Hello Church Family,
            January was quite the eventful month ! Not really because of how busy the church was with events, but mainly because my family and I were knocked off our feet by the virus we contracted! We are thankful that the symptoms only lasted 3-4 days for us, and we are feeling much better as the month draws to a close. We are very thankful for your prayers and support that we received over the January 18th weekend. I’m also thankful for my dad and his willingness to step in and preach for me! I’ve watched him guest preach many times before, but I was proud to see him use his God-given gifts for the benefit of our congregation. I watched the livestream on my phone while I was sprawled out on the couch, so I was with you all in spirit. Unfortunately, our final worship service of the month was cancelled due to the massive snowstorm that came through on the 25th. I hope you all stayed safe and warm as you waited for the roads to be cleared off by the Ohio Department of Transportation. I’m praying that we will have snow-free worship services for the month of February!

            Despite these unforeseen setbacks, I’m very thankful for the ministry events that we were able to support over the course of this past month. On January 10th, we hosted Randy Chestnut for our evangelism and discipleship training event. We had 14 people in attendance, including two couples from Grace Baptist Church. It was an enjoyable time of fellowship and personal development. At some point in the future, I plan on having Randy come back to UBC for the second half of the training, and I will keep you all updated on when that happens. On January 14th, we had the pleasure of hosting a meal for the Miami East girls’ basketball team. We had a great turnout, and it was a great time to build more connections with the coaches. On January 29th, I had a follow-up meeting with Randy Chestnut and other leaders of Engage the Miami Valley. We are hoping to expand our training opportunities and establish regular rhythms of evangelistic outreach in our communities, so I will keep you all updated on what those plans will look like in the coming weeks.

Our biggest ministry event of the month was launching the LifeWise Academy at Miami East on January 23rd. Between the 4th and 5th grade classes at Miami East, the program already has 42 students enrolled, and we expect even more to sign up over the next few months. This is going to be a fantastic opportunity to reach the next generation with the gospel. I have joined the advisory board of the program to support its leadership and help facilitate its growth in its early stages. The biggest needs for the program right now are 1) volunteers and 2) funds for buying a school bus that LifeWise can use to transport students to and from Miami East’s campus. Even if you are not able to support the program in either of these ways, your prayers are always needed. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know and I can get you connected to Allison Trowbridge.

As we look forward to February, I will support LifeWise as it continues its first month of operations. At this moment, I don’t have any special ministry events planned, but if something comes up, I will inform the congregation as soon as possible. In addition, I have two prayer requests for you to keep in mind for the coming weeks. First, we will hopefully be closing our search for a new secretary and present the candidate to the congregation for a vote sometime in February. Two candidates will be interviewed at the trustee’s meeting on February 1, and if either of those candidates do not work out, then we will continue our search. However, I have spoken to both candidates personally and they seem like good options, so I trust that our Heavenly Father will guide us as we make a decision. Second, my son Pierce will have ear tube surgery on February 26th. Over the last few months he has gotten 3 or 4 ear infections, and his right ear has been causing him pain and preventing him from sleeping comfortably at night. I am not that worried about the procedure, as it is very common and effective at treating his symptoms, but it will be his first time under anesthetic gas. So please pray that he will be able to stay calm prior to the surgery, that he will go through it smoothly, and that his recovery will alleviate the pain he has experienced.

Thank you for your love and support, church family! I look forward to continuing our study in Proverbs together this month. May God’s blessing and favor be upon you all.

Pastor Nathan Justice

Hello Church Family,
            As usual, December was packed with ministry activity. We started the month by honoring Cathy Ashman’s passing with a Celebration of Life service. I was glad to see so many UBC members at the service to support Randy and his whole family. We were able to fit the service in right before we had the big snowstorm come through, so I’m thankful that God was able to hold the snow back until after the service was over. After Cathy’s service, most of December was spent focused on Advent and preparing for the Christmas Eve service. I am pleased with how the Advent candle lighting and Christmas Eve service went well. Our short study through Isaiah made a very clear impression on my mind that our church will never succeed if we solely try to rely on our own strength. We have to rely on the love of God, the grace of Christ, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
           
I also had a few opportunities to meet with fellow ministers in December. I grabbed lunch with Josh Ortega, who serves as lead pastor for H2O Church on Wright State’s campus. He gave me a lot of good insights into college ministry and ways we might get started with our own college ministry in the future. I also grabbed coffee with Jonathan Newman, the former lead pastor of Koinos Community Church. I had a good time recapping the year with him and talking about ways we could work with Koinos on projects in the future. Finally, I had the unforeseen opportunity to grab coffee with a couple Latter Day Saint missionaries. We were unable to convince each other of our positions, but the conversation was insightful for both parties and we came away with greater respect for each other. You can be praying for them both to hear the true gospel though!
           
As I look forward to next year, I am excited about the new opportunities we have on the horizon. We have several new members being added to different committees: Mark Deal and Ron Niswonger as deacons; Nathan Deal, Josh Deal, and Charles Marrs as trustees; Karen Pemberton as deaconess; and Merry Seipel on the Board of Education. God has brought them into these roles for such a time as this, so I’m looking forward to working with them. We also have a big opportunity to work with the LifeWise Academy at Miami East. They will be using our fellowship hall to educate Miami East students about the Bible. They teach from a modified version of the Gospel Project curriculum, which is what we already use with our kids ministry, so if any students start coming to UBC through the program it should be a seamless transition for them. The program will need teachers and volunteers, so I hope you took the opportunity to speak with Director Allison Trowbridge after the service this morning. If you did not get the chance to speak with her, we will be hosting a community Q&A meeting on January 7th from 7-8pm. I also want to invite everyone to the evangelism and discipleship training event on January 10th. I think this will be a very important gathering for our church and members of other churches who might attend. I want to make sure that each one of us is capable of sharing the gospel when we get the chance to do so. I know that those types of conversations can be intimidating, so this training should help you feel more confident and equipped to talk with non-Christians. The training is from 10:00am-2:00pm, so please mark your calendar!

Thank you for a great first year as your pastor. I look forward to what our Father has in store for us in year 2!
Pastor Nathan Justice

Hello Church Family,
            November was filled with moments of grief alongside exciting ministry opportunities and enjoyable community gatherings. I had the honor of officiating the funeral of Mary Alice Christian at the Suber-Shively Funeral Home in Fletcher. Many of her family members were in attendance, and some of our church members stopped by to pay their respects. My hope is that the family continues to draw on the hope of the gospel as they continue to grieve their beloved mother and grandmother.
            Yet in the midst of grief, we also had joyous times of fellowship. We had our Thanksgiving potluck and annual business meeting on November 9th. During that meeting, we were able to approve the 2026 budget and approve new deacons and trustees for the upcoming year. I look forward to working with these men as we seek to strengthen and edify the church for God’s glory. I also took time to discuss my vision for 2026 at the end of the meeting. I shared that the theme for next year’s preaching calendar will be “Wisdom,” and we will focus our attention on Proverbs and James during our worship services. I also shared three potential ministry opportunities that I will be exploring. First, we have the potential to help with the new LifeWise program starting at Miami East Schools in January. Second, I am investigating the potential of starting a ministry outreach to Edison Community College, because it is only 10 minutes away from the church and the next generation needs to hear the gospel. Third, I am looking into the possibility of doing prison ministry at the Miami County Jail because of my prior experience as a prison chaplain.
            I am still in the early stages of exploring the college and prison ministry options, but there have been some exciting developments with LifeWise. The week before Thanksgiving, I met with the new director of the Miami East LifeWise program, Allison Trowbridge. She has been serving as the director of the Piqua Schools program for the past year, and she is taking on the new Miami East program as well. She toured our facilities and was very interested in using our fellowship hall as the host location for the program. She is hoping to start the program officially in late January 2026, so we could start seeing kids arriving at our church each week in just a couple months. Allison is planning on visiting UBC and giving a presentation about the LifeWise program during our worship service on December 14th. I am excited to partner with the program and see what God will do in our community through our facilities.
As we look forward to the rest of December and the beginning of next year, please keep a few events in mind. On December 13th, UBC will be hosting Cathy Ashman’s Celebration of Life service. If you have time in your schedule to come and support Randy Ashman and his family, please plan on doing so. On December 21st, the choir will perform a Christmas cantata during our worship service. We will also have a Christmas Eve service this year at 6pm. On January 10th, UBC will be hosting an evangelism and discipleship training event in partnership with the Greater Dayton Association of Baptists. Please mark that date on your calendar, as that training event will be crucial for our community outreach next year.
            Thank you for your support and generosity over my first year of ministry at Union Baptist Church! I look forward to what God has in store in year 2!

With great affection,
Pastor Nathan Justice

Hello Church Family,
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. In October, we experienced both. We lost Pete Kiser and Connie Ely, and both women will be missed. Some of you may also have known Patricia Mader, Mark Deal’s aunt. I performed her funeral in October as well. Yet even in the midst of our pain and grief we also had times of joy. Our Harvest Party at Maynard Mitchell’s home was a great success. The food, the hayrides, and the fellowship were all enjoyable. We also began our weekly prayer meetings at the beginning of October, and those times of prayer have been edifying and refreshing for me. I hope that everyone else who has attended those meetings has experienced the same feeling. We also hosted the Moms Night event at the church, and Celeste had fun time with the other women who attended. Celeste plans on making that a monthly gathering, so be on the lookout for more details from Celeste.
           
October was also a big month for our affiliation with the Greater Dayton Association of Baptists. In early October, I attended the association’s annual meeting in Centerville. During the meeting, Union Baptist Church was voted into full membership with a unanimous vote. What does that mean for us now? Beyond keeping in regular contact with the associational leaders and attending the associational meetings, our membership does require a monetary contribution. I will be meeting with the deacons and trustees before our official budget approval to discuss how much money we will give to the association.

However, this monetary contribution also brings many benefits to our church. GDAB has bounce houses, portable smokers, and other equipment that affiliated churches can borrow for community events. As full members, we will now have the ability to request those pieces of equipment for future ministry opportunities. GDAB hosts workshops and equipping events each month that I and other church members can attend. In November, I will be attending the “Engage Our Neighbors Lunch,” where we will discuss vision and strategy to engage our communities and neighbors with the good news. We will have lunch together and discuss plans to collectively engage throughout the counties that make up Miami Valley. If anyone from the church would like to attend that lunch with me, just let me know and I can RSVP on your behalf for the lunch. Among other benefits, full membership will also help be build stronger relationships with other pastors in the association. At the end of October, I grabbed lunch with Jamie Wellman from Piqua Baptist Church and Seth Cusson from Gospel Baptist Church of Greenville. We had a good time of fellowship and discussion about pastoral ministry.

As we look forward to November, the big events to keep in mind are the Thanksgiving dinner and annual business meeting on November 9. During that business meeting, we will approve new deacons and trustees, approve the 2026 budget, and I will share some of my vision for next year. If you can attend the meeting, please plan on doing so. Having a unified vision going into the upcoming year will help us get off to a good start.

Thank you church family! I look forward to my family’s first Thanksgiving with you all and our upcoming Christmas season. I am thankful for your generosity and kindness to us, and to God’s provision for us all over my first year at Union Baptist.

Pastor Nathan Justice

Hello Church Family,
            September was full of fun family and ministry opportunities as well as some medical challenges for members of our congregation. On Labor Day, Celeste and I took Pierce to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. Celeste had been to the festival previously, but this was the first time for Pierce and I. We had a good time visiting different stalls, seeing many people in costumes, and exploring the different areas of the festival grounds. We plan on returning next year so that Pierce can walk around and explore more once he is older. Later in the month, I had the pleasure of joining Luke Brittan and other pastors at Grace Baptist Church in Troy for their monthly association meeting in Cedarville. Their church is part of the Ohio Association of Regular Baptist Churches, and Luke offered me the chance to see what their group of churches are doing throughout Ohio. We stopped by Cedarville University to hear Alistair Begg speak in chapel and then attended a luncheon for the OARBC. They have exciting church plants starting in Utah and in Boston Massachusetts, and it was encouraging to see how God is moving in these areas of the country that desperately need healthy churches.

Other than these special events, I continued my regular rhythm of pastoral ministry. The Stillwater Pastoral Fellowship started up again after a summer break, so I will be travelling to Greenville once a month to spend time with other local pastors. I enjoyed visiting with several church members at their homes. Unfortunately, I have also visited several church members with medical problems, such as Connie Ely at Miami Valley Hospital in downtown Dayton. Terri Poling, Pete Brown, and other church members need our prayers as they battle through their daily pain.

As we look forward to our upcoming October events, I would encourage you to come and join us at our weekly prayer meetings on Thursday nights at 5:30pm. If you are unable to make it, pray that our hearts would be revived by the Spirit and energized with new purpose as we join together to praise God and intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ, our community, and our world. Look out for our Harvest Party on October 11, and join our God’s Promises in Biblical Prophecy study on October 21.

Thank you for your support, church family.
Pastor Nathan

Hello Church Family,
August was a month full of ministry opportunities. I was saddened by Alta Marrs’ rapid health decline and eventual passing. It was beautiful to see how well Alta’s family loved and cared for her in her final moments, even in the midst of their heartache. For those of you who were able to attend her funeral service, I know that the Marrs family appreciated all of the love and support. But alongside these sad moments, there were also some exciting developments. Early in the month, I had the pleasure of grabbing lunch with Luke Brittan. Luke serves as the youth pastor for Grace Baptist Church, and it was enjoyable hearing about how God is using Grace to minister to the surrounding community. I look forward to meeting with him again in September. I also met with Dave Mason, the Young Life director at Miami East, and I learned more about his plans for the 2025-2026 school year.
Near the end of the month, John Salmon introduced me to Zac Robinson and his family. Zac has been hosting a bible study out of his house for the past few months, and it has grown so large that he was running out of room to fit everyone inside! John suggested to me that UBC could host the bible study, so that Zac and his group would have plenty of space and the church could meet new people in the community. I thought it was a great idea, so Zac held the first meeting in our fellowship hall on August 24. We had a good turnout, and Zac’s interest in showing how biblical prophecy culminates in Jesus will be a great benefit for our church and the surrounding community. And at the end of the month, UBC’s historical documents were officially donated to the Local History and Genealogy Center at the Troy-Miami County Public Library. Patrick Kennedy, the local history archivist and Baptist historian, collected all of the materials I set aside and is already cataloging them.
In the midst of all this activity, my ability to visit with you all has been limited. My schedule has also been restricted by the treatment I have been receiving at Full Life Chiropractic on a regular basis. I have been receiving adjustments three times a week as part of a treatment plan for old work-related injuries, and I am thankful to report that they have been effective. Starting in September, I will be decreasing to two visits per week, then one visit in October, and then occasional adjustments in the future. This will free up more time for me to meet with you all, which I look forward to doing. My weekly meetings with Bill Berkheiser are also coming to an end, which frees up time for a midweek lunchtime meeting. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to meet with me, either for ministry-related questions or just to know me more on a personal level.
            Now that the school year has begun, I’m sure that your families will have lots of midweek activities starting up again. If you have sporting events or other activities, let us know! Celeste and I would love to show our support when possible. She is starting her final semester of law school, so her schedule will be more limited than mine, but we would enjoy getting the chance to learn more about our community and build relationships outside the church. Pierce is a very social baby, so any chance he gets to be around other kids will be a tremendous joy for him.

Thank you for your support, church family.
Pastor Nathan

Hello Church Family,
July was a bittersweet month of ministry. On July 8th, I was able to attend the third quarterly meeting of the Greater Dayton Association of Baptists. I had a good time of fellowship with the other pastors, and it was great to hear how God is moving in the Dayton metro area. In the middle of the month, Celeste and I were able to take a vacation together that was sorely needed. Pierce stayed with my parents, so we were able to focus on our relationship with each other and getting some desperately needed rest. But when we came back from vacation, I learned that Jeannie Teeters was in hospice and that Alta Marrs was going to start chemotherapy for her lung and brain cancer. Unfortunately, Jeannie passed away, but we were able to host her funeral here at the church and reminisce on the impact she had on so many church members. Alta is stable for now as she undergoes treatment, but I know that she and Charles will covet your prayers in the coming weeks.

            But as we look forward to August and the start of the new school year, I am excited about our opportunities to reach out to the surrounding community. Our Back to School Celebration and School Supplies Drive will provide us with some good access points to start building relationships with our neighbors. I hope to meet together with the administrators at Miami East in the near future and to start building my relationship with them. I’m also looking forward to discerning what ministries we can start organizing to coincide with the start of the new academic year. Some of you who were at the business meeting on July 27 received a Mid-Year Questionnaire from me. Part of the questionnaire focused on your personal spiritual health, and my hope is that I can better equip and encourage you in your walk with Christ by understanding where you are presently. The other part of the questionnaire has some questions about possible ministries we could do at the church and what your interest/availability would be for them. If you were not able to attend the business meeting, there are some extra copies of the questionnaire on the table in the sanctuary near the stage. I’m also happy to email you a copy of it if you prefer to receive it in a digital format. If you all can complete those and return them to me as soon as possible, I’d love to get started on ministries that will receive good support.
           
 As we move into August, I’m also looking forward to beginning our new sermon series. We will be studying First, Second, and Third John over the coming months, starting with Third John on August 3. The series will last through the end of November, and we will finish out the year with an Advent series. If you want to follow along with us and study 1-3 John in your own personal Bible reading, please do! These letters have much to teach us today, and I look forward to studying them together. Beyond studying for this series, I will continue meeting with my Practical Shepherding cohort and regularly meeting with Bill Berkheiser.

Thank you for your support church family. I look forward to seeing how God moves in our midst during the second half of 2025.
Pastor Nathan

Hello Church Family,
It was nice getting back into my normal rhythm of member visitation in June after spending most of May working on Subsplash. I’m thankful that the website has been working well and online giving is running without any problems. The new hymnals turned out well, and we have already transitioned to using them in our worship planning. I think they will serve us well in the coming years. My pastoral ministry cohort has been meeting twice a month instead of every week due to the leader’s speaking schedule during the summer months. My meetings with Bill Berkheiser have also been infrequent due to his other commitments, but both training opportunities have remained beneficial.

My other focus for the month of June was on starting to prepare our children’s ministry for future growth. UBC now has a subscription to an organization named MinistrySafe, which provides online training for volunteers and parents, facilitates background checks, and offers lots of other useful resources. I have completed a rough draft of a new child protection policy, and I will be meeting with the deacons and board of education to read through the draft and revise the policy language. Once it has been revised, we will present it to the congregation for a vote before it is officially implemented.

Lastly, the church will be moving our Sunday morning livestreams from streaming through Facebook to streaming directly to our new website. Subsplash has the capability to post the stream on Facebook and YouTube, but we are still working on getting those accounts connected to the website. So for now, if you want to watch the stream, please go to ubctroy.com and you can watch the livestream from the home page. Please let us know if you experience any problems with the livestream, as we will be troubleshooting it and will appreciate if you share any bugs that you notice with us.

I hope you all are having a great summer. Celeste and I will be going on our first cruise from July 10-16, and we likely won’t have cellular connection while we are on the ocean. If you need anything while we are gone, please contact the deacons! We look forward to being with you again on July 20th.
Pastor Nathan

Hello Church Family,
My schedule in May ended up working quite differently than previous months. The
majority of the month was spent focused on getting our new services through Subsplash up and running. That left little time for doing visitations and other meetings. Bill Berkheiser was busy coaching Cedarville High School’s baseball team, so we were not able to meet much. Brian Croft’s travelling schedule started picking up as well, so my weekly Zoom calls for my Practical Shepherding cohort were moved to every other week. Now that online giving is available and the church app and website close to being finished, I am planning on returning to my normal routines in June.

Because I don’t have much to report for this newsletter, I wanted to use this space to answer a question that I have received several times from church members. Some church members have noticed that I am saying something different than what’s on the projector screen on Sunday mornings. For instance, my sermon on Haggai had many repeated uses of the phrase “this is the Lord’s declaration” or “the declaration of the Lord of Armies.” But when I read these passages from the pulpit, I instead would say “this is Yahweh’s declaration” or “the declaration of Yahweh of Armies.” It’s understandable that this would be confusing for some people. So to explain my reasoning, we have to discuss why the Christian Standard Bible (the English translation I use during our services) uses Lord in this passage.

Although Lord appears as early as Genesis 2, its definition comes from Exodus 3. This is the famous “burning bush” story where the God of Israel confronts Moses and calls him to serve as his representative to the Israelites and before Pharaoh. When Moses receives this call, he asks several questions in the hope that he can explain why he is not the best candidate for this position. One of these questions is about how Moses should refer to God when he is speaking with the Israelites:
Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?" God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM., This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation. (Exodus 3:13-15)
God’s first response to Moses is ehyeh asher ehyeh, which is translated as “I AM WHO I AM” by most English translations but could alternatively be translated I AM BECAUSE I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. God then gives a shortened form of this phrase, I AM (ehyeh). God finally gives his covenant name, Lord.

To better understand why the word “Lord” is written in this way, it is important to know how Hebrew is written. Hebrew is written from the right side of the page to the left side. As originally written, Hebrew contains no vowels; words are only comprised by consonants and the pronunciation of words was passed down by tradition. When the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD, Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire seeking refuge. It became more difficult over the centuries to maintain proper pronunciation of words by only passing things down by speech. A group of Jewish scribes called the Masoretes met this challenge by developing written vowels that could indicate proper pronunciation. Rather than writing vowels and consonants side by side as in Greek and English, Hebrew uses a vowel point system where dots and strokes are written underneath the consonants. So, in the phrase I AM WHO I AM, the Hebrew is written as אָהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אָהְיֶה.

This brief history of Hebrew linguistics is necessary because of the challenges raised by the covenant name in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, it is written as יהוה; transliterated into English, it is YHWH. The Hebrew letter yod can be pronounced with a Y sound or a J sound, and the Hebrew letter waw can be pronounced with a W sound or a V sound, so you will sometimes see the covenant name transliterated as JHVH. In the time between the Jews returning from exile in Babylon (529 BC) to Jesus’ birth (likely around 4 or 5 BC), a tradition developed that Jews would not speak the covenant name because they thought of it as too holy to say aloud. So whenever the Old Testament was read in public, the person speaking would say Adonai, or “Lord” in English. The Masoretes carried on this tradition in their written copies of the Old Testament by taking the vowels from Adonai and putting them beneath the consonants YHWH. The reader was supposed to know that whenever they would see those vowels under the covenant name, they should say Adonai as a replacement.

However, this practice of constantly replacing YHWH with Adonai resulted in the proper pronunciation of YHWH being lost to history. Biblical scholars must try to reconstruct the pronunciation from several clues we have within and outside the Bible. First, it was common practice for parents in ancient times to name their children by combining the name of their god with another word. Jews did the same thing. Names like Zechariah, Isaiah, and Elijah all have a yah sound built into the name that serves as an abbreviated form of YHWH. Other words, like hallelujah (“praise Yahweh”), also incorporate the abbreviated form. And second, as stated above, the letter waw can be pronounced with a W sound. Together, these facts suggest that the pronunciation was likely Yahweh. Transliterations of the covenant name into other ancient languages also reflect this pronunciation, increasing the probability that Yahweh is correct.

When Bible translators are forced to choose how to write the covenant name in English, they have a few options. The 1611 King James Version chose to follow the Masoretic tradition of replacing YHWH with Adonai, so in English they chose to write “Lord” in all capital letters to signal that this was an instance of the covenant name. In passages where the biblical author has Adonai and YHWH next to each other, they translated it as Lord GOD. Because of the vast influence of the KJV on the English language, most modern English translations have continued this tradition (CSB, ESV, NIV, NASB, NKJV, NRSV, and many others). In 1901, the American Bible Society decided to release an updated English translation and went a different route. They thought that the vowel points underneath YHWH designed to indicate Adonai were the actual pronunciation of the covenant name, so they translated the name as Jehovah. Many hymns written in the early 20th century incorporate the name Jehovah because of the American Standard Version. Lastly, the translation committee for the Legacy Standard Bible (a 2021 update of the NASB) decided to translate the covenant name with its probable pronunciation. You will see Yahweh used throughout their translation.

With all this background information in place, you can hopefully see why I am comfortable saying Yahweh in the pulpit. I think it valuable for people to hear the actual covenant name Yahweh spoken in worship gatherings. It is clear from Numbers 6:22-27 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9 that the Israelites spoke the covenant name in public during their times of worship. The tradition of saying Adonai instead appeared very late in their history. I don’t believe it is “using God’s name in vain” to say it publicly in our Sunday morning services. Therefore, I plan on saying Yahweh whenever I see Lord appear in the text we are reading together. If you have any further questions about this topic, or any other biblical or theological questions that you would like me to discuss, please let me know and I am happy to address them in future newsletters!

Thank you church family for your kindness and support. Celeste and I are thankful for everyone who showed up to Pierce’s first birthday party at the end of the month. You all have been very sweet and supportive with him, and we are happy to call Union Baptist our home.

Blessings to you all,
Pastor Nathan