About us
Council, Consistory, Staff, and Affiliates
Steve M. Schlissel — Senior Pastor of Messiah's Covenant Community Church, UN Overseer — Steve@schlissel.com
Steve Schlissel has served as pastor of Messiah's Congregation since 1979. Born and raised in New York City, Schlissel became a Christian by reading the Bible. When Jesus said that everyone who hears His words will give an account for his response (Matthew 7:24-27), Steve took it seriously and sought the mercy of God through Jesus.
Steve and his wife Jeanne were married in a synagogue in 1974 by a rabbi and a priest. You had to be there: they marched down the aisle to an organ arrangement of Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven." The Schlissels homeschooled their five children (who now range in age from 30 to 19), and also helped raise several foster children (mostly Vietnamese). In 2003, they adopted Anna (who was born in Hong Kong in 1988, but is now a U.S. citizen). They have 8 foster grandchildren and fourteen "natural" grandchildren, and likely more on the way!
The Schlissels enjoy singing Psalms, listening to classical music, Casandra Wilson, Roy Hargrove, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Anthony Venetian — Elder/Clerk of Council — AnthonyVenetian@gmail.com
Anthony lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn with his wife Zulaika, and his children Joshua, Angelina, Antonella, Eli, and Santiago. Although Anthony was raised a Roman Catholic, by the mercy and grace of God he was saved and called to live a life of faithfulness through the witness of a coworker. Anthony teaches an ESL class at Urban Nations and is an Engineer with a communications firm.
Deacons
Craig Lawrence Brann — Deacon — CraigBrann@gmail.com
A native of rural Maine, Craig moved to the metropolitan area in 1996 to study Jazz Performance. After his first visit to Messiah's in 2002, he was immediately taken by the unabashed preaching of the Word as well as the 'hand to the plow' ethos of Messiah's broader ministries. He has served as an Assistant to Rev. Schlissel since 2003, he has two international releases as a bandleader from SteepleChase Records (ADVENTure, 2012 and Mark My Words, 2014), and he also works as a Right-of-Way Agent for a communications firm. He married Rebeccah Hope (formerly Schlissel) in 2004 and they have four lovely children, Tehilah, Irving, Verdinah, and Dorothy.
Staff
Craig Lawrence Brann — Assistant to Rev. Schlissel — CraigBrann@gmail.com
Ministerial Affiliates
Paul T. Murphy - Pastor Messiah's Reformed Fellowship of Manhattan - paul.murphy60@verizon.net
Rev. Paul T. Murphy was born in Rome, Italy (1953) and came to this country when he was three. He was raised in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood in the Bronx, N.Y.C.. Although he was an altar boy in the church and attended regularly until age 14 he did not know Jesus Christ personally.
From an early age he searched for Truth and the meaning of life. A college degree in philosophy brought him no closer to the Truth. He pursued a career in deep-sea diving and underwater construction that took him all around the world as he continued the search for Truth. This searching also was vain. At the age of 29 he was confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ. Thinking them foolishness he sought to refute Christianity with the teaching of secular philosophy. The Lord broke down the barriers of his heart and captivated his life. The Truth had found him! Now like the apostle Paul this Paul can say " to live is Christ.
Prior to coming to Messiah's Reformed Fellowship, Rev. Murphy pastored Dutton Independent Reformed Church, Dutton, Michigan.
Nicholas Kozak — Pastor Christ Reformed Church of Oakland, ME — nicholaskozak@gmail.com
Born and raised in a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, PA, Nicholas is the pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Oakland, Maine where he now lives with his wife, Lori, and six children, Kaiya, Naomi, Isaiah, Priscilla, Jeremiah and Lydia. It was because of our Lord's compassion and forgiveness that Nicholas was first called to live consistently as a Christian through the witness of a friend (Craig Brann, son-in-law of Rev. Schlissel). Then, through his study of the Reformed Faith, the Lord brought Nicholas to Messiah's Congregation and has pressed upon his heart the dire need in the broader church for men devoted to Reformed Ministry. Nicholas volunteered at the local municipal hospital ministering to the sick, spent two years regularly Exhorting the Chinese congregation at New Life Gospel Church (under the aegis of Messiah's Council), and works as a Manager for an international coffee retailer.
The Council for Messiah's Congregation is composed of the Pastor, consistory of Elders, and Deacons ruling together.
Broader Affiliation is provided by CORO (see footnote [2] below)
Messiah's Congregation subscribes to The Three Forms of Unity
Statement of Purpose: Messiah’s Mission
Messiah’s Ministries[1] is first and foremost a Reformed Church[2] and within that blessed tradition, the Word of God is at the center of all that we endeavor to do. It is our three-fold purpose to glorify our Covenant Lord by faithfully representing His Word[3]: from Messiah’s pulpit and in our corporate Worship; within the homes of Messiah’s families; and in witness and ministry to the community in which He has placed us.
The Ministry of the Word
It is our first and most sacred obligation to enable our Pastor to preach and teach the word of God without prejudice or undo restraint. We recognize that our Pastor is “no ordinary Pastor,”[4] and has been afforded a measure of “light,” and understanding concerning the Bible which must not be “hidden under a bushel,”[5] but rather placed upon an appropriate lampstand. As professing members and Officers, we are pledged to foster and support our Pastor’s clear and evident calling to preach and teach: first, by receiving it as a blessing in weekly life and worship and applying it in our homes; then also to ensure his unhindered ministry to the broader church, whether by conference-speaking or by media distribution.
The Ministry of the Members
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”[6] Given this exhortation, our use as Lampstands will prove vain if our families are not enabled to prosper spiritually and materially from the Word of God. As professing members and Officers, we are pledged to one another in community, especially to ensure the godly character and Christian education of our children. As the Word of God is faithfully taught and preached throughout our week and worship together, its first and most important point of contact is with the families of Messiah’s. It is our ostensible goal to see the Word of God applied in the lives of members in the hope of edification, blessing and fruit; whether in unfettered growth or in loving discipline. Each according to his station in life should pursue the well-being of the covenant community, looking for opportunities to serve each other in love. First seeing to it that the daily needs of our brethren are met and the fellowship of the saints maintained, but also ensuring a spiritual and material inheritance for our children.
Messiah’s Ministries
As with individuals and families, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked,”[7] so it is also with the Church. With the Word at the center and the God-given health and prosperity of our families, it remains incumbent upon Messiah’s community to have an outward orientation and to not fall into the sin of our fathers; whether the Jews or the Dutch. As the Local Church prospers, it follows that they should look for opportunities to share, out of their spiritual and material prosperity, with the Broader Church as well as the civic community at large. From the bounty of that maturity and prosperity comes a responsibility: First, to spiritually and materially uplift and bless our Pastor in his distinct calling as an edifying voice to the Broader Church; then to see to it that needs within the community God has placed us in are identified and ministered to in mercy[8].
[1] Messiah’s Ministries is an umbrella which represents first the local Church, Messiah’s Congregation; but also represents all of her works of ministry and mercy which necessarily overflow from the Word preached and believed locally, under the care and administration of her Council, sometimes in partnership with constituted Boards or other delegates at the Council’s appointment—but never divorced from the health and life of the local Church.
[2] Messiah’s Congregation is a Reformed Church in the Continental Tradition as represented, not only by the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, but the broader Continent as exemplified in our Standards (The Three Forms of Unity), particularly the Synod of Dordrecht wherein the Netherland Churches were conjoined by delegates from some 27 other nations.
After a period of roughly a decade as a Particular Church in the CRCNA, with good reason according to the Word of God—which has preeminence in all doctrine and life—Messiah’s parted ways with the denomination. However, this was not an autonomous or unilateral departure.
Messiah’s was maturing in two directions. First, growing in appreciation for the broader Church as it was well-represented by godly Officers in other ostensibly reformed and presbyterian churches—while forming healthy friendships with the same. Messiah’s also grew in appreciation for the work of Rev. Klaas Schilder, who played an instrumental role in articulating the responsibility of the Local Church to faithfully represent and defend the Word of God, which in turn clarified the Reformed Churches’ existing polity, placing the Local Church at the center with Broader Classes/Synods comprised of delegates from neighboring-churches to serve the Local Church and ensure the her well-being.
In keeping with Messiah’s appreciation for the broader church as well as the primacy of the Local Church, CORO (Covenant of Reformed Officers) was adopted as an ad hoc classis comprised of Officers from diverse reformed and presbyterian churches covenanting to serve Messiah’s according to the Order of Dordt and the Word of God, should classical assistance be required, as in Ordinations, Excommunications or Appeals of any sort.
[3] In keeping with our Standards, it is our goal to understand the Word of God as it was intended and applied to the times in which we live, waging war against sin wherever we are confronted by it. By not identifying the Papists, Arminians or Anabaptists as our primary theological enemies we do not deny the faithfulness of our fathers for faulting and correcting those errors some four centuries ago; not at all! We laud and applaud them. However, in the post-christian West of the 21st Century, we find ourselves confronting the antithesis in greater epistemological self-consciousness with the Twin Whore-Daughters of the French Revolution, Evolution and Eve-olution (egalitarianism/feminism) as were so ably identified by our Reformed father, Groen van Prinsterer, more than a century ago as “Unbelief and Revolution,” and further developed by R.J. Rushdoony to be rooted in Man’s desire to reject God’s blessed Covenant Law-Word in satanic pursuit of autonomy and antinomianism.
[4] Acts 7:20, Hebrews 11:23
[5] Mark 4:21
[6] James 2:26
[7] Luke 12:48
[8] Messiah’s Ministries has been engaged in community ministry for over two decades. The population of NYC is saturated with immigrants, many of whom lack sufficient English-language skills to interact outside of their respective ethnic communities. This prompted Messiah’s to form Urban Nations—a Bible-based ESL curriculum and immigration assistance center. Another community need, revealed in pastoral visits—especially at the local municipal hospital—was the epidemic of sexual abuse. MeanTime was formed to help women who had suffered this affliction in childhood manage its effects using the Biblical model of Prophet, Priest and King by right thinking, feeling, and doing—in a context of explicitly Christian counsel.
Messiah's Standards
The Three Forms of Unity
