# What Pew Bible Does Your Congregation Use?



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Aug 13, 2010)

At Fairmount ARP we use the NIV. 

What is in the pew at the church you attend?


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## N. Eshelman (Aug 13, 2010)

ESV. When I got here it was NIV, but a few of our older members asked to replace them with what I read and preached from.


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## Willem van Oranje (Aug 13, 2010)

To me, it seems kind of weird that we have pew Bibles. This is the first church I've ever been to which had pew Bibles, where everyone didn't have to bring their own Bible, (except for a liberal PCUSA church I attended as a child.)


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## raekwon (Aug 13, 2010)

Willem van Oranje said:


> To me, it seems kind of weird that we have pew Bibles. This is the first church I've ever been to which had pew Bibles, where everyone didn't have to bring their own Bible, (except for a liberal PCUSA church I attended as a child.)


 
I've always been under the impression that pew Bibles are primarily for visitors and/or non-Christians who might not have a Bible (or at least not an easily portable one) at their disposal. Folks who have their own personal bibles are still encouraged to bring their own.


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## torstar (Aug 13, 2010)

Reading the creeds, confessions and Scripture in unison may be considered more edifying if all are reading from the same translation.

There will be rebels though...


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## au5t1n (Aug 13, 2010)

We use the ESV. I read along in the KJV, and for the most part it's easy to follow, except that it's amazing how often my pastor will say, "Now the Hebrew here actually says" and then say what I have in my Bible.


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## KSon (Aug 13, 2010)

raekwon said:


> Willem van Oranje said:
> 
> 
> > To me, it seems kind of weird that we have pew Bibles. This is the first church I've ever been to which had pew Bibles, where everyone didn't have to bring their own Bible, (except for a liberal PCUSA church I attended as a child.)
> ...


 
Also helps with responsive readings, to have everyone with the same translation.


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## TexanRose (Aug 13, 2010)

All congregations of the FP church use the KJV. I think it's nice to know what to expect, and to know that visiting ministers as well as your own will be preaching from the same text. At my last church (RPCNA), the pew Bibles were NASB; one minister preached from the NASB, the other from the NKJV, and the intern when he spoke used the ESV. Oh and when I brought my own it was a KJV.  I thought it was quite distracting to be reading from one version while the pastor was reading/preaching from another.


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## raekwon (Aug 13, 2010)

KSon said:


> raekwon said:
> 
> 
> > Willem van Oranje said:
> ...


 
Having those printed in the bulletin or projected to a screen can take care of that problem as well.


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## KensingtonerRebbe (Aug 13, 2010)

My home congregation uses the NIV. The church I go to here in Nova Scotia uses the NKJV.

I almost never bring my bible to church. It's a church; they've got 'em there.


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## BenjaminBurton (Aug 13, 2010)

We have NIV pew Bibles. Our pastor will also preach from the NIV because of the location of our church and the constant influx of visitors, unbelievers, etc. What is printed in the bulletin is often ESV, though. Most everyone who comes carries an ESV.


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## torstar (Aug 13, 2010)

Having those printed in the bulletin or projected to a screen can take care of that problem as well.[/QUOTE]



Projected to a screen? 

[Head for the hills!!!]


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## raekwon (Aug 13, 2010)

torstar said:


> > Having those printed in the bulletin or projected to a screen can take care of that problem as well.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Please be joking.


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## Andres (Aug 14, 2010)

NASB in our pews and this is what our pastor preaches from. My wife and I use ESV though. Our responsive readings are actually printed in the back of our Trinity Hymnal (red one).


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## jwithnell (Aug 14, 2010)

I like to make notations in the margins on points that would be helpful when I return to the text -- particular emphasis from the original languages, references to other illuminating passages., etc. So I carry my NASB, but will pick up the NIV pew Bible for the reading of the law and for any responsive readings.


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## torstar (Aug 14, 2010)

raekwon said:


> torstar said:
> 
> 
> > > Having those printed in the bulletin or projected to a screen can take care of that problem as well.
> ...


 

Sorta, however...

My church and the last 2 I audited have zero visual sideshows going on. 

After time at a megachurch which ran commercials and manipulated the flock by their eyeballs, this is such a relief. 

I pray I don't have to ever again attend a service that has powerpoint and visual gadgets for those who don't want to be there. 

The elevators at the office work tower put up a tiny monitor which flashes stock quotes from 4 hours ago, along with other putatively useful info. People have bumped me out of the way, transfixed, drawn to anything they can look at to overcome that eternity of riding the elevator without visual filler.


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## Scottish Lass (Aug 14, 2010)

The pews have NIV (from before Tim's time here), but he reads/preaches from the NASB. At least one congregant switched her personal Bible to match to lessen distraction. Our responsive readings from the Bible (as opposed to the WSC, etc.) are in the back of our hymnal and are NIV, too (I think).


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## LeeJUk (Aug 14, 2010)

lol a very bad bible in comparison to all of the above. The GNB(Good News Bible) which is kind of an ecumenical "inclusive" translation that our denom. loves and has pretty much adopted. Though the more evangelical parishes have NIV's in the pew's but the majority of churches i go to in CoFS have the GNB.


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## Skyler (Aug 14, 2010)

I clicked "other" because our church doesn't have Bibles in the pews, but then I remembered that we have a stash of them in the back for visitors (mostly King James). :-/


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## kvanlaan (Aug 14, 2010)

Screens speed change in the church.

Since we all know that change is of the devil, it then follows that projection screens in church are one of the minions of Satan.

To be quite honest, I am really not a fan of them, but don't see them as a harbinger of Beelzebub (not a direct one, anyway).


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## LawrenceU (Aug 14, 2010)

We don't have pews. We don't have pew bibles. We do have a few bibles that go in the song book box in case we have guests that don't have a bible. They are AV. I snuck one facsimile 1611 in there just to see if anyone notices.


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## nicnap (Aug 14, 2010)

LawrenceU said:


> I snuck one facsimile 1611 in there just to see if anyone notices.



_That_ is comedic genius.


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