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B'nai Chayim: Meet the Rabbi Rabbi J. Michael Terrett  John Michael Terrett was born in 1953 in Rhodesia, Africa (now Zimbabwe). He
immigrated to Canada with his family in 1959 and lived in Vancouver, B.C. and
in Calgary, Alberta.
At the age of 19, a fellow university student challenged Michael with two
spiritual concepts: When we die we are all going to stand before G-d and the
only thing He is going to ask us, is: "What have you done with my Son." He then
said Yeshua was knocking at the door of his heart, and that he should not keep
Him waiting, but that he should let Him come in. On March 24, 1972, Michael asked
Yeshua into his heart and began the most exciting journey of his life - walking
with the King who changes people into the people He created them to be.
He became involved with a campus Christian fellowship and completed his degree as a
French teacher. In his last year of university, he attended a summer
French program in Banff, Alberta, where he met his wife, Patti. They were
married in 1976 and he began teaching in a small town in rural Alberta.
In 1978, he enrolled in Bible School and Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and
upon graduation began his ministry among French Canadians in the province of Quebec. Part
of that ministry was working with Native Canadians, and he eventually became
Native Ministries Coordinator for the Eastern Ontario and Quebec
District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.
While he was not raised in a Jewish home, he has always had Jewish friends and
in the Sixties he tried to find out how to convert to Judaism, but became a Buddhist
instead. When Cal Goldberg started becoming involved with the Messianic Movement
in the late seventies, he came alongside him and supported Cal through many of the
ups and downs of the early movement. In Montreal, in the Eighties, he would attend
a Reform Synagogue on Friday nights, and when they returned to Edmonton, in 1990,
he also attended Friday evening services at Beth Shalom Synagogue.
When Congregation Beit Mashiach was looking for a Rabbi, he took the job and felt like he was coming
home to his spiritual roots more deeply than at any other time in his spiritual journey.
He began attending annual conferences with the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations;
at one of them heard about the French Jewish family, called, "Blum." That was
his grandfather's nickname, and he discovered that Eitel Frederick Blumrick
(Anglicized from Blumrich) had a very suspicious connection to the Jewish
Community in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He was an assimilated Jew, whose
children were raised with some uncertainty as to their spiritual roots. Michael's
mother became a Baptist at 12, then an Anglican at 26 in order to marry his father,
meditating with the Maharishi in the late Sixties with the same spiritual
ambivalence of many assimilated and assimilating Jews.
 Michael graduated from the University of Calgary in 1975 with a Bachelor's of Education
in Secondary French, Social Studies, and English. He began a second Bachelor's in
History (14 courses completed) before enrolling in Bible School and Seminary in
Saskatoon. He did a combined, cooperative degree program and obtained a Diploma
in Theology from Central Pentecostal College in 1982 and a Masters of Divinity
from Luther Theological Seminary in 1983. He also began an adjunct teaching
career at the college level, and has had the privilege of teaching part-time
in seven different colleges and one university.
Michael and Patti have been married since 1976. They are the parents
of Philip and Catherine. Philip married Trish in August of 2003, and they welcomed their daughter Rebekah Marie in February of 2007. Catherine is building a career in acting.
To read Rabbi Michael's testimony that he often presents at speaking engagements, click here.
Do you have questions about Messianic Judaism? Now is your chance to Ask the Rabbi!
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