We are in the middle of our busy first fall and are very happy to meet all the new people who are finding us and being enriched by our activities. Thank you for all of your encouraging words and emails.

Announcing the En-Gedi Discussion Forum!

Our web site has an exciting new page that we have been wanting to provide for quite a while now - a discussion forum. Now, instead of being just an audience, you can share your thoughts with the community of people who share your interests. We hope that you will want to join in the on-going discussions. There are sections for people to discuss our Family Festivals series, and for you to ask questions and comment on our ministry in general. We also thought we could have a pretty insightful discussion on the following topic:

David Bivin asserts in his article "Jesus' View of Pacifism" on the En-Gedi articles page that when Jesus' words are understood within the context of other scriptures and Jewish culture, he was probably less of a pacifist than many believe. How does that fit in with the Christian response to current terrorism?

Also, check the other pages of the web site which now have many new links and articles. We are trying to keep things interesting! You can use the "Latest Features" button on the home page to see quickly what is new.

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The Festivals for the Family series had its first activity night in late October. We walked through the biblical feast season together to get an overview of the year, and then discussed whether Christians can or should celebrate them. One of the major take home points was that God used the biblical feasts to teach His people spiritual truths and correct attitudes, and we should examine our own celebrations to see if we are doing the same thing. That will be a recurring theme of our nights together - what biblical truths and attitudes are we teaching through our celebrations?

As our activity we made a "simulated" ancient musical instrument - a sistrum, an ancient form of tambourine used in Israel and Egypt. In 2 Samuel 6:5 it describes them being used as part of the great celebration when David brought the ark into Jerusalem. We made the frame out of a wire clothes hanger and then used gold, silver and crystal beads and gold ribbon to make them truly royal - to emphasize the beauty and preciousness everything should have that we use to worship the Lord. (Directions for making them will be available soon in our articles section under feasts.)

We will be meeting next on Tuesday, November 13th at Christ Memorial Church again, and our theme will be "A Truly Thankful Thanksgiving: Sukkot". If you would like to come, please pre-register by calling me - Lois - at (616) 355-2200 or by emailing egrc@egrc.net. The evenings are for adults, $10 per person, $15 per couple.   Map to Christ Memorial

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The Pastor's Breakfast series had a wonderful morning a few weeks ago with Tim Brown of Western Seminary, a professor of homiletics, which is the practice of preaching. Tim discussed how the culture of the Bible can inform not only what is preached, but the technique of preaching itself. He explained that preaching in the Western world is thought of as a form of rhetoric - to rationally explain a set of beliefs to convince an audience. He then suggested a fascinating alternative out of the Hebraic culture of the Bible -- that preaching should be a form of hospitality.

One of the most sacred laws in many eastern cultures is the practice of hospitality to strangers, to help a person traveling in the desert who needs water and food to survive. If a stranger comes to a person's home, it is traditional that much more than his basic needs are met -- an elaborate meal is prepared and he introduced to the family, music is played, and the family shares its stories, values and way of living. Tim said that preaching is radically transformed when it uses hospitality as its model, bringing in a person into your "tent" and caring for him; rather the rhetorical model, focusing mainly on convincing him of the correctness of your argument. The discussion hardly began to plumb the depths of this idea before it was time to go.

Our next breakfast for pastors will be with Dr. Randall Buth on Thursday, November 8th at 7:30 AM, and he will be speaking about "Learning to Listen to Jesus, the Master Teacher". (See below.) If you think your pastor might like to attend, please forward this invitation. Seminarians are also welcome to come. Out of limited space, resources, and a desire to foster discussion within a pastoral group, we need to limit our invitation to those people. We will once again meet at Holland Heights Church.      Map to Holland Heights CRC

Finally, I would like to remind you of other events featuring our special guest from Israel, Dr. Randall Buth who will be here November 6 - 14. Here is the information we gave you last month:

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You can see that we have many opportunities to become involved and learn more. Please feel free to email or call with your questions and comments.

May the Lord watch over you and give you His shalom --

Lois Tverberg, Director