News

Below are some special events covering the rest of 2014. For our regular weekly schedule, click HERE.

• October 26, 9:30 a.m. – “Show Me Sunday” High Attendance Sunday School Challenge (church facilities)
• October 26, 10:40 a.m. service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• October 26, 4:00 p.m. – Fall Festival – games, bounce house, cookout, hayride (church grounds)
• October 27-29 – Missouri Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference and Annual Meeting (Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach)

• November 2, 7:00 p.m. – Church Family Business Meeting (worship center)
• November 11, 11:30 a.m. – Recycled Teenagers’ Thanksgiving Luncheon
• November 14, 7:00 p.m. – Serve Gospel Sing (worship center)
• November 20, 12:30 p.m. – McCredie Community Club (Ladies) Missions Presentation & Luncheon (fellowship hall)
• November 22, 9:00 a.m. – Fruit Plate Outreach (fellowship hall)
• November 23, 10:40 a.m. service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• November 23, 5:00 p.m. – Joint Thanksgiving Service and Meal (Grand Prairie Baptist Church, Auxvasse)
• November 26 – NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES (Happy Thanksgiving!)
• November 30, 5:15 p.m. – Carry-in Supper and Veil of Tears movie presentation

• December 7, 5:00 p.m. – Missions Presentation & Supper (FBC Vandalia)
• December 9, 11:30 a.m. – Recycled Teenagers’ Christmas Luncheon (fellowship hall)
• December 21, 10:40 a.m. Christmas service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• December 21, 6:00 p.m. – Christmas candlelight service (worship center)
• December 24 – NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES (Merry Christmas!)
• December 28 – NO SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE. (Sunday School (9:30) and morning worship (10:40) will take place as usually scheduled.)
• December 31 – NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES (Happy New Year!)

 
Questions? Please contact us.

With our extra emphasis on Sunday School this month, we wanted to highlight one of our classes. Terri Hovey, along with assistants Katie Humphreys and Marsha Drake, teaches our preschool class. These ladies do a tremendous job teaching our young children the gospel and keeping them entertained with fun games and delicious snacks. It’s not uncommon for children to enter the church building and sprint to their classroom because they are so excited to be here.

A huge thank you to Terri, Katie, Marsha and all of our incredible Sunday School teachers.

Remember, we have groups for ALL ages, so please join us every Sunday morning at 9:30. Below are some more pictures from our preschool class.

Sunday, October 26 will be an exciting day for our Richland family. We’ll start things off at 9:30 a.m. with SHOW ME SUNDAY! This is our high-attendance day for Sunday School, and our hope is that you will join us. We have classes for all ages – children and adults, and we believe Sunday School is an essential part of your spiritual growth.

As always, Sunday School will be followed by worship at 10:40. Then, at 4 p.m. we will have our Fall Festival. This will be a great time for families, as we will have games, a bounce house, food, a bonfire, and a hayride. Please join us for this exciting day of fellowship, fun, encouragement and growth.

For more information, please contact us.

Join us Sunday, October 5!
(6:00 – 7:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall)

We’ll be watching an important film about the Legacy we are leaving for our families, our church, and our community. Dr. James Dobson takes us on a journey to discover the kind of Legacy that matters, a legacy focused on faith in Jesus Christ.

Source: ChristianUniversitiesOnline.org

The Most Popular Book of All Time

Unsurprisingly, the most popular book of all time has an interesting history. With thousands of translations, over forty original authors, and a two millennium history, let’s take a look at the trails, tribulations, changes, and status of the world’s most popular book.

The Bible:

Date of Publication: 1500 BC to 100 AD[1]
Authors: 40 authors over the period of 1600 years
Note: On average 1 author every 40 years.

How it Stacks Up:

(number of copies printed compared to other famous books)

The Bible: 6 billion+
Quotations from Chairman Mao: 800 million+
The Qur’an: 800 million+
Xinhua Dictionary: 400 million+
Le Petit Prince: 200 million+
A Tale of Two Cities: 200 million+
The Lord of the Rings: 150 million+
The Book of Mormon: 120 million+
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: 107 million+
And Then There Were None: 100 million+
The Hobbit: 100 million+
Dream of the Red Chamber: 100 million+
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: 85 million+
The Da Vinci Code: 80 million+

Short and Long:
Books with the largest word count:[2][5]

Mission Earth, L. Ron Hubbard: 1,200,000
Sironia, Texas, Madison Cooper: 1,100,000
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson: 969,000
Poor Fellow My Country, Xavier Herbert: 850,000
The King James Bible: 788,258
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth: 593,674
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand: 565,223
Remembrance Rock: Carl Sandburg: 532,030
Gai-Jin, James Clavell: 487,700
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace: 484,001

Books, Chapters and Verses

66 books*/ 1,189 chapters/ 31,102 verses

Shortest Book: [1]
3 John– 1 chapter or 299 words.

Shortest Chapter: Psalm 117– 2 verses
Shortest Verse: John 11:35– 2 words, “Jesus wept.”

Longest Book: [1]
Psalms–150 Chapters or 43,743 words

Longest Chapter: Psalm 119– 176 verses
Longest Verse: Esther 8:9– 90 words.
Longest Word: Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:3)

Fact: The Bible didn’t have Chapters until Cardinal Huge de S. Caro added them in 1238. Robertus Stephanus added verse divisions in 1551.

*in the Protestant canon

A Work in Progress

100 million+ new Bibles are sold yearly[6]
98% of the world’s population have access to parts of or the whole Bible

Number of translations to new languages in progress: 1,300[2]
Number of languages with New Testament translation: 1,185
Total number of languages spoken in the world today: 6,900
Equals 2485 languages in translation
And 4415 to go

Thousands of editions of the Bible have been printed, copied, or released.

Continuum of Bible Translations

Word-for-Word Translations:(one end of the spectrum)[7][8]
NASB: New American Standard Bible
AMP: Amplified Bible
ESV: English Standard Version
RSV: Revised Standard Version
KJV: King James Version
NKJV: New King James Version

Thought-for-thought Translations:
HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible
NRSV: New Revised Standard Version
NAB: New American Bible
NJB: New Jerusalem Bible
NIV: New International Version
TNIV: Today’s New International Version
NCV: New Century Version
NLT: New Living Translation

Paraphrase Translations:
NirV: New International Reader’s Version
GNT: Good News Translation
CEV: Contemporary English Version
TLB: The Living Bible
MSG: The Message

Most Popular Translations:[9]

ESV–
Word for Word: Yes
Based on Earliest Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts: Yes
Publication Year: 2001
NLT–
Word for Word:No
Based on Earliest Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts: Yes
Publication Year: 1995
NKJV–
Word for Word: Yes
Based on Earliest Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts: No
Publication Year: 1963
NIV–
Word for Word: No
Based on Earliest Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts: Yes
Publication Year: 1978
KJV–
Word for Word: Yes
Based on Earliest Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts: No
Publication Year: 1511

Timeline:

300 BC-300 AD:
Bibles only in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek [# if you do this as a flow chart, this might be a good side note as the versions progress. This description should apply to versions before the Latin Vulgate made in 405 AD]

100 AD-400 AD:
Latin translations spread through the Roman Empire. In the words of St. Jerome there were “almost as many texts as manuscripts” all slightly different.

Pope Damasus asks St. Jerome to complete a definitive version.

In 405 AD the Latin Vulgate is completed.

360 AD:
Ulfilas, a missionary to the Goths writes down the language of the Goths (only oral before this point) and translates large sections of the Bible.

Original Manuscripts

700 AD-1300 AD:
The Roman Empire falls and Latin is lost to all but the learned. The Latin Vulgate is largely held as a privilege of the educated (mostly priests) and they are thought to be the only one’s worthy of interpreting the text.

Late 1300’s AD:
John Wycliffe and helpers produce full English versions of the Bible, slightly democratizing the text.

1516-1537 AD:
In a 1516 Latin translation Erasumus notes in the preface his wish that the Bible be in every language so that even Scots and Irishmen can read it.

The Reformation gathers steam as Martin Luther completes a German translation of the New Testament in 1522.

William Tyndale translates the New testament into English in 1526. Tyndale is burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1536.

1604-1611 AD:
47 scholars edit the King James Bible, meant to provide an authorized English copy of the Bible. The KJB takes heavily from Tyndale.

1800-1900’s AD:
During the 1800’s, the Bible is translated into 400 new languages, the 1900’s offer a much greater number of translations.
Translation of Bible’s into new languages is seen as crucial to spreading the word of God.

Below are some special events scheduled for this fall. For our regular weekly schedule, click HERE.

• September 24, 7:00 a.m. – See You at the Pole (Local Schools)
• September 27, 8:00 a.m. – Grand Crossings Baptist Association Breakfast & Annual Meeting (Centennial Baptist Church, Mexico)
• September 28, 10:40 a.m. service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)

• October 5, 6:00 p.m. – “Building a Family Legacy” Simulcast (Fellowship Hall)
• October 14, 11:30 a.m. – Recycled Teenagers’ Luncheon (Fellowship Hall)
• October 18, 4:00 p.m. – Ethan Daniel Pitt Baby Shower & Cookout (Calwood Community Center)
• October 26, 9:30 a.m. – “Show Me Sunday” High Attendance Sunday School Challenge (church facilities)
• October 26, 10:40 a.m. service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• October 26, 4:00 p.m. – Fall Festival – games, cookout, hayride (church grounds)
• October 27-29 – Missouri Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference and Annual Meeting (Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach)

• November 2, 7:00 p.m. – Church Family Business Meeting (worship center)
• November 11, 11:30 a.m. – Recycled Teenagers’ Luncheon
• November 23, 10:40 a.m. service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• November 23, 5:00 p.m. – Joint Thanksgiving Service and Meal (Grand Prairie Baptist Church, Auxvasse)
• November 26 – NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES (Happy Thanksgiving!)

• December 7, 5:00 p.m. – Missions Presentation & Supper (FBC Vandalia)
• December 9, 11:30 a.m. – Recycled Teenagers’ Luncheon (fellowship hall)
• December 21, 10:40 a.m. Christmas service – Lord’s Supper (worship center)
• December 21, 6:00 p.m. – Christmas Candlelight Service (location TBD)
• December 24 – NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES (Merry Christmas!)

Questions? Please contact us.

We’re really excited about what’s happening in and through Richland Baptist Church right now. Here are some quick reminders of what’s going on and how you can get more involved.

Our Wednesday night meals resume TONIGHT at 5:45. Join us every week for delicious food and family fellowship here at Richland. If you want more information and/or want to help serve or prepare meals, please contact us.

TeamKID supercharged also resumes TONIGHT at 6:15. While we have TeamKID programs year-round, we get higher involvement and participation during the school year. Thus, we start at 6:15 (rather than our usual 6:30) to allow even more time for our youth and children to hang out, fellowship, grow in their faith and have fun. Youth and children, please join us! Parents, we’d love to have you come, too, as we have prayer and Bible study for adults at 6:30.

Our current Wednesday evening Bible study, Crazy Love, continues at 6:30. We are discussing God’s crazy, relentless, all-powerful, amazing love for us and how our lives are changed by His love. While we encourage you to read Francis Chan’s book along with joining this Bible study, you are not required to do so. Regardless, join us and be challenged to love God and love others.

Our weekly men’s ministry had our fall kick-off last night, as we went dove hunting at Whetstone Conservation Area outside Williamsburg. If you are interested in joining us for another hunting outing Saturday morning, please let us know. Also, our weekly fellowship and Bible study will begin next Tuesday (September 9), 6:30-7:30 p.m., in the fellowship hall. Hope you can make it, men! All following weekly fellowships will be on Monday evenings from 6:30-7:30, unless otherwise updated on our Men’s Ministry page.

As always, we encourage you to join us Sunday mornings for Sunday School (9:30) and worship (10:40).  Growing in the faith is both a vertical (you and God) and a horizontal (you and others) experience. For that reason, corporate worship and small group Bible study are important. Get plugged in and get involved. To listen to recent messages from our series “Our Church is Our Family,” click HERE.

Another great opportunity for corporate worship and family fellowship is found during our Sunday evening services from 6 to 7 p.m. Currently, we are doing The Story training, learning how we can better know, live and share God’s Story. This is a great opportunity for all ages, so please join us for this very informal and helpful time of worship, fellowship and encouragement.

Men, whether you’ve hunted before or not, we’d love to have you join us for our men’s ministry fall kick-off Tuesday evening. We are going dove hunting at Whetstone Creek Conservation Area outside Williamsburg. You can meet at our church facilities at 5:30 if you want a ride. While everyone is welcome to come along, only those with official hunting licenses and appropriate migratory bird tags will be allowed to hunt. For more information on getting your license and tags, visit the Missouri Department of Conservation’s website.

This hunting outing is the fall kick-off for our Men’s Ministry and Bible study, which meets in the fellowship hall on Tuesday evenings at 6:30. If you have any questions, please contact us. Hope to see you Tuesday evening!

No, we don’t worship ice cream. We love Jesus much more than we like ice cream. But, any time you get to worship and fellowship with your church family and eat ice cream, it’s a good thing. Well, this Sunday evening (August 3), our regularly scheduled 6:00 worship service will be specially geared towards youth and children, followed by our annual back-to-school ice cream social.

We pray you’ll join us for worship and ice cream. If you have any questions, please contact us.

UPDATE: To see pictures from this event, click HERE.