A Pastoral FYI

It has come to our attention that the publishers of the NIV Bible have decided to update the text of the NIV with language they call "gender inclusive."*  Briefly, this means that in many cases masculine pronouns like "he" and "him" have been changed to "they," "them," or some other "gender neutral" term.  Also, the word "man" (when referring to mankind - women and men) has been replaced with "people" or something similar.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the publishers have elected not to identify the new edition in any way that would alert the reader to the change.  In contrast, NAS Bibles printed in the last 15+ years usually have "Updated," "Updated Edition," or "1995 Update" visible on the spine.  The only way to know which NIV you are reading is to look at the copyright date.  NIV Bibles with a copyright date of 2011 (and beyond) contain the new "gender inclusive" language.

We are disappointed with this development.  Every word of the original text is inspired by God and we prefer to study and teach from English translations that remain as close as possible to the original.  We thought you should know about this and where we stand on the issue.

If you have further questions on this subject or on Bible translations in general, feel free to contact Pastor Bruce, Pastor Dwight or Pastor Derrick.

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* The same publisher introduced this language in their TNIV without much reader acceptance.