Ep. 87 / A Palestinian Pastor and Bible College in Bethlehem with Jack Sara

Bethlehem is one of the most storied places on earth, but it’s also a hometown for real families, real churches, and leaders who wake up to uncertainty and still choose to serve. In this episode we sit down with Rev. Dr. Jack Sara, president of Bethlehem Bible College, to hear what life looks like for Palestinian evangelicals who keep the faith alive in the Holy Land under intense political and economic strain.

Pastor Jack shares his personal journey from Jerusalem to pastoral ministry and then into leading a growing evangelical institution located just minutes from the Church of the Nativity. We talk about the shrinking Christian presence since 1948, the complications of identity and citizenship, and what it means when evangelicals are not treated as a fully recognized denomination. Along the way, we explore how Christians have contributed to society through schools, hospitals, and community service, even as numbers decline and pressures rise.

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s hope beyond the headlines, this conversation will expand your view. If you'd like to learn more from Rev. Dr. Jack Sara you can go to the Bethlehem Bible College website and follow them on Facebook.

And please don't forget to share this episode and join the conversation on YouTube! 

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Transcript

Welcome From The Holy Land

Brian Stiller 0:10

Welcome to Evangelical 360. I'm Brian Stiller. And today's conversation comes from one of the most storied and contested places on earth. The Holy Land itself. When we think of Bethlehem, we think of the Nativity, the star, the manger. What many people don't realize is that there is a living, breathing Christian community there today. Palestinian believers who have been holding the faith in one of the most difficult places imaginable. And my guest is one of their most remarkable leaders, Dr. Jack Sara, president of Bethlehem Bible College. He was born and raised in the old city of Jerusalem. And his personal journey to faith is as compelling as the city itself. Before coming to know the Lord in 1991, he was involved in political activism, including the Palestinian intifada. He was imprisoned many times and began to search for more meaning in life. And that search led him to Christ. And eventually back to Bethlehem. He studied at Bethlehem Bible College, then went on to the Philippines to earn his MDiv at the Alliance Biblical Seminary and returned to Jerusalem and served as a senior pastor for 13 years before taking the helm at the college. His heart is to equip believers for ministry through leadership, training, church planting, and mobilizing the church for work among Muslims. Jack, you carry a story that the world needs to hear. And so I welcome you to Evangelical 360. And I thank you, my friend, for joining us in this inspiring conversation. Please consider sharing this episode with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, just hit the subscribe button. You can also join the conversation on YouTube in the comments below. And now to my friend, Jack. Jack, it's great having you on Evangelical 360 today.

Jack Sara 2:09

Thank you, Brian. It's an honor for me as well to be with you here.

Brian Stiller 2:12

Jack, you have quite a reputation. You're in Bethlehem, president of Bethlehem Bible College. Quite a place to train people for ministry. I want to come back to that, but tell us about how Jack Sara arrived there and how did you become president of that Bible college?

Jack Sara 2:34

Well,

From Pastor To College President

Jack Sara 2:35

it's not by choice. It was uh honestly, I was uh praying for God's will for my life. Both my wife and I have been pastoring a Christian Missionary Alliance church in Jerusalem, where I was senior pastor for about almost 14 years. And uh during that time, I was training leaders, I was equipping young people and uh trained people to take my place in that church. And I was moving out, already making plans to go and uh do church plans north of the West Bank. You know, I've grown in Jerusalem, lived all my life in Jerusalem. I uh came to know the Lord in a deeper way in Jerusalem, committed my life there, and became part of that church that I later on became the pastor of. And I wanted really to see God's move in different cities in my country, uh, specifically among Palestinians, my people. And uh in that transition phase, that's when I got invited to lead the Bethlehem Bible College by the former president and founder, Dr. Bishara Awad, who I'm not related to him by all means. And in that context, it's quite strange that he goes to someone who is not his son, his brother, or someone that's very close to him, and he trusts him to give him the leadership of such an institution, which is probably till now the prime evangelical institution in the whole country. And I uh prayed about it, was hesitant because I knew it's a huge challenge for me as a young person. It was barely uh 35, 36 years old then. Yet uh it seems the Lord has been uh um preparing me for that moment. At the same time, I had a lot of people encouraging me about it around me when they heard that this is uh a potential. So I agree to it, and it has been now over almost 14 years since I uh took the lead, and God had blessed us in different ways. Um, we are not in an easy place. Uh, we're beyond the walls inside Bethlehem, the where a lot of things are happening politically, uh economically. Yet uh we're thriving. I cannot say we're only surviving. I think God had really uh miraculously uh protected this uh uh institution to become a light for him in that darkness. Now,

Living With A Complicated Identity

Jack Sara 4:51

were you born in Jerusalem? I was born in the old city of Jerusalem. The same with my dad. Uh my grandfather was born in Bethlehem, but then moved to uh Jerusalem for work, and then 1948 uh war happened, so they stayed in Jerusalem and became residents of Jerusalem. Later on, I became a citizen of Israel. Uh so that makes me a Christian, Arab Palestinian with Israeli citizenship.

Brian Stiller 5:15

Boy, that's a mouthful. That's a mouthful.

Jack Sara 5:18

I call it kapi.

Brian Stiller 5:20

Now, do you have to serve in the Israeli military?

Jack Sara 5:22

No, no, Christians don't have to, uh thankfully, and uh most uh mainly Jews would have to. But uh, as you know, there are over 2.2 million Arab Palestinians who are Israeli citizens today.

Brian Stiller 5:36

And do any of them serve in the army?

Jack Sara 5:38

The Jews do, the Jews do, and the Bedouins, and some people, some Christians or internationals do that by choice or voluntarily, but they don't have to.

Brian Stiller 5:48

Now, when you look when you look at that Middle East, uh, I suppose if you look at the uh uh the Palestinian community, the West Bank in Gaza, and that's that area that surrounds Jerusalem, not including Jordan. That's a very you have a very small number of evangelicals there. In fact, small number of Christians altogether, are they not?

Jack Sara 6:12

True. I

Why Christian Numbers Kept Falling

Jack Sara 6:13

mean, uh prior to 1948, Christians as a whole would make up more than 10% of the total population. And they were always then now, even with the small number that it is now, which is less than almost 1%, they're still part and part of the and parcel of the fabric of that Palestinian society. And uh the reason is because Christians along the history established institutions, schools, hospitals, churches, and uh became prominent in even the leadership of the Palestinian nation. But before 1948, evangelical missions had started already working in Palestine. Prior to that, I would say the early Protestant missions came as long as as far as 1825. That's when the first Protestant church was established in Jerusalem, after the Ottoman Empire had opened up to uh foreign missions, foreign entities to come into the country. And only after the 1850s and 60s, you'll find some Baptist missionaries arriving into the country later on. For example, my church, the Christian missionary alliance, had sent the first missionaries in 1890 to be in Jerusalem. My church building was established in 1905, which is a prominent uh building now in what's called now West Jerusalem. And from that moment, you saw a we see a growth of evangelicals, Protestants in uh different venues and in different places and cities. And the hardest episode was 1948 because at that time many of those Christians had to leave the country, were deported, or had to flee for their lives, ended up with almost, as you know, almost 800,000 Palestinians who became refugees or IDPs. And probably over 50 to 60,000 Christians were part of that group that left or ended up in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. So what is left in the country at that time was less than 5 to 6 percent of the Christians. And they continue to dwindle because of the political conflict and the economic situation. Now we make about 1% with an average in the whole country of about 5,000 evangelicals.

Brian Stiller 8:19

So how

Evangelicals And Legal Recognition

Brian Stiller 8:20

do evangelicals get along with the mix of other religions? I know, I know you have certain religious sites where you have various Orthodox, Catholic intermixing and uh and headbutting over a whole number of issues. So where do evangelicals fit within the religious, the Christian religious community there?

Jack Sara 8:43

The sad part of it that until now, uh, although evangelicals have built institutions like schools or large churches in some cities like Nazareth, like Bethlehem, in Israel proper evangelicals are not considered uh a proper denomination like the other ones. So Israel does not recognize it evangelicals. At the Palestinian side, lately, a few years ago, the Palestinian Authority have recognized the evangelicals as a religious entity. So they give them more permission to do, to build churches, to acquire land, and to do marriages, burial, and civil rights for them. And uh, but till now, you know, uh a lot of the locations that evangelicals choose to have their churches in in major cities, in main cities, uh, but they don't have the same, I would say, uh, historic historicity of the other churches like the Catholics or the Orthodox.

Brian Stiller 9:37

I remember I think it was 2019 when when you uh when you got uh permission from the government in Ramallah to to have the evangelical alliance or the fellowship of of uh Palestinian Fellowship is called

Jack Sara 9:52

the the Council of Evangelical Churches in the Highlands.

Brian Stiller 9:55

Yes. Why was it so hard to get that?

Jack Sara 9:58

Because uh in in our country, there's something that they called it the status quo. So only those status quo. Status quo. So churches that were recognized by the Ottomans, later on recognized by the Jordanians, were recognized then by Israel and Palestine. But because of our plight, because of our presence and advocacy and talking with the government, the government saw that, you know, we do need our rights, and uh through the help of World Evangelical Alliance and other entities, including the Bethlehem Bible College, where I'm serving, and the uh activity of the churches, they saw that you know they can give us that right to be um, you know, a valid uh denomination like everyone else on that land.

How Bethlehem Bible College Began

Brian Stiller 10:41

Now, Bethlehem Bible College, it it uh it was established uh 1979.

Jack Sara 10:48

Yeah. The founder is uh as a Christian believer who was born to, as an orphan to a mother that lost her husband during the 1948 war to probably a stray bullet over. He was killed in that war. She moved on, grew her children, all seven of them, and many of them became leaders, church leaders, pastors. And one of them was Bishara Awad, who was our founder, who became a principal of a school, Mennonite school in Bethlehem. And his heart was going after many students who wanted to study theology and the Bible, and they couldn't study locally, so they ended up going somewhere in the West. And the sad part of it that once they go to the West, they never return. And uh, so he said, let's start a barber college here locally where we can train our leaders, our pastors, our church workers. So he started a small initiative in the school where he was the principal. And after two years, he saw that the work is growing to the point that we needed our own place. So they moved closer to the major square where the church of the nativity today is, and they had a center for about eight years, till later on in 1990, they were able to buy uh uh a building, uh, two buildings actually, and a major road in Bethlehem. And today we have uh, after many years, uh, four buildings, uh, quite uh uh and a structure, you know, that is there to help and serve all the needs of our students and beyond.

Brian Stiller 12:14

What's

Training Leaders In A Muslim Majority

Brian Stiller 12:15

it like to have a Bible college down the road from the manger in a Muslim-dominated world?

Jack Sara 12:24

Honestly, I would say uh it's a privilege. You know, we uh go with the slogan serving the Lord in his land. You know, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and we don't take uh in the past, most Christians who are born in that area. You know, I grew up almost like 20 meters away from the Holy Sepulchre. And, you know, we take it for granted, you know. Yes, this is where Jesus was, you know, buried and raised from the dead and ascended and were born. So a lot of the Christians there take it for granted and they they don't think, you know, uh not respectfully, but uh like this is so important. But later on, I've I've really grown in my appreciation to where Jesus had put us in his land, the land that he incarnated in. And he gave us the message to be a light like he was a light in uh in the nation to the nations. Our country is difficult. Like I said, 98% or more are Muslims. Uh we have a struggle. There is a conflict that is ongoing for almost 80 years. People are displaced, people are having so difficulty, especially within the past two years of war, a lot of hard things had happened. Yet in the midst of this, it seems that this vessel that's called Bethlehem Bible College, God has been using it to help, relief, send people, train people. Of course, our uh our main goal is to be a university college to train people to serve Christ in this land. But it seems that this place that is beyond the walls, inside a closed area, in a difficult situation, we are able as well to train hundreds of students, not just locally, but as well globally through our online programs.

Brian Stiller 14:00

So, where do your students come from?

Jack Sara 14:01

A lot of our students come from Palestine, Israel, so about 100 of them probably are from the country. And through our online degree, we have another almost hundred who are from all our all the Arab nations. And they are somewhere in the Arab world or somewhere in Europe or America or elsewhere, became refugees or immigrants, and they wanted to study the Word of God, to pastor a church, or to lead a congregation or serve in a community, and they couldn't find somewhere where they could study in Arabic because we are one of few. Actually, you could count on your fingers the institutions, the seminaries that teach in Arabic. And there are 400 million Arabic speakers around the world. So we are one of those few that are doing all our programs in Arabic, except for a couple of programs that are geared toward internationals and uh a program that is peace and justice, a master's degree. And other than this, all of our medium of teaching is in Arabic. And where do your grads go? Many of them go to serve in churches, many of them go to serve in uh para-church ministries, and some of them are already in communities serving in a way or another, other teachers or social workers, or just you know, someone who's in business and they just wanted to grow their uh education, knowledge of the word of God, and and uh know how to serve them in their own workplace. And

Gaza Center And Community Programs

Jack Sara 15:21

you started another center? We have started a while ago uh a center in Gaza and a center in Nazareth. The center of Gaza, sadly, because of the war and because of the difficulties.

Brian Stiller 15:32

So you actually had a center in Gaza?

Jack Sara 15:35

We did have a center in Gaza and for many years, yes.

Brian Stiller 15:38

Yes, yes, and and was there in that in that environment, was it were you given respect? Were you given were you protected? Were you allowed to operate freely?

Jack Sara 15:51

Uh we were allowed to operate freely and together with other Christian institutions that are in Gaza, like the Bible Society was there, the Baptist Church was there, a Baptist uh educational center was there, which is now sadly because of the war, was all destroyed and bombed. Uh, but it's it was there uh openly. The same thing in Bethlehem. I mean, we are, you know, we're called Bethlehem Bible College, but you know, most of a lot of the programs that we're offering to the community, uh, people who are not Christians come and study with us. Um, you know, they want to take a Hebrew language or uh tour guiding or media, which is something we thought it would be good for preaching and outreaching to the community. And out of that, God had given us grace with the community. I think uh uh good thing to mention that in some countries uh that uh sometimes even though they're Muslim majority, they respect so much the Christians that are there. First, historically speaking, we were there before anyone else. We were there before Islam came into places like Palestine and Jordan and Lebanon and Syria. Secondly, they saw our contribution to the community. I mean, a lot of the Christians that are there, I think mostly mostly they would do schools to be open for Christians and Muslims, universities for Christians and Muslims, hospitals serving all the communities. So somehow that uh uh the the respect and the grace that we have in the community have grown because of you know the contribution we have for our peoples.

Talking About Jesus With Muslims

Brian Stiller 17:21

How does the message of Jesus being in Bethlehem resonate with the Muslim community or with others? Is it what is there that either attracts their attention or drives them away?

Jack Sara 17:39

I I would say a lot of the our people, the Muslims who are there, they of course you we know that they respect Jesus as one of their prophets. So somehow to a certain point uh there is that respect that he was born in Bethlehem. Of course, the narrative that they offer is a bit different, or a lot different, but uh but uh the respect is there for the person of Christ. Uh the way we express uh Christ to the community, some people might not agree with it and disagree with it uh in different ways. Yet I think they um they recognize that there is a truth about the message that we offer. Now, uh in our community, I mean, being a Christian is openly uh doesn't uh you know bring you to harassment or nobody would talk to you because it's given that you know there are Christians in the country. Uh the issue is that it is more and more as time goes and the Christians became smaller in number, they themselves will start feeling the pressure of the larger community, to the point that sometimes we even enclose ourselves or cocoon, you know, and and almost not getting engaged in the community. And that's something I would pray that the Lord will give us the strength to not fear but be bold about our faith, because you know, God put us there for a purpose, and that's to be a witness to our people.

Brian Stiller 19:04

So being in Bethlehem, uh and obviously being in the West Bank, your your vision is is beyond that. So what are the where are the countries that you find your your your either students coming from or going after graduation?

Jack Sara 19:20

Well, some of the students that are studying now prior to COVID, of course, COVID had the kind of like uh uh accelerated the online programs that we have been offering, but prior to that we had already established a very strong online program that has a four-year study uh online in Arabic, and people don't have to come to our campus to come. And when we actually, when I built that program, when I asked uh my staff to build that program, we were thinking of Gaza because Gaza became more inaccessible to us. We thought about how we can help our students who are there to reach out to them. But once the program was built, it was so huge to the point that it can cover hundreds of students. So we started sharing word of mouth, uh sending to churches in the Arab world. And then we got uh a good number of students from Europe. Uh, refugees, immigrants, Arabs who were there, either found themselves serving in a small church or planting a church because of the many Christians that already fled to Germany and Austria and Italy and France and elsewhere. And they wanted, you know, tools, they wanted to study. So uh they reached out to us and we were able to train uh hundreds. Uh I mean, till now I I can't I think an average 100 students a year, that's what we're doing uh in terms of the Arab Worlds and Arabs, Arabic speakers who are living abroad.

Leading Through War With New Tools

Brian Stiller 20:44

So here you're you're responsible for overseeing this school in Bethlehem, and you're living both at a time and in a location of enormous chaos and upset and lack of predictability. Or we can't you can't predict. No. So as as you serve, as you lead, how do you how do you see the future? What's w what drives you uh as you prepare for each new year?

Jack Sara 21:20

Honestly, I think it's uh we prepare for each day now, you know, enough for the day it's evil. And it's like uh, of course, we plan and we envision and we sit together with our might teams and uh we think about uh the new programs that we want to offer. And a lot of some of our programs are responsive, our reaction to what's going on in the country. For example, like the past two years of war and uh conflict that has been happening in Gaza and in the West Bank, which had also its part of the suffering that our people had experienced. We were able to create a new program, which is a trauma counseling degree that is offered for other people who are already in ministry. Or those who want to have tools to serve in our community. So it is responsive to the context that we're living in. The same thing with some of the theology that we're offering. So our master's degree, we had opened it up to be streams. One of them is contextual theology, another one is peace and justice. I mean, just think of where we are, you know, living with majority groups, Jewish on the side, Muslims on the other side, and then quite a hostile community, not just against us in particular, but towards each other. So in this middle, as Christians, as leaders, as someone that sometimes have a voice to speak or have a role to play, I think it's important to equip those people with a not just a degree like a certificate to hang on a wall, but tools that they could use to be bridge builders and to be peacemakers in such a community. So we plan and sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed. So far, we have moved on, you know, with a lot of things. I can, like I said earlier, uh Brian, I don't see ourselves surviving as much as we are thriving in where we are right now at this moment. Future, like I said, is always unpredictable. No one predicted what happened with COVID. No one had predicted that a war will happen for two years almost, and still now we don't know what's next. It's still not clear. Yet we pray, we trust God. Every morning we pray, and we uh every meeting we pray, and at the same time, we see God's wisdom on what's the next step for us as a school, as a college, as a ministry. I mean, we combine being an academic university with being a ministry at the same time that wants to serve our people and the nations around us. Uh, at the same time, I think um uh the ministries that were sprouting, coming out of this institution, like the relief work, for example. I mean, we're an academic college. Why do we need to do relief and development in Gaza and the West Bank? It's because of the needs of the community. So you find a branch coming out to reach out to our people. Then we have a media uh outreach, then we have languages and other capacity-building courses that we're offering to the community. Because we feel if God had trusted us with these gifts, we want to offer them to the people. And I tell you one thing uh that keeps encouraging me that every one of my teachers, professors, faculty, and staff do have the opportunity to leave the country. A lot of them have families abroad in Canada, America, and elsewhere. But by choice and by calling, they stay, including myself. I think aside from the calling, a lot of us could choose to live somewhere else. How do you fund it? Well,

Funding Miracles And Real Constraints

Jack Sara 24:41

this is uh this is uh again the miracle of how God. I mean, we're sitting on a campus of uh, I can't put a figure of less than 25-30 million dollars in prime area in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is so expensive. We run a budget of over $2 million every year. Yet God comes through through churches, foundations, individuals. Uh the fees that our students pay don't even come to 10% of our annual need. And sometimes we uh start a couple of businesses like a new small guest house at the college, a gift shop at the college that brings some revenue, but the rest of it is just trusting God. A great deal of offshore funding? Uh mainly. I would say mainly. North America, uh, Europe, and uh elsewhere, people are giving generously. You know, a lot of individual donors, uh, lots of churches are standing with us from the west to the east, and um at the same time, foundations. People, when they hear the story, I mean, I say this boldly. If my college was in a different place, say Jerusalem or Tel Aviv or somewhere else, I mean, our funding would be probably 10 times what I have now. Yet because of our identity, where we are, being Palestinian, being in a Palestinian context, sometimes it's very difficult for people to understand. Because, as you know, a lot of people, specifically in the West, don't even know that there is something called Arab Palestinian Christian. This is uh this is by itself is like, you know, a eureka moment for people. I never knew this. So once they knew this, and once they know that we're working in such a context, a lot of people, their hearts get in tune with us and they want to support the work of God that we're doing.

Why Palestinian Christians Get Missed

Brian Stiller 26:26

Is this because that the evangelical community, by and large, over the years, through its dispensational theology and other things, they have seen Israel as being the prime uh concern of God for for either now or for the uh for his return. And thus the Palestinian people get the short shrift of that?

Jack Sara 26:49

I I think I think that's one one big part of it. Uh a lot of uh, you know, I don't wanna, that's another huge thing to get into it, but uh a lot of people don't uh don't have a digit in their mind or a cell to think that there are Palestinian Christians, evangelicals who love the Lord, who serve the Lord in a community like this, who are willing to stay in such a suffering uh uh context and still serve the Lord in that moment. A lot of Christians, you know, think that we don't need even to be there. We opt to leave and leave it all for the other people who group to be there, the Israelis or the Jews, sadly speaking. And I think to those, uh I I think and pray that you know uh they will see all people in the same way. How Jesus loves our my people. Jesus loves the Palestinians, and the proof of that is the existence of the churches, the existence of ministries like mine and other ministries. That's the proof that God is at work among the Palestinians, and I think the church needs to pay attention to that. Jack,

What More Resources Could Unlock

Jack Sara 27:55

if you had the resources you needed, what would you do? Well, I would uh I would uh start a church planting movement, I would uh help other churches build their churches, I will uh uh not just expand the work of the college, but at the same time see ministries uh thrive among my people.

Brian Stiller 28:13

Jack Sara. It's a joy to have you on Evangelical 360.

Jack Sara 28:18

Thank you, Brian, and it's an honor uh for me, and uh I pray that uh the Lord will use this program to encourage a lot of people around the world.

Final Thanks And Ways To Engage

Brian Stiller 28:28

Jack Sara, thank you for joining me today. And to my listeners, thanks for being a part of this podcast. Would you share this episode? And then you can join conversation with me on YouTube. And if you'd like to learn more about Jack, check the show notes for links below and info. And if you haven't already received my free ebook and newsletter, just go to Brianstiller.com. Thanks again. Until next time.