Plays On Word Radio
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Ep 134: From Synagogue to Sanctuary - One Man's Search for God (Part 1)
"What happens when childhood questions about God remain unanswered despite years of religious education? Today, we will explore Pastor Geoffrey Ekstein's remarkable journey from Judaism to Christianity, which captured the essence of authentic spiritual seeking and the courage required to embrace truth regardless of the cost."
Growing up in a devoutly Jewish home where his identity was firmly rooted in Jewish tradition, Geoff found himself fascinated by biblical figures who had personal relationships with God. "David made God smile," he recalls thinking as a child, which prompted his persistent question: "How do I have that kind of relationship?" Despite consulting rabbis and participating faithfully in Jewish traditions, the answer remained frustratingly elusive.
The turning point came unexpectedly through fatherhood. When Geoff and his non-Jewish wife welcomed their daughter, the weight of responsibility awakened his dormant spiritual questions. On his first Father's Day, seeking affirmation of his new parental role, he instead discovered "how great a father our heavenly Father is" through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The revelation that Jesus was Jewish—not Catholic as he had assumed—opened his eyes to see Christ as the fulfillment of everything he had been searching for.
The most powerful moment in this testimony occurs when Geoff's father directly confronts him: "Are you a Christian?" Standing in that driveway, with Jesus's words about denial echoing in his mind, Geoff faced what he calls his "crucible moment"—choosing faith over fear with a simple "yes." This honest confession, while initially creating tension, ultimately led to deeper family relationships built on mutual respect and understanding.
Geoff's story brilliantly illuminates the purpose behind Jewish identity: "We were chosen to be the mechanism through whom the Messiah would come." His journey from synagogue to sanctuary demonstrates that sometimes our longest-held questions find their answers in unexpected places, and that standing firm in our convictions, despite potential rejection, opens the door to authentic relationship with both God and others.
If you've ever wrestled with questions about faith, identity, or family expectations, this testimony will resonate deeply. Share this episode with someone seeking answers to their own spiritual questions.
Pastor Geoff's email: pastorgeoff@bccdelmar.org
Bethlehem Community Church: https://bccdelmar.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BCCdelmar/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bccdelmar
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Lord, you know You're now listening to Play.
Speaker 2:It's the best. Have you ever tried to understand? You're the only name. You're the only name.
Speaker 4:You're the only name. Have you ever tried to understand Daniel's role in God's larger plan? Today's episode examines how Daniel's story connects to Hezekiah, babylonian stargazers and the Magi, showing Scripture as one unified, christ-centered narrative across centuries.
Speaker 3:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Thank you very much, josh Taylor and Katie Kenny, for that introduction. Oh, yeah, going to describe some of our experiences to you in some upcoming podcasts. Today we are going to visit with Pastor Jeffrey Eckstein, who is the pastor of Bethlehem Community Church in New York State, up near Albany, and I'm not going to waste a whole bunch of time. I know you're going to be blessed by this interview, so check it out. Thank you for taking the time to be on Plays on Word Radio. Yeah, man, it's just a blessing to see you. We're here with Pastor Jeffrey Eckstein. It is the Bethlehem Community Church, that's correct, new York State, up near Albany.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just outside of Albany, in Delmar, new York.
Speaker 2:Delmar yes, Delmar, New York. And wow, what a blessing man. I walked into the sanctuary of the church and I was like, oh, this is cool, man, these guys have a side dressing room, a beautiful sanctuary. And you know, the thing that really blessed me was the love from everybody there, man. It was a very loving church. So, yeah, man, that was a real blessing. And meeting you was a blessing because it feels like we go way back, and we do because of the blood of Christ. We go way back, we have fellowship in Christ. But yeah, Pastor Jeffrey, welcome to the program, the Plays on Word radio program here. And before we just get into the interview, you saw the Pete play, you experienced the Pete play. Did anything stick out, Any thoughts? You know what were you.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, as I shared with you and as I discussed the play and we had all sorts of conversations around it, both Saturday evening and even Sunday before and after church, the people who were there the thing that really impressed us was how doctrinally sound it was, how you stuck to actual Scripture. So it wasn't a, you know, a dramatic re-presentation of the life of Peter and the gospel of Christ. It was the life of Peter and the gospel of Christ. It was, in fact, directly out of the Word of God. And so when you said and Jesus said, you stuck very clearly to the Scriptures, you didn't take away from it, you didn't add to it, and I think that we have to recognize that we've been sharing this as a church, that the Word of God is complete and it is sufficient and we do not need to add to it. In fact, there's a real risk in doing so, and so that, for me, was the thing that was most impressive and I appreciated the most about, you know, is your faithfulness to the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Amen. Yeah, that's a passion of mine. I think that, man, the Word of God definitely doesn't—it doesn't need anything. It does not. I mean, it's like a cut of meat that is just—why put anything on it. If it's a good cut of meat, man, you know you don't need to do—it doesn't need a lot of sauce and spices and stuff. You know you don't need to do, doesn't need a lot of sauce and spices and stuff, and it is satisfying by itself and, like you said, you can end up doing damage if you start adding to it. I try to be very careful of that.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. And the other thing is is that you know that was really enjoyable about it was it wasn't just a dramatic reading of of you know the word of God, but that you added in your own personality into the way in which you told the story of you know Peter, and you know there were some comedic moments. There were moments that you draw in the rest of us to join with you in it, and certainly your talent for songwriting and singing. I told my congregation you heard me on Saturday evening. Do not expect me to sit down at the piano and start to play songs and sing. That would not be good.
Speaker 2:Hey, the Word of God is enough, man, you know what I told someone at my church? I said listen, if something ever happened where I couldn't make it out, man, literally you could open up Psalm 119. It takes 15 minutes to read through. Take your time, Read through Psalm 119. Say amen, close the book and the whole congregation will have been fed. Amen, Amen. I'm a firm believer in that. I don't need to add anything. You could say amen, close the book, and somebody might even get saved from that, who knows?
Speaker 1:Exactly right. I agree with you 100%.
Speaker 2:You know, so it's—and that's—I could tell that we were kindred spirits in the spirit, just when I, when I first met you, I could tell that you know, you appreciated that that aspect of it. And then, of course, there's always the comedy, and I had no idea when I, when I, when Pete called you rabbi, that there was. There was even more to that than than the surface aspect. There was even more to that than the surface aspect. You came up to me after See, for those that don't know, those of you who have not yet seen the Pete play Peter, when Jesus goes to the synagogue with Peter and the guys early on in his Galilean ministry, there's a demon-possessed guy in the synagogue and Peter always he always looks for the pastor of the church that's hosting and usually calls out that pastor and calls him rabbi.
Speaker 2:And so, and I think, and also in the scene where the demoniac, when they cross the lake, jesus casts the demons into the herd of pigs and the whole herd of pigs, the swine, they all die, they go over the cliff and drown and Peter kind of makes a joke right there. He herd of pigs, the swine, they all die, they go over the cliff and drown and Peter kind of makes a joke right there. He says, yeah, the people that were tending the pigs. And then he pauses and he scratches his head and he says wait a sec, hey. And then he looks over at the pastor that he has just called rabbi and he says, hey, rabbi, that don't sound kosher. You don't sound kosher.
Speaker 2:And it's a humorous teaching moment because it makes people think wait a second. Yeah, why are they tending swine in Israel? What is up with—what's going on with that? But afterwards, pastor Jeffrey or Pastor Jeff, rabbi Jeff, as I affectionately call him he came up to me and said I got some information for you that you know when you called me Rabbi. There's a little bit more to that than you know. Can you explain that to our audience? Can you explain it to me?
Speaker 1:Sure, sure. And it's funny because you know, I know that you know Andrew Strickland and we've had a relationship for a number of years. Just a blessing of a brother, he and his wife Sherry, out in their church as village missionaries and you know. So I just figured that you were actually in the know on this thing and you were just saying I didn't know that it was actually part of the play. And so when you called me rabbi, everybody in the church, you know, turned and looked at me and started snickering and stuff.
Speaker 1:And so you know the backstory is is that I was raised Jewish. You know, I come from a Jewish home. In fact, my parents not too long ago they're both still alive, thank God and in their 80s and they did a DNA that 23andMe a couple years back, and my father was upset because my mother turned out to be 99.2% from Jewish lineage and he was only 98.6%. So you know I look back at my family and it wasn't just that we grew up Jewish. Jewish was our identity. I grew up in a relatively small town, about an hour from here, and all of my friends were Jewish. My parents' friends were Jewish. There was a vibrant Jewish community when I was younger and it was a temple on Friday evening and back on Saturday we had a Hebrew school at the Jewish Community Center next door to the temple on Wednesday evenings. So life was really centered around this understanding of being Jewish.
Speaker 1:And I'm the third of four boys and I was a bit precocious and always asking questions and pushing things, and so from a young age I would hear these stories that we were told in you know from the Torah, that we were told in you know from the Torah, and these great men of faith Abraham, isaac and Jacob and Moses and Daniel and David, right. And I was enamored by these stories and about these men. And the thing that for me was clear in listening to these stories and the tying together was that they all had a relationship with God. And you know the idea of you know David made God smile, right. And so I would ask the question, and I'd be that one that would say, hey, you know, how do I have that kind of relationship? Do I make God smile? And so there was never a satisfactory answer to that. How do I come into and have the same relationship with God that these men that we are called to look look towards as our heroes. How are we supposed to be in relationship? And the most the best that they could come up with supposed to be in relationship and the most the best that they could come up with and this includes, you know, rabbis who were there was, you know, when you're old enough, you can be part of a minion, which is a prayer group of older men and you can pray and we pray we. You know that brings a smile to God's face, but there was no connection or relationship.
Speaker 1:You know, and I remember Um as a, as a little boy I can, I can distinctly remember this. We were in the parking lot of of the McDonald's um in our hometown and, uh, I could have been more than eight or nine years old and we were there with some very close friends of ours. I'm not sure where we were beforehand, but but my parents were together with their parents and the kids were all together and there was a station wagon that pulled, you know, out right in front of us as we were standing there out in front of McDonald's, and it had a bumper sticker and the bumper sticker had a cross on it and this picture of Jesus and it said we found him Right. And I looked at that. I said, well, what does that mean? And I remember asking that question to my father and my father was standing there, uh, next to uh, his name was mr blatt and uh, and they both kind of looked at me and mr blatt said, well, we should come up with with a bumper sticker that says, well, we're still looking.
Speaker 1:I was like, what are we looking for? Yeah, right, and that that caused something in me to really, you know, seek after what is it. And it was this, you know, journey that led from that age until you know, even through the time that I was bar mitzvahed, and looking for what is it that makes the Jews God's chosen people? What were they chosen for? What are we looking for? And there was never really a good, solid answer. There was some conversation that I had with some rabbis in different synagogues about the idea that we're looking for the Messiah and that the Messiah is going to come out of Israel and so be Jewish. And so what does that actually look like?
Speaker 1:And you know, from the time of my bar mitzvah through the time that you know I went off to college, I was looking for those answers and it just fell flat all the time I was very involved. I'd go to, you know, the high holidays at the synagogue and I would, you know, I would fast as a part of Yom Kippur and seeking after these things, and there was just nothing there. And so, you know, after high school, I pretty much walked away from the synagogue, walked away from and going well, what's the point? Right, there's nothing really. There's no example that I have. Even the rabbis don't have answers to this. They can't help. They're just giving you know, worldly kind of counsel and thoughts.
Speaker 1:And it really just came back to this shared historical understanding of being Jewish. What made you Jewish was the shared historical understanding of the fact that you were Jewish, and so it was just this kind of circular reasoning. And so it wasn't until after, you know, college. I went away to college and it was all. After college. I went away to college and it was all partying. I had way too much of a time At the time. I would say it was a good time. Looking back, it was a time of absolute destruction in my life. But after college I met my wife, my wife now we only had one, my dating and my wife had an interesting similar story, but tangential Right. It was related because she grew up Episcopalian.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:Her experience in going to church was that you go to church and you don't turn around, your grandma is going to smack you in the head and there was no faith related component, nothing that meant anything there, and so she similarly walked away. You know, in high school and through college, and so you know, we, we had this, you know, burgeoning and growing relationship, and I remember a conversation with my parents and they said, well, if you're going to marry this girl, then you know she's not Jewish, that's, you know, not exactly approved in. In. You know, in the Jewish. You know culture, you know, when I say my, my parents, my aunts and uncles, grandparents, everybody you know outside of of me, you know really was, was very clear on what that expectation was and meeting that expectation, you know. So I remember saying to my parents hey look, you know, we'll have kids and you guys will teach them about Judaism, her parents will teach them about Christianity. I had no idea, you know, and that's the way it will be. Well, it wasn't until we had our daughter where things started to come back around to the expectation and understanding that I had responsibility for another person, I had responsibility for a child, and that, you know, drew me back to those questions that I had early on, because now I have no idea what I'm going to say to this little baby. Right, this innocent, what am I going to say? And within that first couple of months of her birth, these folks that we had come said oh, it's great, right? You know we celebrate fathers and you know this is your first Father's Day and everything. And I loved, I absolutely loved. I still love being a dad, right? I love my children, I love the whole experience of being a dad.
Speaker 1:And so I remember I came home and I said to my wife Tracy I said I know what we're doing for Father's Day, my first Father's Day. We're going to church. And she's like you know who are you and what'd you do with my husband? And she's like, okay, it's Father's Day, you get to choose. And so we went to this church and I was expecting that I was going to be celebrated. I was going to be told how great of a father I am, that I was going to be encouraged in that way.
Speaker 1:But instead of finding out how great a father I am, I found out how great a father our heavenly father is, and I was introduced, I was presented for the first time in my life, the gospel of Christ. I, you know, heard and this is a funny part here but you know, I found out that Jesus was Jewish Amen, I thought he was Catholic. Amen, amen. That's awesome. I crossed the street from the synagogue where I grew up was a Catholic church, and there he was hanging on the cross. So he must be Catholic, right. So I had no understanding of any of this.
Speaker 2:That must have drawn you closer, just like, wow, wait a second, he's Jewish.
Speaker 1:Exactly right, right. I was like, well, hang on a second. And so there was this other Jewish believer in the church who sat down with me and we opened up the Old Testament and we opened up the Gospels and walked through that and I was like everything that I was trying to figure out, everything from this precocious you know seven, eight, nine-year-old kid asking these questions to these rabbis how do I have a relationship with God? And they have no answers. I figured out the relationship that we're called to be in with God is through his son, jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of our chosen people. We were chosen to be the mechanism, to be people through whom the Messiah would come.
Speaker 1:And you know, the revelation was just unbelievable, and you know it was, it was really, really powerful. So it's funny because, you know, even now and this is 20 something years later, sharing this with the church, and I and I, you know, love the Jewish heritage and I love the Old Testament, I love the types and shadows and the presentation and going through all of that kind of stuff the Church still calls me Rabbi G, so in a loving way, it was funny. So that's the connection. And so when you said Rabbi, they just assumed that you kind of knew in that way.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, and you can see that God had his hand on you even from a very young age. Because you were seeking you know, the homing beacon was activated and you were like I want to be like David or Abraham, I want a relationship with God.
Speaker 1:That's it Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, I wish I could have seen your face when you heard that Jesus was indeed Jewish, you know. And so how did did you pray then? And when did you really come face to face with him? And it's like okay, Lord, wow, Guess what, we're both Jewish.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know it's interesting. There was this wrestling and knowing all at the same time, right. And so it was this absolute place of going. Here's the answer, right, this all now makes sense. And then there was this wrestling part, which was what does this then mean? Oh, yeah, right. What does this mean? Not in terms of my life. What was interesting was I had absolute conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the promised one, that he is the savior of my soul, he's the savior of the world. That all of that right Was was very clear, and my submission to him as the Lord of my life was almost immediate. Okay, right.
Speaker 1:The struggle was in somehow admitting that truth to myself, or in the way that that was going to be communicated with my parents oh, yeah, Right. And with my brothers, and what this meant. Every connection, every engagement, right. My parents, closest friends, my closest friends, these you know other, you know young women and men at that time that I had gone through, you know, hebrew school with, who were bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah with me, who you know. All of that experience, you know. Really, was this All right? What does this mean? In that wrestling? And it took, you know. Interestingly enough, I it took a conversation with my father. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And my Tracy and I, my wife, recognize that that fundamentally, everything in our lives was just turned upside down and totally changed. And and she had been sitting off there going is this real Right? And so we're having these conversations, I'm sharing, I'm changing. There's things going on inside of our marriage, inside of our home, that can't be understood or explained by anything other than than the work of the Holy Spirit and conviction and repentance and healing. And it was just incredible and that led, that, led my wife, that testimony of that led my wife to the Lord, amen, right. And so she grew up in church, but she wasn't saved. And then all of that started to, you know, to make sense. But my wife and I recognized that something was different, something had changed. We had to figure this thing out because we had been married for four years.
Speaker 1:At that point we didn't come into the marriage, say, we came in in in sin and in depravity and in selfishness, and what do we do? And so it was suggested to us hey, there's a, there's a, a family life, uh, you know, marriage conference, and I suggest you guys go to this and you can learn more about what a marriage that honors God is really about and, by the way, I totally recommend it. It really was an amazing time. But we had a daughter and so we asked my parents hey, can you watch our daughter so that we can go? And we got to my parents' house and we unloaded all of our daughter's stuff and my wife is in the house with my mother and our daughter and my father walks out with me and he looks at me as we're standing in the car and he said are you a Christian?
Speaker 2:Wow, what Well Dun dun dun.
Speaker 1:If you deny me before man, I will deny you before the father.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it. Oh man, that was the time to break for commercial right there, that was it Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And that moment, right there was, like you know, what do I do, what do I say? Am I afraid of man, am I afraid of my father? Am I afraid of my father?
Speaker 2:and uh, and I looked at him and I said yes, wow, yes, that's, yeah, that was a, that was a crucible moment it was.
Speaker 1:It was absolutely a great, great word, word, right, crucible, and, and, and that had ultimately led to some very deep and very hard conversations with my parents. You know that that has taken really some time but has led at this point to the greatest relationship I've ever had with my parents, because there is a love and respect and my parents recognize and understand. My father has said and he has said to people here in the church because we invite them to events and things that are going on here, they join us for Passover Seder every year that we have here at the church and you know people will ask. My father will say listen, because they'll come up to him and say we love your son and my father will actually say it had nothing to do with anything that I have done and my son is the way that he is because of his relationship with God.
Speaker 2:Amen, that's a witness to them. It is.
Speaker 1:It's a tremendous witness to them. We continue to pray, we continue to witness to them and to my brothers and the rest of my family, and to my wife's family as well. And so, you know, now, with our three children, we are, you know, the the gospel, witnesses to the family. Yeah, and, you know, continue to be.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's that is. That's absolutely fantastic. And you know there are almost every true Christian that I know. There are moments in their life where they can look and say, yeah, that was one of those moments, that crucible-type moment where the Lord was giving me an opportunity to either stand or walk away. And I I remember a specific time when I was put in a position to make a decision do I care more about what this person thinks, this family member, or do I care more about what God thinks? And it's, it's a, it is an and it's a deep thing. And I tell you, I said you know what I'm going to choose God, even though part of me is this is hurting part of me because I know it's going to cause problems, but I'm going to choose God and my life has never been the same.
Speaker 2:Looking back, even from that point, I had one of the greatest times of fellowship with the Lord after I made that decision. I'm forsaking everything, lord. It's me and you, because I know the truth. But I felt like at the time of the decision, I felt like I was on stage. I felt like I was on stage and, yeah, you're on stage now, teddy. This is the test for you. This is the test for you You're either going to deny me or you're going to deny the world. One or the other, or this person that means so much to you and their opinion that means so much to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm grateful for that because, like I said, I had the best time of fellowship with the Lord after that Just a great time, and he drastically empowered me. It's like one of those things like, okay, I can do it. Yeah, thank you, lord, you've given me the strength to do this. I'm going to be even more bold. Amen, amen. That's all the time we have this week on Plays on Word Radio. We're going to continue this interview next week, so make sure you tune in and keep us in prayer Until then. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
Speaker 3:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
