It's more than actions of service. It's actions of love manifested through God's power which leave a mark on the world and especially on those who are witness to them. 

We believe this includes physical healing and inner healing, spiritual deliverance, signs and wonders, etc. Yet it goes beyond just those blessings to include being a person who, by being tuned in with the Holy Spirit, in every day life makes more impact than their position or pay would say they should -- all because God's power flows through them as they are led by the Holy Spirit.

As the church in the West, we have tended to neglect the importance of the demonstration of God's power in confirming his message. Sometimes we've even forgotten to demonstrate his salvation through acts of service and sharing the good news (areas the western church traditionally focused). We have instead often preferred to give "heady" arguments of logic and reason to teach "theology" rather than to teach people how to live out the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Yet, to the early church there was no separation between the message of salvation and all the manifestations of God's love that demonstrate salvation, including demonstrations of power.

In a nutshell, the saltiness we pursue at Melach Tov is the "Acts Church"... we want to see the church today looking more like it does in the Book of Acts. 

Buckle up! 

This  part will be more like a sermon, but we hope you'll find it good.

Read the Book of Acts in the Bible, and you'll understand! Our "theology" is Jesus... it's what we read in the Bible... it's expecting our unchanging God to be the same today as he is in the book of Acts and all throughout the scripture.

If "theology" is the study of God and his relationship to the world, then why would "theology" ever attempt to state why God isn't the same God we see in Jesus and in all of the Bible? Yet that's what the western church has often done with teachings of "cessationism" (which is summarized as "why God doesn't do that today") and hyper-focused doctrines that elevate one (often good) revelation over the revelations of the past. 

None of that makes sense! If God is unchanging, then we don't have to explain why what we read in the Bible isn't as relevant today. Rather, we must discover our unchanging God and expect him to be the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be forever - all within our current cultural context! He's the same! He hasn't changed!

In case it's not clear, if someone tries to explain why today Jesus is not as we see in the Bible, we think they're a bit off base. God is unchanging. His character never wavers. He loves today just as well as he loved then, he judges today just as well as he judged then, so why would he be different today?

Think about it... the entire Old Testament of the Bible was basically God introducing us to himself and his story and pointing us toward the star of his story (Jesus) along with showing us who is the object of his love: us (mankind created in his image). 

He didn't reveal everything about himself at once. He revealed himself little by little to increase our knowledge of him. Consider the fact that it wasn't until Moses (in Exo 34:6-7) that we see God pronounce his Name (Yahweh) and his Character. Until that point he was known as God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Most High etc. His character was revealed before he proclaimed it through his actions.

If the point of all that was only to introduce God so that he could leave the scene and leave us to believe based on logic rather than based on his presence and on the knowledge of who he is, then how is that consistent with the God he showed us to be... God who chose to come down and reveal himself in fire on the mountain, tabernacle in the center of his people, be the cloud by day and the fire by night in the wilderness, deliver his people through the sea and then drown the army chasing them, put his people like Joseph and Daniel and Esther in strategic positions, etc.? 

If he's the God who came near, why wouldn't he still be the God who is near?

Why would he teach his disciples to heal the sick as just a momentary sign, rather than to teach them so they can pass it on to future disciples because it's part of the message of who God is and what he's come to do? (Luke 10:1-24)

Why would he explicitly tell his disciples to do the same things he was doing -- not only teaching/preaching, but healing the sick, casting out demons, cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead, if it wasn't the way of the Master? Why would he first tell them to preach repentance, and pronounce that the kingdom of heaven has come near if the kingdom of heaven didn't look like the product of all those signs (healing, freedom, purity, life) that his disciples were instructed to perform like he had done?  (Mat 10:7-8)  Wasn't he demonstrating the kingdom of heaven with his whole life?

And why would Jesus leave the disciples with a command like "wait [in Jerusalem] for the gift my Father promised... you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:4-5) if the empowerment (baptism) of the Holy Spirit wasn't essential to life in Christ as his witness? And why would it be essential then but not today? 

Hadn't they already "received" the Holy Spirit? (Jn 20:21-23) If they had all they needed when they received the Holy Spirit, then what was left to give by the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

The answer is empowerment... and it was given just after he told them to wait:

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8

Why did we need empowerment?

He says it right there... to be his witnesses, and not only in Jerusalem but "to the ends of the earth".

Why would he tell us to go into all nations, make disciples who keep his commands, emphasize that all authority rests on him and that he's with us even until the end of the age unless it's because we are to expect that this life is to be, well, a bit supernatural? (Mat 28:18-20)

At Melach Tov we believe we're all to become his witnesses if we're his disciples, which means we, too, are charged with doing as he did and need the empowerment of the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to release his power in his name!

Had Jesus wanted us to only see his power poured out for a few generations until the "people group was reached" (missionary organizations, take note), then don't you think he would have said something like, "... after which you won't need my power any more because you'll have a Bible that will be complete and that's all you'll need to be my witness." He didn't say that. 

Remember, the New Testament was not even written yet when Jesus went to the cross... and the Bible wouldn't be canonized until a few hundred years later. The Bible as we know it today only existed as the Old Testament when the church was given its commission, and Jesus never said that when we received the complete New Testament we would stop needing his power! 

We still need the same Holy Spirit today that we needed in the Upper Room at Pentecost after Jesus told the disciples to wait for him. (Acts 2) 

God didn't come to leave us to so we could "fend on our own", but so that he could live within us and make us together a people conformed to the image of Christ. And at Melach Tov we contend that the image of Christ includes Christ as Healer, Christ as Deliverer, Christ as Teacher, Christ as Prophet, Christ as Proclaimer of good news, Christ as Forgiver, as well as Christ as Redeemer... everything Christ was then he still is today, and he works largely through his people to show himself today -- until he comes again. 

Others may not have faith to believe that today Christ is still healer and deliverer and performer of signs, miracles, and wonders, even at the personal/individual level, but we'll choose to have faith that he is. 

That's the character of God that our Father showed to us through Jesus, and we'll stand on that foundation as being how he wants to show himself through us today.

We won't try to explain why God is not all those amazing things we see him being for us in scripture. Rather, we'll try to demonstrate that he is all those things still today, and we'll do so while in complete dependence upon him.

We don't denigrate the study of religious faith, practice, and experience and the pursuit and study of God and his creation... we embrace that all as good... but it's only good when we start at the point of belief that Jesus is perfect theology, and the Bible is 100% true, accurate (including historically), and relevant that we'll find him who is Truth. All understanding of scripture must flow from God's revelation by his Holy Spirit rather than from the contrived thoughts and arguments of mankind. 

Simply put: If we study Jesus and believe him, then we'll arrive at the right place because he is the only way to the Father. Theology without Jesus is like bad salt... not even fit for the dung pile. 

Short answer, YES. Here's proof:

Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church,

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5, NIV

He goes on to say,

20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
1 Corinthians 4:20, NIV

Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian church, saying,

4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, NIV

Apostle Peter tells us that it was the deliberate intention of God to accredit Jesus, this living message and messenger of God's salvation, by power. He said this to the onlookers as he - a newly empowered Peter having just received the empowerment of the baptism of the Holy Spirit - gave his most brilliant first speech on the day of Pentecost as the "church" was conceived through the Holy Spirit's initial outpouring:

22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
Acts 2:22-23, NIV

Apostle Paul writes to the Romans, speaking of the importance of the power of God in preaching the Gospel of Jesus - the Gospel of the kingdom of God:

17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
Romans 15:17-19, NIV

The writer of Hebrews says, of Jesus the Word of God and the message that is (and is in) Him: 

1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Hebrews 2:1-4, NIV

We could go one and on here about how the epistle writers talk about anointing with oil to see the sick believers healed, the importance of prophecy and toungues (which Apostle Paul calls a sign to unbelievers), etc. Yet we think that what is written is sufficient to say there is absolutely a biblical basis to say that God's good news (Jesus and his kingdom) and his power go together, and that as the "church" we need to return to expecting that!

You might be wondering how we go about the work of the ministry...

We'll go where the Lord says to go, and do what he says to do... for it is in obedience that saltiness will be released!

However, there are some strategic activities we aim for in our ministry. You'll find them Here (click this link) ("we become the change by") on our Home Page under the "Our Approach" section. Rather than repeating them here, click the link to find them there!