Messianic Finances

I have received numerous e-mails over the years trying to tell me that the Messianic movement is definitely not spending large sums of money to convert Jews. The e-mails present the Messianic movement as a cash-poor movement. However, the facts show that this is clearly not true.

Some of the largest Messianic groups are members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a Christian organization which monitors the financial honesty of its members. The ECFA makes public the finances of its members.

According to the ECFA website (accessed 11/8/11) "ECFA is committed to helping Christ centered organizations earn the public's trust through developing and maintaining standards of accountability that convey God-honoring ethical practices....ECFA defines Christ-centered organizations as those organizations that subscribe to a written statement of faith clearly

affirming a commitment to the evangelical Christian faith."

As a sidebar, let's contemplate the second part of the quote. Every single Messianic group whose finances I am about to quote have to be committed to evangelical Christianity. Again, further proof that the Messianic movement is a Christian movement and not a Jewish one.

Now, I will list the Messianic groups on the ECFA website that have total expenditures of over $1 million dollars in the most recent year listed by the ECFA. In each case, I have rounded down their latest financial year, so the actual number is higher that what I have listed.:

Organization Expenditures

Jews for Jesus: $19.5 million

Chosen People Ministries $10.9 million

Ariel Ministries $1.7 million

Life in Messiah International $1.1 million

Maoz Israel Ministries $2.7 million

CJF Ministries $3.7 million

Jewish Voice Ministries International $12.4 million

Messianic Jewish Alliance of America $5 million

Messianic Jewish Bible Institute $1 million

Tikkun International $ 3 million

Total

$61 million

In just these ten Messianic groups, $61 million is being spent to evangelize the Jews. Again, each group must be committed to evangelical Christianity to be part of the ECFA despite the fact that they present themselves as Jewish. Considering that there are generally estimated to be less than 15 million Jews in the world, the amount of money being spent by just these ten groups is mind-boggling.