Yes. I went to Moody in 72. After Moody, in 74, I joined Stanford Chosen People Ministries. And I had a congregation up there in Brooklyn, New York for the next five years.

for chosen people ministries in 79 i went to dallas seminary the reason i'm telling you this is because wherever my feet planted my vision is to start a messianic congregation okay

I am. I probably have the gift of evangelism. That's my heart. But the way I feel the best way to reach my people is to start a Messianic Jewish congregation. Now, when I say Messianic Jewish, it's for Jewish and Gentile people, all people. But so I did one in Brooklyn. But then in Dallas, when I went to seminary, we started one there as well while I was going to seminary. And that became one of the large ones today in the United States. Okay.

in Dallas. And I was there for four years with that congregation. When I graduated Dallas in 83, I moved, I joke, to the West Bank, Brooklyn. Anyway, now actually, Jersey is the West Bank. So I moved to Jersey and we started a Messianic congregation there called

called Beth Messiah. That was in 1983 and 84, where I headed that congregation up to about actually 1995. But while I was there for those 12 years or so, we started two others, one in Connecticut,

and one in South Jersey. People would call me at my congregation and say, we'd like to start a congregation. I said, good. I'll be there during the week for a start a Bible study. That's how we would start it. So I went up to Connecticut once a month and once every two weeks, and we started one in Connecticut. And then South Jersey called me. It's about 1990. Would you come down here and start a Messianic congregation? I was in North Jersey. I said, I'll come down every Saturday night.

So we had our service Saturday night. I drove down. We started another congregation in South Jersey because I had to start Messianic congregations to reach our people. That's fabulous. Around 1995, some people said to Six, they said, would you move to California and start it? We need one out here in California. Now, I'm a Jewish boy from the East Coast. As far west as I go is Chicago. That's about it.

Anyway, so I told them, no, I will never come to California. So you just don't tell God. You never say never. That's right. So the next year, God moved my wife and me, myself, and my two daughters to California. That was in 1997.

And we started this congregation called Shuvah Yisrael. That's taken from the Bible, Hosea chapter 14. The first two Hebrew words there is Shuvah Yisrael. God is calling our Jewish people. Those first two words mean return of Israel. That's the name of our congregation. We started that in 1997.

And I've been with them ever since then. And that's probably been the most used by God that we've grown. Before COVID, we were getting near almost 300 people. And so the congregation is very effective. Yeah. And God has used us greatly. While I'm in the congregation, of course, I've been involved with trips to Israel and many other conferences. But this congregation has been our most successful one that God has used. Yeah.

Well, I have to admit, I've never attended a Messianic service like the ones you're describing, but after watching some of yours on YouTube, I really want to come because it's amazing. I mean, most evangelical churches, you get a lot of the New Testament, you get very little of the Old Testament information.

In your church, I think you lean a little more towards the Old Testament, but you do get the whole Bible too, don't you? Actually, I really don't. People don't know this. I graduated Dallas Seminary, so I preach the Bible. So what I do is for six months to a year, I take a book from the Old Testament and preach that book.

Then after that book, I go to a book in the New Testament. Okay, good. So I go back and forth. Now, of course, in the New Testament, I pick specific books. For instance, I've done Matthew. I've done Acts. I've done Hebrews. So I pick, but I go back, and then I weave in the scripture. When I'm in the new, I weave the old in. When I'm in the old, I weave the new. So our congregation is different. One of my teachers at Dallas, he used to say, whatever you do,

don't bore people with the Bible. I remember that quote very well, yeah. Right, because we learn the context, we learn the background. We can share with you the background and the culture, whatever it is, but the teacher says that's half the battle. Now you have to apply it. And so also, aside from trying to weave a message, a story and the text and the application,

There's the worship. Now I love, actually, my mom was a piano teacher. I love music. And before I became a believer as a young kid, Christmas time, she played the carols and I'd sing the carol. Raised in a Jewish home. we, you know, we, we saw what was going around us and we did that. Right. But when I got to Moody in Dallas, I started singing the hymns. I love the hymns. They're beautiful. I love music. Well,

But in a Messianic congregation, it doesn't apply to non-believers. So we have to find different types of music, which we call Messianic music, Messianic Jewish music. It's got Jewish beats and melodies, and it's more lively. Some of it's minor keys, and then we...

When I start a congregation, it might not have been as accepted, but we actually do dance in our congregation. Yeah, I was going to say that people there don't necessarily stay in their seats, do they? No, they usually don't. We stand, we worship, we have Israeli dancing.

It's organized. We have a dance leader and she teaches dance. She teaches the people how to, if the people come up to dance and don't know it, she'll ask them to nicely sit down. Although she doesn't ask the children because she encourages children to come up. The way of Israeli dancing through most of our music and we have, it's a lively service. We want to try to engage the people. We also, sometimes people say, well, how are you different than a church? You're hearing some of it now.

And I said, well, you know, we're different in a church because we believe similar. Well, you know, there's differences in churches, too. But we believe similar to the, quote, Christian doctrine. But our expression is different than the church. And so you'll see, like I said, Israeli dancing. You'll hear Hebrew. You'll hear one pastor said to me, well, tell me something you do that we don't do. I said, well, we do the Shema.

He says, what is that? I said, each week we quote during our prayers time, we quote Deuteronomy 6.4. He says, what's that? I went, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. And I said, that translates to Hebrew. That's Deuteronomy 6.4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And so the pastor said to me, hey, that's really nice. We could do that. And I said to the pastor, you could, but you won't. And he left. I said, because we're different. And so a Messianic congregation is different. A lot of times people think it's only for Jewish. It's not. We are a biblical New Testament church. Wonderful. We're Jew and Gentile.

Our expression is more Jewish. So some people who don't feel, and we usually rent the facilities of a church. So if they don't feel comfortable with us, I say, guess what? You can come Sunday morning and it's a great church here. And the pastor is my good friend at the church.

that we rent, he tells people, go to Saturday to meet Larry's congregation. Because we meet on a Saturday, not because we're a seven-day Adventist or anything like that, just because Jewish people will come out on a Saturday, but they won't come out on a Sunday. Well, why not do both? That would be me. All right, Larry, you have not disappointed me. This has been a great conversation. One last question. Yes, Wayne. Something fresh in your heart from the Lord. What's the Lord teaching you now, today?

I am 77. So I'm trying to think, what does God have for me next? He's always had Messianic congregations for me. And I just love this congregation right now. And actually, I've been revived. I thought that I might be heading toward the goal line here.

And in the last year, people have brought me back in to be involved with what they call the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. I'm right now, I was the president a couple of years ago, now I'm the vice president. And so I'm back and excited again. So what I'm right now upon my heart is this congregation. This is upon my heart.

I am going to be 77, Wayne. The congregation loves me, but I am not the future of this congregation. The congregation, if it's up to me, will become an old age farm and I will be sharing with my people. I'm very good with old people, but my heart is I have to find someone I can pass the baton.

And that I can work alongside for maybe a year or two, three and have him take over. So my real heart, my vision right now, and I was really glad this recently happened in the last, especially after COVID when I'm starting to look at the goal line and I'm thinking about ending. Oh,

All of a sudden, the last year or two, God has given me new energy. And he says, now you're going to go out with a bang. He says, I'm bringing you back and you're going to bring in this younger person, but just not going softly. You're coming in strong to help him. So that's my heart. And this new burden is to find someone. And I have a couple of people in mind to take over for me in the next couple of years or so. The exciting thing is.

God has always, always led and guided me, and I'm excited what He's going to do. I'm not worried about the future. I just trust Him. People always say, are you looking? Are you doing it? I said, no, God always has led me the way He wanted. You've been listening to the story of Larry Feldman, who is the leader of a Messianic congregation in Southern California known as Shuvah Israel.

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Now, a word of thanks to the Far East Broadcasting Company for helping bring you these weekly interviews. FEBC's mission of taking Christ to the world through radio and various forms of media has not changed in its long history. Please explore the stories of changed lives online at febc.org and listen for the podcast until all have heard, febc.org. Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next week for First Person.