ANC Blog

One of our staff members here at ANC is Ian Davidson. Ian has lived in Sudbury for most of his life. He has been attending All Nations for 22 years and joined the board of Elders about two and a half years ago. Ian’s love for ANC started when a friend invited him to a Sunday service. He attended once and never left. Ian then became good friends with Jeremy and Eileen Mahood. The people, the sense of family and the quality of the pastoral services kept him at the church. Ian is an elder and also serves as the ANC executive director. He belongs to the human resource and finance committee and acts as a volunteer in his responsibilities. Ian has always been motivated to make a difference in the world where it is possible. He says, “Serving the Lord makes service to others very rewarding.” Outside of work, Ian loves to spend time with his family. He has been married to his high-school sweetheart for 39 years. Ian and his wife have two boys and three grandchildren. He is from a family of 5 kids, and his grandfather was a devoted Christian and lay baptist pastor. Ian knew from an early age that God put him on earth to be a peacemaker, Shepherd, and, ultimately, a police officer.

Ian’s favourite scripture is Psalm 23; he says it has so much meaning and relevance. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” – Psalm 23

For a faith with such a simple message of salvation, our selection of Bibles is quite complex! If you’ve ever struggled to know which Bible to read from, then you’re in the right place. In this article, we will give you a detailed explanation of the world of Bible translation and of individual Bibles. If you’d like, bookmark this post for future reference!

When looking at how translating the Bible got started, we go all the way back to the beginning. The Bible was originally written in a combination of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. This meant that only those who learned those languages had any access to the Bible, leading to a major disparity between the educated and the uneducated. Around 382 AD the Pope commissioned his secretary, Jerome, to produce a new translation in Latin. Jerome set about the task with reported trepidation, but also with great seriousness. The remark, attributed to him, that ‘ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ’ reveals something of his passion. The resulting translation, produced in the Latin of the people, is known to us as the Vulgate.

As the years went on, different groups of people have translated the Bible into their own languages and have also translated them differently. One of the reasons we see different versions of the Bible is because of the number of manuscripts available. There are over 5,800 Greek New Testament manuscripts known to date, along with over 10,000 Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts and over 19,000 copies in Syriac, Coptic, Latin, and Aramaic languages. Most Bible translations are done with teams of scholars in various languages who can ensure that the content is properly translated.

Once the manuscripts have been assembled, this team of scholars begin to determine what translation philosophy they will use. There are 3 main philosophies: formal equivalence, functional equivalence, and paraphrased.

Literal translations are often the closest English form of the Hebrew or Greek word. In this process, translators painstakingly review every single word to ensure they are as accurate as possible, called formal equivalence. This form of translation is extremely helpful for academic study. However, the biggest drawback to word-for-word translations is that modern readers might misunderstand figures of speech, literary devices, and cultural references.
English Standard Version (ESV): To achieve the greatest possible accuracy in an English translation of the original Hebrew & Greek texts, the translators of this readable, modern Bible version attempted to write, as much as possible, a “word for word” rendering of the text while modernizing archaic language and correcting certain errors in key portions of text.
New King James Version (NKJV): Commissioned in 1975 by Thomas Nelson Publishers, 130 respected Bible scholars, church leaders, and lay Christians worked for seven years to create a completely new, modern translation of Scripture, yet one that would retain the purity and stylistic beauty of the original King James. With unyielding faithfulness to the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts, the translation applies the most recent research in archaeology, linguistics, and textual studies.

Need more context? Looking for an easier read? Dynamic translations place a higher emphasis on summing up the biblical authors’ thoughts while still respecting the text. These thought-for-thought translations balance accuracy with approachability, perfect for light reading or a devotion. After all, the Bible is for the common fellow. The drawback though is that every tweak in the name of understandability is a step toward someone else’s textual interpretation. But if you want to draw your own conclusions about every matter, stick with the ‘literal’ category.
New International Version (NIV): Striving for faithfulness to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible, scholars from five English speaking countries labored to make this contemporary version of the Scriptures readable in style and international in scope. Begun in 1965, published in 1978, and revised in 1983 and 2011, the NIV, has become one of the most popular English Bible translations. The translators’ goal was to produce a work of clarity and literary quality that would be well-suited to private and public reading, memorization, teaching, and preaching. This is the version used by All Nations Church.
New Living Translation (NLT): The New Living Translation is an authoritative Bible translation rendered faithfully into today’s English from the ancient texts by 90 leading Bible scholars. The NLT’s scholarship and clarity breathe life into even the most difficult-to-understand Bible passages—but even more powerful are stories of how people’s lives are changing as the words speak directly to their hearts.

In your mind, paraphrased translations might already have a bad reputation; we would argue that there is a time and place for every type of Bible out there. Paraphrased Bibles focus on getting the general idea across with clear language, useful for those new to the Faith or new to reading. Sometimes, a paraphrase is nice because it’s an interpretation; you can use it to gain a fresh perspective on a passage you’re reading. Typically, Bible paraphrases aren’t necessarily meant to stand alone, so keep that in mind.
The Message (MSG): This translation is a unique Bible-reading experience, a paraphrase by author Eugene Peterson of the traditional Bible text. With no formal language, The Message reads like a letter from an old friend. Because it’s easier to understand, you can better connect what you’re reading with what it means for your everyday life. The Message is not meant to replace your current version of choice. Rather, it is designed as a reading Bible that can give you a fresh perspective on a familiar phrase or passage.

Are you and your family connecting with God outside of church? As a family unit and as individuals on their own time? Are you checking the church box and calling it good? Are you, as parents or guardians expecting someone else to spiritually guide your children? Are you aware that your kids and youths’ Spiritual Practices are mostly taught by them watching you?

As Christians, we talk about being a steward, what it means and how when God gives us a gift, it comes with a responsibility. Children are the biggest gift that God can give, meaning the biggest responsibility that He can ask you to take on. As a steward of your kids, your job is to raise them up, to teach them how to know and connect with God.

Start children off in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not run from it. Proverbs 22:6

Here are 5 Spiritual Practices that you can model and invite your children to participate in, together as a family.

1. Pray Together
As adults we try to have good prayer lives and incorporate prayer into our everyday but that is a skill or a Spiritual Practice that at one time, we knew nothing about and had to be taught. How you model prayer at home will have the single biggest impact on your kids’ prayer lives.

Try
-Setting aside some time to sit down as a family and talk about what you should pray about, then taking turns praying.
-Keeping a prayer list on the fridge or a little book or jar in living room.
-Adding prayer into their bedtime routine.
-Praising God in prayer when a good thing happens.
-Praying for your kids, in front of them and ask in return that they pray for you or their siblings.
-Using prayer prompts: “I am so grateful that it was sunny and . . .”, “Thank you Jesus for . . .”, “Lord I feel . . . and am asking for help with . . .”.

Try to not
-Make prayer a check-list item that you have to get through to do the next thing.
-Stop the silly, you’re the adult, you make the call, but kids thanking God for lasagna for dinner or asking God to help them not hit their brother because they keep getting in trouble teaches them to not properly honour God.

Remember
Sometimes children’s prayers seem inconsequential or odd, but the creator of the universe listens to them, the same as He listens to yours.

2. Read and Study the Bible Together
This is another Spiritual Practice that takes time and diligence. How as the spiritual leader in your kids and students lives can you guide them to love connecting with God through studying His word?

Try
-Being intentional; setting aside time where your family sits down, reads, and discusses the Bible together.
-Memorizing verses together.
-Doing crafts or activities that teach about a person or idea in the Bible.
-Incorporating scripture into prayer, decor, and routines.
-Combating conflict and bad behaviours by searching together for a story of how God does or doesn’t not want us to behave.

Try to not
Shy away from the harsh or bad. The world isn’t perfect, we are all broken and sinful, teaching kids that allows them to understand why Jesus lived, died and why we need him to.

Remember
Your kids don’t need a full 72 slide Powerpoint with footnotes and an appendix. They need to see and hear you living and learning from the Bible. Has everyone been fighting or calling each other names? Read a passage about how Christians are supposed to treat each other and come up with one actionable idea to implement that week that would help everyone not fight or call names.

3. Spend Time in Nature
Experiencing nature is a great way to teach kids and youth about God and study his character. Even the super hot and super cold, though maybe not the weather that we love, has something wonderful for us to experience.

Try
-Going for a walk and looking for the most intricate things you can find. Discuss their beauty, discuss how they are designed, how they are good and play a roll in the world.
-Planting a garden or flowers, work together to nurture God’s creation.
-Doing crafts, experiments, and activities involving different things from outside.
-Visiting a zoo, discussing how the animals are designed by God for a purpose
-Looking under rocks and between paving stones, seeing the insects and bugs and talking about why they are so important
-Taking your teenager for a drive out where you can check out some landscapes and talking about what you see, what you appreciate and model praising God for the wonders He has made.

Try to not
-Fight the play, being outside makes children want to run, play and experience nature. Guide them, discuss and teach, but also let them be.
-Say “get off the phone”, phones are often what youth experience the world through, instead use the phone. For example, have them take photos or videos, ask hard questions that require a Google search or let them look up and guide you to new locations.

Remember
-We don’t worship nature, we worship the Creator and when teaching children, it is important to remind them that we enjoy the trees, flowers, animals and weather, but we praise God for creating those things, not the actual things.
-This is one of those tiny moments kind of things, you don’t always need a big plan or any preparation, just start looking for everyday things that are incredible and appreciating them out loud to your children, model praising God and guide your kids to do the same.

4. Be Alone with God
This is a difficult one for kids, they are little social creatures, who can struggle to stay ‘on task’ without guidance, for teens it can be a struggle to turn away from the notifications and focus. Model this by reminding your kids about when you spend time with God, talk about how you read your bible after putting them to bed or how you spent 15 minutes praying in the morning before waking them up.

Try
-Adding alone time with God into the bedtime routine; give them their Bible, leave the room, this is the time where they get to try some of the previous skills, alone and in private.
-Having some alone time with God right after they wake up, either in their rooms or in the other room while you make breakfast or do your alone time.
-Carve out a few times a week where you set-up your child to have alone time with God.

Try to not
Discipline them; you want them to desire the alone time, if it becomes a fight or an opportunity to misbehave then it will not be something they seek once you stop instigating it.

Remember
It might not seem like it is fruitful or that your children are gaining anything from it but this is a Spiritual Practice, which means practicing it now, teaches them to practice it for the rest of their lives.

5. Live out God’s Forgiveness
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

We all mess up, we all sin against each other, just as we sin against God. You reaction to your own sin will teach your kids what their reaction to their sin should be.

Try
-Apologizing when you are wrong and ask for forgiveness; “Hey, I got pretty angry there and yelled, I’m sorry for yelling, can you forgive me?”
-Directing them to ask for forgiveness. “You weren’t listening and you threw that at me, do you understand why that was wrong? What should we do?”
-Practicing mutual apologizing. “I’m sorry I let myself get so angry that I yelled at you. Can you apologize to me for not putting the toys away like I asked?”
-Apologizing to your spouse and asking for their forgiveness in front of your children if you commit the offence in front of your children.

Try to not
-Make forgiveness be the ‘key’ to the situation being over. Consequences still exist.
-Say “It’s okay.” Use the phrase “I forgive you”, be intentional in your words and do not dismiss the offence, but offer forgiveness in the same way that God offers it to you.

Remember
Parents are still human, giving and seeking forgiveness models God’s relationship with us on both sides and is important for us as adults to be reminded of as much as it is for kids and youth.

Where are you already modelling these connections with God? Where would you like to improve? Did something jump out that you can start this week? I will leave you with an encouragement and some resources.

1 Peter 5:2-3 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve;  not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Try: https://www.christianbook.com/page/bibles/study-bibles?navcat=Bibles|Study-Bibles
Study Bibles or Levelled Bibles. These often include introductions, Bible studies, extra information, activities, and other helpful resources that are geared towards the level and needs of the reader (ie. Grade 2 reading level, young women, life application).
Personal Fun Fact; I was 23 when I replaced my Grade 3 Max Lucado Study Bible with a fresh NIV because my father and mother had specifically picked it out for me.

Try: https://www.signupgenius.com/church/bible-games-activities-kids.cfm
Do crafts, activities, and experiments. You don’t need to be a biblical genius to incorporate scripture, praise, and prayer into your family’s life. Check out the link to get some ideas and head over to Google for colouring pages and other printables.

This is our first in a series of posts about our various staff members! Up first is our lead pastor Sean Morton

Sean grew up on a hobby farm outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He has also lived in Vancouver, on Vancouver Island in Comox in Winnipeg and Edmonton. Sean has been at ANC for 1.5 years and what brought him to ANC was that he felt God calling him into the lead pastor position; at the same time, ANC was looking for a new lead pastor. He applied and was offered the job.

What kept Sean at ANC was “Sensing God’s hand in our move as well as the good work we have been doing through the church in the community. Also feeling the privilege of working with a wonderful supportive congregation.” What Sean enjoys most about his job is being able to work with people and motivating them to follow Jesus their whole lives. Sean enjoys lots of outside sports and time at the gym. He has been married to his wife Tracey for 27 years, and they have two children together. His daughter is enrolled in graduate studies in gerontology at the University of Waterloo, and his son is working on his degree in supply chain management in Edmonton. A fun fact about Sean is that even though he mostly grew up a city boy, he can drive heavy-duty farming equipment! His favourite scripture is Phillippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The time has rolled around when our Life Groups launch for their fall season!

What exactly is a Life Group?
A “Life Group” is a small group of people who meet together on a regular basis to study the word of God, pray for one another, and get to know each other as they grow in their knowledge of God and seek to become more like Jesus. The groups can be as small as 6 or as large as 20, as space may allow. They may meet weekly, bi-weekly or monthly as well as get together for social events. Each group develops a “flavour” of its own, reflecting the personalities of those in the group, as people learn to live life Jesus’ way, loving one another.

Why does All Nations Church have Life Groups?
We believe that the biblical definition of community and fellowship happens outside of a Sunday morning. Carolyn Taketa puts it best when she says “When we look at the early church we get a picture of small communities of people who followed Jesus together. The Book of Acts, especially Acts 2:42-47, gives us a great picture of the early church and the components of biblical community, which encompassed both the “temple courts” and “house to house.”
These believers engaged in life together through teaching, fellowship, communion, prayer, miracles, radical generosity, and corporate worship. They spent time together eating, learning, celebrating, proclaiming the Good News, and supporting each other. In addition, the 50-plus “one another” verses in the New Testament flesh out other aspects of this community. For example, it was a place where people loved, forgave, served, bore burdens, encouraged, exhorted, prayed, equipped, spoke truth in love, confessed sins, and treated each other as precious members of one body.”

Why should you join a life group?

You’ll get to learn more about God
Life Groups allow an opportunity for you to learn from others about God and the Bible. Lifegroups can provide new perspectives, understanding, and clarity to life’s difficult questions. Questions that you felt initially you weren’t equipped to answer. Questions like, “why do bad things happen to good people?” or, “how can I believe everything the Bible says?” You will learn that oftentimes there’s a person or two who know the answer and are willing to share. If not, the beauty of Life Groups is exploring and discovering the answer together.

You’ll get to make deeper friendships
It’s easy in such a large church to just become a stranger to those around you. Life Groups give you the opportunity to be encouraged, be built up and be held accountable by others. Ecclesiastes 4:9 -10 says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” When you’re going through troubles in life, the friends in your Life Group can share that burden with you and pray for you.

You’ll be able to apply what you learn more effectively
If Sunday morning is for listening, then the rest of the week is for living. Whether it’s discussing the Sunday sermon, talking about a spiritual battle, or simply praying for one another, life groups create a context for you to live out your faith in real life. Our Life Group curriculum is tailored around applying Sunday’s message, giving you tangible action steps for your life.

How do I get involved?

If you are interested in joining a Life Group, we’d encourage you to email Michelle Ross, our Life Group Director at lifegroups@allnationschurch.ca. She will help you find a Life Group that is best suited for you! Or you can always call the office at 705-673-6110. God never intended for you to live the Christian life alone, so don’t hesitate to get involved and take the next step in your Christian journey.