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What's Black and White, and Read All Over?

10/31/2017

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At Furnace Brook we take the Bible seriously. We also take it at its word, that it's the very Word of God. We take it to heart. In fact we take it pretty much everywhere . . . but church it seems.

As a child I recall attending a church where, when the pastor told us to turn to a certain passage, the rustling of all the pages was the evidence of our shared piety. But things have changed, and it's not all bad.

If fewer people bring their Bibles to church now there might be some good reasons for that. For one thing, people increasingly prefer the Bibles they keep on their phones or devices. For another thing, there are a lot of people at church who are so new to the faith that their libraries haven't caught up to their convictions yet. If you know a new believer, this is a great and thoughtful gift! 

But what if some of the absence of Bibles is really about complacency and indifference, after all, the words are going to be up on the screen, right? Or what if it's because of confusion about which version of the Bible is the "right" version. A church like ours is only going to be strong and truly growing to the extent that we are a people with a love for and a devotion to the Word of God.

Five reasons to bring your Bible (electronic or paper) with you and to use it at church.


1. Keep the leaders accountable. It is amazing what mischief has been done by leaders who have "gone off the rails." Our rails are the Bible. Verify what you are hearing.

2. If you have a short attention span and you're prone to zoning out in church you can at least read your Bible. I once had someone tell me after a service that he had found the service unusually stimulating. He went on to explain that my sermon wasn't really doing it for him, so he had spent that time reading in 1 John. Coincidentally, his best service ever was my most humbling one, but I'm glad of both outcomes.

3. Using your Bible at church is good practice for using it in the world. A soldier who makes no use of the gun range will be of no use on the battlefield.

4. Anyone who sees you using your Bible in church will be encouraged by it.

​5. Having your own Bible gives you the opportunity (whether you use it or not) to take notes and highlight passages. 

Of course, if you agree that you should bring a Bible with you to church you might still be baffled about which version of the Bible to use. Here are three things to keep in mind.

What Bible Version Should I Use?

1. At Furnace Brook we typically use the NIV. It is widely accessible and is, perhaps, the most generic. If you want a Bible to use to follow along with the readings and the sermon. This might be your best bet.

But a word of caution: there are things about the newest version of the NIV that we are not crazy about and it may not be our default translation in the future, so this would not be the reason for investing in an expensive NIV study Bible, for instance.
​
2. There are advantages to having a number of different versions of the Bible. I have a version that I prefer for when I'm reading to my children, a version that I prefer when preparing a sermon, and another version for when I'm doing personal devotions. The variety of translations do not compete with or detract from each other: they give the Word a greater sense of texture and depth.

3. When selecting Bibles keep in mind that all of them are on a scale from "transliterated" to "dynamically equivalent." Transliteration is word for word translation, and dynamic equivalence is when the translator takes liberty with things like sentence structure and vocabulary to convey the meaning better than a transliteration might.

​So, for instance, in the ancient Hebrew understanding of things the bowels, and not the heart, were the seat of human emotion (and that makes sense: we still feel things "in our gut.") A transliteration of Philippians 1:8 reads "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ," where a more dynamically equivalent, such as we find in the NIV, reads "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." There are benefits and drawbacks to each approach, but it's important to consider where a translation falls on that spectrum when selecting a version, and to avoid depending for everyday use on a version of the Bible that is very close to either extreme. If you have questions about selecting  bible translation, please ask me and I'd be happy to advise you! 

In addition to bringing a bible to church, I encourage you to spend time in the word daily. If we are looking to become better disciples, it is important to understand our discipler, and what he teaches- truths which are found in the word.

Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.




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Invite Your One: What We Can Learn

10/26/2017

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Invite Your One has come and gone- here's what you should know.

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On Sunday we had 189 different people worship at one of Furnace Brook’s three services.
Of those 189 people, 29 (14%) were first-time attendees. Of those 29, several have already expressed their intention to return.
​

Our preparation for Invite Your One prompted us to undertake the remodel of the Pittsford worship center, to develop the Forest Dale worship and children's ministry teams, and to start the 11:00 service in Pittsford. All of this leads us to consider Invite Your One a modest success that has the potential to amount to a huge success, if we learn the right lessons from it.

Those of us who had guests come, be encouraged. Your faithfulness in this matter could have eternal consequences.
Those of us who made invitations but had no guests, be encouraged. There is no telling how much you “loosened the lid” by your simple act of obedience. And the guests who were present are proof that invitations can work.

For those of us who did not make an invitation, be challenged. The old sports cliche that “you miss 100% of the shots you don't take” applies here. As members of a church with the mission of making more and better disciples, we all have to commit to doing our part to create a culture of invitation and evangelism.

And all of us should be aware that we are enjoying a season of God's blessing and that the scope of our ministry is increasing all the time. Let's resolve to make the most of this season as we work together to make more and better disciples.


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What's better than two . . .

10/9/2017

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...opportunities to lift Jesus up and point others to him? Well, three opportunities, for starters. This Sunday at Furnace Brook we are biting off something that only the Holy Spirit could help us chew. After months of prayerful groundwork we are going to be adding an 11:00 service at Pittsford, in keeping with our mission of making more and better disciples for Jesus.

 Here are some things you should know about this transition:

It was prompted, in part, by Invite Your One Sunday on Oct. 22nd. Without two services at Pittsford we weren't going to be able to fit everyone in the sanctuary.

 -Our significant worship area renovation will be completed by the 22nd and will be mostly done by this coming Sunday.

 -The addition of an 11:00 opportunity at Pittsford will bring new people and will lead to more attendance from some of the people we already have. 

 -We have only committed to doing this through Christmas. We will make a decision by early December about whether or not to take it into the New Year.

 -There are lots of other churches who have different services occurring at the same time, but almost all of them are streaming all or part of the service from the first location to the second. We are taking a different approach, one that leaves room for individuality and local flourishing.

 -At Furnace Brook we have a "deep bench." Each Sunday one of the members of our preaching team will be preaching at one of the two 11:00 services and Joel will still be preaching twice each Sunday.

 -We don't know which of the two services at Pittsford will end up being better attended.  It will be hard for us to go from having a 9:00 service that feels pleasantly full to having two services that might, at times, feel relatively sparse. We have high expectations for where this is headed, but we are budgeting for some thin Sundays along the way.
 -We are encouraging people who worship at Pittsford to consider worshiping at the one service and serving at the other. We are strongly encouraging you to do this, at least for the first month or so.
​

 -The addition of a second 11:00 service has opened up multiple opportunities for service in the church. We can use greeters, children's workers, readers, parking lot attendants, coffee brewers, worship team members and more at both services. 
​
 We will be reminding ourselves frequently in the days to come that we are committed to "more Jesus in more places, at more times, from more voices, for more people." That's a winning recipe for bringing God glory while getting the attention of our neighbors and friends. He gives us challenges that will take all our strength but for which all the strength we could ever muster would not be enough. Praise the Lord for leading us in this direction.

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    Furnace Brook Wesleyan Church Blog 

    Furnace Brook Wesleyan Church, Pittsford VT


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    Pastor Joel Tom Tate 
    ​Leads Furnace Brook Wesleyan Church and thoroughly enjoys life in the most un-churched state in the Union.

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