ABOUT CHRIS L. VERSCHAGE
Chris is the President and co-founder of Following Messiah, a life-long student of the Scriptures who was called to be an Orthodox Judaist and out of the religion of Christianity. He has been working as full-English English instructor for the past three years and is a former pastor for almost two years.
As a life-long student of the Scriptures, Chris has obeyed the call & commission of God for his life to be a Judaist. He now sees his beliefs as being a combination of Messianic and Orthodox Judaism. This has been a slow process and quite difficult at times after having left mainstream Christianity and even his ministry on a small reservation for almost two years. In his teaching, he combines his life-long love for the Scriptures, his academic training in research, critical and analytical thinking, and textual analysis, along with the appropriate Jewish and rabbinic studies, in order to dig into and open the Scriptures in a way that not only draws people back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to His Anointed-Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth, but it makes them hungry to learn more about the God of Isra’el and how to dig into the Scriptures for themselves as well.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Chris grew up in the Pentecostal movement and gave his life to the Lord when he was fourteen years old. From December 11, 2016-October 31, 2018, Chris and his wife, Karen, were the Pastors of Cocopah Assembly of God on the Cocopah East Reservation in Somerton, AZ. Prior to this, Chris has been actively involved over the years in most forms and levels of church ministry, from pulpit to youth, including being part of a Christian band, called “Flickering Light.” Also, he has spent a great deal of time in studying materials associated with the Scriptures, such as Jewish and Christian theology, commentaries and verse-by-verse studies, some beginning Hebrew, as well as things written by ministers, theologians, rabbis, researchers, historians, and archaeologists. And as he completed these various studies, Chris received a great many revelations and insights about God, His Kingdom, Yeshua, and His Kingdom Manual – the Bible – as well as conclusions that he was able to draw. Today, Chris has returned to teaching English & Humanities at a tribal community college in Montana, and he and his wife, Karen, are working toward learning all involved in becoming a mixture of Orthodox and Messianic Judaists, who are teaching people what it means to follow the whole Bible, both the Written Torah and the Living Torah.
LEARNING MORE FIRST HAND
After Chris completed his Master of Arts in English, Chris came across a book by Dr. David Stern, entitled Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospels: A Message for Christians (1990), from a local library, and discovered that he had independently come to many of the same conclusions that Dr. Stern discussed within his book. For the next eight years, Chris continued his involvement in the local church and attended different Messianic and mainstream Jewish congregations from time-to-time. In 2016, God called Chris and his wife, Karen, out of the Christian church, and they now identify as a combination of Messianic and Orthodox Judaists, who teach people the truths of the whole Bible, including the errors of believing in a divided Bible, or that the standards of God have not in any way changed since God gave them to Mosheh (Moses) on Mt. Sinai.
The “good news” of the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua was about the Restoration of the whole House of Isra’el, or the “One New Man,” and the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua was to open the way for the Re-union and Restoration of both Houses of Isra’el, and to fulfill God’s covenantal promise/oath to Abraham – NOT to begin some new religion, called “Christianity.” The Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah was crucified by the Romans on Passover, and then God raised him from the dead on the feast of Firstfruits, and God also took him into the heavenlies, like Hanoch (Enoch) and the prophet Eli’yahu (Elijah), and is coming back one day soon to defend Isra’el, to receive his coronation and sit as King on the throne of his father David for a thousand years, as God has promised him. This is the good news that Chris and his wife, Karen, are sharing, along with their love for the Hebrew Scriptures [Tanakh; Old Testament], Jewish history, and the Jewish people themselves.
AS A BIBLE TEACHER
After eight years of attending these various congregations and continuing his studies, God drew Chris, Karen, and their family back to the truth. As a minister, Chris draws from his studies and experiences to bring a unique perspective to the Scriptures that really opens the Bible up in a new and fresh way. Many people have given him the feedback that they are amazed at not only how clear he presents the Scriptures, but also how deep his messages takes people. A depth they didn’t know existed before.
Chris is unique as a Bible teacher because he is a firm believer that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is as true today as it was the day that Paul wrote it. “All Scripture,” Chris maintains, is not only “God-breathed,” but it is “profitable” for all believers – Jew and non-Jew – today for “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.” Chris continues, “This epistle was the last one written by Paul – after Romans and Galatians – and so we should base our theology and teachings on all of Scripture, not just parts.” “A cover-to-cover teacher” is how Chris describes what he teaches people from the Bible. “If it’s in the Bible,” Chris explains, “then it is my responsibility to teach it.”
KAREN K. VERSCHAGE
Karen is the Vice-President and co-founder of Following Messiah, and she is also the founder and author of her own blog Karen’s Shofar, and she is also a life-long student of the Scriptures, as well as a wife, a mother of four, and a grandmother of five.
Karen grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and gave her life to the Lord when she was eight years old. When she was twelve, her family moved to Florida. While there, she was introduced to a Church of God congregation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Three years later, her family moved back to Lansing, Michigan, where she was baptized in the Spirit, and a couple of years later met Chris, her husband. They were married in December 1981.
Since 1981, Chris and Karen have raised four children, and they have struggled with their lives as believers, parents and now as grandparents. It was after Chris & Karen had raised their four children that God had delivered her from her panic attacks and depression, and He had healed her from a learning disability that she had struggled with for forty years. It tremendously altered her life, and it opened her heart and mind to God and His Word like never before. She has played an important part in the ministry through the messages that God has been speaking to her for Isra’el and his “so-called Church,” and it was shortly after this when she began her blog Karen’s Shofar. Today, both Karen and Chris identify as Messianic and Conservative Judaists, who teach the people the truths of the whole Tanakh (Scriptures).
followingmessiah.org 