When Barry Phillips started House of David over a decade ago, he knew he was being directed by God to lead a place where study of the Word would be emphasized and open discussion among the members encouraged.

Phillips, an ordained minister with the Church of God for 19 years, came to Gloucester in 1997 to pastor a church here. In January 2001, he felt led to take a trip to Israel. “In December 2000, I had prayed that the Lord would give me a revelation of Him from His perspective,” Phillips said. “I wanted to see what He sees.”

When in Israel, he began taking notice of an Orthodox Rabbi and suddenly had an epiphany. “While I knew my Messiah was a Jew, I didn’t know He was Jewish,” Phillips said. “I realized I had been teaching the American version of the Messiah with western values and perspective.”

When he got home, Phillips realized his prayer had been answered with respect to seeing things through the Hebraic poi...