ABOUT BILLY SIEGLER

Personal Testimony

 

Billy Siegler was raised in a traditional Reform Jewish home in New York City (aka “little Israel”). His family belonged to a local synagogue, and he began attended Hebrew school at the age of eight. There he was taught to read Hebrew, learned the stories of the Hebrew scriptures, and about the lives of many heroes of the faith. He was also taught the Sh’ma (Deuteronomy 6:4) and to recite it as a prayer every morning and at bedtime.

 

Billy became a Bar Mitzvah (literally, "son of the commandment, or law" - a coming of age ceremony in Judaism at which a young person is considered accountable before God for their actions and is welcomed to participate in all areas of Jewish community life to the same extent as adults) at the age of 13. After this time he became increasingly secular and eventually declared himself to be an atheist in his mid-teenage years. By the time he was 18 he was heavily into playing guitar as a career path and somehow in the process became open to spirituality again. During the summer prior to attending Berklee College of Music (Boston) he was working as a camp counselor in New Hampshire and became progressively more aware of God’s presence through the witness of creation. It was also during this time that he was introduced to the Bible through another Jewish boy who had been attending a Christian high school.

 

One day Billy opened his friend’s Bible and began to read the Sermon on the Mount. He had no prior exposure to Jesus or anything Christian. Jesus’ words about the Law and living out the Law from the heart spoke to him like nothing else ever had. It connected with much that he had been taught as a child but had never really understood. It was from that time forward that he began to read the New Testament and to explore the proposition of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of Israel. He did not attend a church or Bible study, nor talk to anyone about Jesus. About six months later he was alone in his dormitory room reading about the Gospel when he rose from his bed and confessed faith in Jesus. At that moment he felt the presence of God come upon him and he knew that what he had just confessed was indeed the truth.

 

Musical Background

 

Billy started playing the guitar shortly before his fifteenth birthday, and began by learning to play and sing songs by artists such as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Cat Stevens. After a couple of years of guitar and music theory lessons he decided to pursue a career in music. Billy earned the professional music certificate from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. His study concentration was in guitar performance, as well as advanced studies in music theory, arranging, harmony, and composition. His direct guitar influences include various artists such as Steve Howe, John Mclaughlin, Al Di Meola, Alan Holdsworth, Joe Pass, Larry Coryell, Pat Metheny, Joe Satriani, and Eric Johnson. He began playing the mandolin several years ago, with influences such as Chris Thile, Adam Steffey, and Mike Marshall. Billy has performed original guitar, mandolin, and vocal arrangements over decades of itinerant music ministry throughout the United States and Canada. His recorded works are now available on this site, as well as most major music distribution sites such as Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music.

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Ministry Background

 

After becoming a believer, Billy started to attend a Bible study for Jewish believers and eventually began preparing for the work of the ministry within the context of a local Boston congregation. He has served in multiple pastoral staff roles and as an itinerant speaker throughout the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on the Jewish roots of Christianity, and their application and relevance to faith, discipleship, personal spirituality, as well as family and worldview studies. He earned the Master of Divinity degree from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 1996 and is a licensed minister with Chosen People Ministries. He and his wife Mary Ellen established and led North Shore Messianic Fellowship in the greater Boston area from 2013 through 2020, and have since relocated to the Midwest to pursue an itinerant ministry as a musician and public speaker.

 

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