The Link - The Pastor's Corner - November 2007

First, let me extend my and Vicki's appreciation for all that everyone has done to make us feel welcome here at Buckroe.

Second, don't feel that it is a bother or an inconvenience to stop by the church office or call us at home. I am typically in the office Monday - Friday around 9 am - 12:30pm, even some Saturday mornings, too! Afternoons are usually dedicated to hospital and other visits, appointments, meetings, and study.

Third, we have a lot coming up in November and December - be a part of "Church Life" here at Buckroe.

Fourth, GROW. That stands for "God Rewards Our Work." In a "perfect" church, every member would be involved in some sort of ministry, outreach, or service to the Lord. While that does not always happen, we must continue to challenge ourselves to continue what works and find innovative ways to get better and to reach our community.

Let us vow together to "make a difference" in our community! That's our slogan, "Make a difference!"

Last, as we approach a new year in 2008, we will begin giving thought to what pastors typically call "strategic planning." Strategic planning (SP) is where we begin to give thought and work on plans of:

Where we want our church to be spiritually in the days ahead?
What we want our facilities to look like? and
How can we as a church group, do this?

SP takes in everything we do as a church, including worship, Sunday School, study, outreach, our buildings, grounds, parking, etc. Sometimes it focuses on details; sometimes on the big picture.

Give some thought to this as we draw closer to 2008. It's just around the corner, ya know!

Pastor Kevin Schrum

November Activities - 2007

Activities for the month of November 2007 include:

Community Fun Day! Saturday - November 3rd, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Thanksgiving Day Worship - November 22nd, 10:00 a.m., light snacks following service. A time for fellowship on this day of Thanks to our Lord.

Membership Class: A new member's class will be conducted the first Sunday of each month at 9:15 a.m. in the Pastor's study...

Woman's Missionary Union - November 20th at 7 p.m.

Ken's Food Pantry Distribution - 1:00 PM.

A note about Bible translations

Each month, I'm going to put some information in our newsletter, The Link, about the various Bible translations that are available. My personal belief is that every Christian should have more than one version of the Bible available to them to help in their reading, study, and understanding of God's Word.

The selection of a particular version of the Bible is a 'personal' decision. Pick one that you can understand...period. There is no such thing as an authorized version. Whoever authorized a version did so based on their preferences. Southern Baptists for decades felt the King James was the only "right" version to use. But over the past few years, the SBC Convention has endorsed the Holman translation. Obviously, that decision was influenced because some in the convention Knew Mr. Holman?

The Bible, as we know it, did not even exist until many, many centuries after Christ and the lifes of the Disciples. What did exist were many individual copies of the Old Testament books (really scrolls). For example, fragments of the Jeremiah scroll were available in various parts of the Mediterranean world. These scrolls were copied by monks, clerics and scribes so that more synagogues and churches could have them available but only for use by those trained in reading them since they were written in Greek and Hebrew. Jeremiah used a scribe and on occasion so did Paul.

Scholars believe some early original scrolls may have been housed in the Temple at Jerusalem and many were in the Great Library at (of all places) in Alexandria, Egypt. This library contained over 100,000 scrolls on various subjects, including religion, many religions. Early Jewish missionaries took teh Jewish religion to Egypt. Maybe as far back as Joseph.

Tragically, the Romans burned the Great Library at Alexandria when they conquered it losing forever some of those prescious scrolls that were 1st or 2nd generation copies of the originals. Scholars are still not sure what may have happened to the originals. A similar fate to early scrolls occurred in Jerusalem when the Romans burned and sacked Jerusalem.

One of the earliest attempts to compile all these various copies of New Testament letters and copies of Old Testament scrolls was done by Wycliff, long before King James. Today, you can still purchase a Wycliff Bible. Wycliff was burned at the state as a heretic for producing it. Strange but true. Next copy of the Link will have some notes on "The Message", a fairly modern version of the Bible.

Pastor Schrum

Welcome to Pastor Kevin Schrum and his wife, Vicki

Recently, Pastor Kevin Schrum, a native to the Hampton area, and his wife, Vicki, came to Buckroe Baptist Church with Pastor Schrum as the new pastor.