Yeshiva Discipleship Model
One thing that sets Kehillat Yeshua Messianic Yeshiva apart from both traditional residential as well as online universities and seminaries is that we strive to operate on the model of a Jewish Yeshiva. Yeshivas are an ancient form of educational institutions, going back at least to the Second Temple era.
In today's universities, students sit for a class period and hear a lesson, then go home to work on homework, submit assignments to be graded, and demonstrate mastery of course material that way. In such institutions today, it is common for students to have very little to no direct interaction with the school faculty aside from the occasional question about a grade.
What makes the Yeshiva model different is that in a Yeshiva (lit. "sitting"), students grow through interactivity. The ongoing refining process of studying and learning is paired with interaction with peers as well as teachers. In this way, the student's peers as well as the professors are more actively involved in the student's growth and learning. This is much more like what discipleship looks like as we find it in Scripture. In Matthew 28, Yeshua commands the disciples to go and make additional disciples. Not of themselves, but to make disciples of and for Him. The process of discipleship is one of directing, encouraging, and cultivating a new believer. It is not the same as making converts.
Thus for Kehillat Yeshua, instead of sitting for class sessions (or even just recorded lectures for an online class), we embody the Yeshiva Discipleship model by pairing every student with their own mentor. The mentor's job is to guide the student's learning, to provide direction, answer questions, and as much as possible suggest additional study materials and resources to facilitate the student's academic journey. This way, no student will be "left behind." Additionally, mentors should have regular contact with their students, whether one-on-one or in a group setting. This can even be accomplished via distance methods over Zoom or other conference call and video chat programs. With the Yeshiva model, the student does more than just listen to a lecture and complete a few quizzes. The student will read the assigned material and/or watch the assigned videos or listen to lectures. They will bounce their ideas off their mentor, get feedback and recommendations for additional sources, and learn to grow by having their iron sharpened by iron.
To be eligible to be a faculty member (mentor) here at Kehillat Yeshua a person must hold at least a Bachelor's degree from a university, Yeshiva, or seminary of their own that relates to the fields of ministry, theology, Judaism, history, religion, or Biblical studies. Additionally, they must affirm the Messianic Creed. All the mentors that are listed on the Faculty page meet these criteria as a minimum.
To further achieve our goal of fostering a discipleship type of environment, we want to make it possible for students to continue their studies under their own local Messianic Rabbi or pastor whenever possible. To facilitate this, we will allow students to not only select the mentor they wish to study under from the Faculty page, but they may also bring their own mentor. To be eligible, the mentor must meet the same criteria given above.
Additionally, no mentor can facilitate the degree program and studies of a student beyond the level of academic training that he/she has themself attained. This means a mentor with a Master's degree may oversee a student in the M.Div or M.T.S. programs, but will not be able to oversee the studies of a D.Min or Th.D student.
Overall, we believe this learning model - while certainly not the only acceptable or effective model - can best facilitate the needs for ministerial training and academic education for the Messianic Movement.
In today's universities, students sit for a class period and hear a lesson, then go home to work on homework, submit assignments to be graded, and demonstrate mastery of course material that way. In such institutions today, it is common for students to have very little to no direct interaction with the school faculty aside from the occasional question about a grade.
What makes the Yeshiva model different is that in a Yeshiva (lit. "sitting"), students grow through interactivity. The ongoing refining process of studying and learning is paired with interaction with peers as well as teachers. In this way, the student's peers as well as the professors are more actively involved in the student's growth and learning. This is much more like what discipleship looks like as we find it in Scripture. In Matthew 28, Yeshua commands the disciples to go and make additional disciples. Not of themselves, but to make disciples of and for Him. The process of discipleship is one of directing, encouraging, and cultivating a new believer. It is not the same as making converts.
Thus for Kehillat Yeshua, instead of sitting for class sessions (or even just recorded lectures for an online class), we embody the Yeshiva Discipleship model by pairing every student with their own mentor. The mentor's job is to guide the student's learning, to provide direction, answer questions, and as much as possible suggest additional study materials and resources to facilitate the student's academic journey. This way, no student will be "left behind." Additionally, mentors should have regular contact with their students, whether one-on-one or in a group setting. This can even be accomplished via distance methods over Zoom or other conference call and video chat programs. With the Yeshiva model, the student does more than just listen to a lecture and complete a few quizzes. The student will read the assigned material and/or watch the assigned videos or listen to lectures. They will bounce their ideas off their mentor, get feedback and recommendations for additional sources, and learn to grow by having their iron sharpened by iron.
To be eligible to be a faculty member (mentor) here at Kehillat Yeshua a person must hold at least a Bachelor's degree from a university, Yeshiva, or seminary of their own that relates to the fields of ministry, theology, Judaism, history, religion, or Biblical studies. Additionally, they must affirm the Messianic Creed. All the mentors that are listed on the Faculty page meet these criteria as a minimum.
To further achieve our goal of fostering a discipleship type of environment, we want to make it possible for students to continue their studies under their own local Messianic Rabbi or pastor whenever possible. To facilitate this, we will allow students to not only select the mentor they wish to study under from the Faculty page, but they may also bring their own mentor. To be eligible, the mentor must meet the same criteria given above.
Additionally, no mentor can facilitate the degree program and studies of a student beyond the level of academic training that he/she has themself attained. This means a mentor with a Master's degree may oversee a student in the M.Div or M.T.S. programs, but will not be able to oversee the studies of a D.Min or Th.D student.
Overall, we believe this learning model - while certainly not the only acceptable or effective model - can best facilitate the needs for ministerial training and academic education for the Messianic Movement.