First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA
April 13th, 2025, 6:00 p.m.
2nd Presbyterian Church
111 Reed St, Oil City, 16301
Sponsored by:
Featured Speaker: Rev. Chad Troup,
Fox Street
Church of God, Rocky Grove
Offering to Benefit: Emmaus Haven of Venango
Torah in its Ancient Israelite
Context
A seminar by Pastor Randy Powell
Derived from: The Lost World of
the Torah
By Dr. John Walton and Harvey Walton
When: Tuesday May 6th, 13th,
20th, 27th, and June 3rd
6:30-8:30 PM
Where: 1st Baptist Church
of Franklin
1041 Liberty St.
Who: Anyone who wants to learn more
about God’s Word
Everyone is welcome, the lecture is
free and open to the public
Livestream: facebook.com/FirstBaptistChurchOfFranklinPa
Call if you have any questions, please share this opportunity with anyone in the Venango County area who might wish to attend.
The lectures will be livestreamed on the 1st Baptist Facebook page, as well as recorded and uploaded to YouTube (Pastor Powell's channel). The added benefit ,beyond fellowship with fellow followers of Jesus, of being here in-person will be the opportunity to ask questions and dialogue with the speakers.
“Members together of
one body, and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ.” – Ephesians 3:6
County-Wide Thanksgiving Service
Sunday, November 24th at 6 PM
Cranberry High School
1 Education Drive, Seneca
Featuring: The praise team from Franklin Church of the Nazarene, Scripture Readings, Prayers of Thanksgiving, and a message praising God for our unity in the Body of Christ from Reverend Shawn Clerkin of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Franklin
This event
is free and open to the public, all are welcome
An offering will be collected to support the food pantries of Franklin,
Oil City, and Seneca
Good Friday Crosswalk
March 29th, 10 AM
Begins at St. Patrick Catholic Church,
ends at Christ UMC
Featuring readings for the 14
Stations of the Cross, with a hymn at each stop
Good Friday Franklin Area
Community Worship Service
March 29th, 7 PM
At Christ UMC
1135 Buffalo St. Franklin, PA 16323
All are welcome to join us in
remembrance and worship.
Sponsored by the:
County-Wide Palm Sunday Service
March 24th, 2024, 6:00 p.m.
Cranberry High School auditorium
1 Education Dr, Seneca, PA 16346
Sponsored by:
Featured Speaker: Rev. Eric Phillips,
Redeemer
Anglican Church, Franklin
Offering to Benefit: Emmaus Haven of Venango
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
John 12:13b
What Every Christian
Should Know About:
The Holy Land
A three-part educational discourse
created by Pastor Randy Powell
First Baptist Church of Franklin
1041 Liberty St. Franklin, PA 16323
6:00-8:00 PM
Monday, December
4th, 11th, and 18th
The primary focus of this seminar will be the stories of the places visited by Pastor Powell in May of 2023, featuring the hundreds of photos he and his wife took during their pilgrimage to the Holy Land including: The Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, Cana, Megiddo, Nazareth, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Qumran, Masada, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and more.
This event is free and open to the public,
no reservations necessary,
and will include time for Q&A
For more information,
please call 814-432-8061
This seminar will be broadcast via Facebook Live on the church’s page for those unable to attend in-person, and subsequently uploaded to YouTube.
“I will listen to
what God the LORD says:
He promises peace to
his people, his faithful servants.”
A County-Wide
Thanksgiving Service
Sunday, November 19th
at 6 PM
At Salvation
Army Church, Oil City
217 Sycamore St.
Featuring: Congregational
Singing,
Scripture
Readings, Prayers of Lament
for Peace in the Holy Land, and a message from
Rev. Tim Harmon of 2nd Presbyterian Church of Oil City
This event is free and open to the public
all are welcome
An offering will be collected to support the food pantries
of Franklin,
Oil City, and Seneca
What Every Christian Should Know About:
The dangers of the false teachings of the
First Fruits of Zion and their Torah Clubs
By Pastor Randy Powell
At First Baptist Church of Franklin
1041 Liberty St. Franklin, PA 16323
6:00-8:00 PM
Monday, September 11th, 18th, and 25th
Good Friday Crosswalk
April 7th, 10 AM
Begins at St. Patrick Catholic Church,
ends at Christ UMC
Featuring readings for the 14
Stations of the Cross, with a hymn at each stop
Good Friday Franklin Area
Community Worship Service
April 7th, 7 PM
At Galloway Church
196 Seysler Rd, Franklin, PA 16323
All are welcome to join us in
remembrance and worship.
Sponsored by the:
Psalm 121
County-Wide Palm Sunday Service
April 2nd, 2023, 5:00 p.m.
New Life Family Worship Center
100 E. Atlantic Ave.
Franklin
Sponsored by:
Featured Speaker: Dr. Pastor Lora Adams-King
The service concludes with our county’s pastoral
leaders joining
together to sing, “Majesty” and “I Love You, Lord”
The Wednesday evening Bible Study group will begin the Gospel of Luke on 3/22 at 7 PM.
Those able to join us in-person are welcome to attend, this study is for non-Christians interested in learning about the Gospel and God's love for them, new Christians looking to learn more about Jesus' life and ministry and how it impacts their lives, and Christians who have known faith for many years but still have a desire to grow in wisdom. In other words, anyone can join us.
We will look at look verse-by-verse, reading and discussing as we go. Questions are welcomed.
For those not able to attend in-person, the study will air each week on Facebook Live at this page: First Baptist Church where it can be viewed at anytime from 7 PM onward.
Also, for those interested in the audio only, it will be available at Pastor Powell's blog: Bible Study podcasts within a day or two. This site currently has audio recordings of studies for most of the Bible organized in one hour segments from previous weekly groups.
To the Christian community in Venango County, February 2023
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, as men and women
called by God and entrusted with the responsibility to shepherd the sheep and
protect the flock, it is our responsibility to shout out a warning when
dangerous individuals, groups, or ideas affect our communities and churches.
This is sadly the case with regards to the spread here
locally of Torah Clubs sponsored by the First Fruits of Zion.
While we enthusiastically support deep study of the Bible,
including its Jewish cultural and linguistic roots, all such study should occur
within the framework of a Church history-based orthodoxy, and an apostolic
understanding of the Gospel.
Why do groups associated with the Hebrew Roots Movement, in
general, like the First Fruits of Zion, in particular, fail this test? Our accompanying documentation will
demonstrate from primary sources, in their own words, that the First
Fruits of Zion organization, and the Torah Clubs materials they publish, are
replete with the following theological errors and/or heresies:
1.
A non-Trinitarian view of God in the forms of
two ancient heresies rejected by the Early Church: Modalism and
Subordinationism.
2.
A substandard hermeneutic {including the use of
paraphrases and word substitutions resulting in more palatable texts} for
interpreting scripture that contends that all relevant passages have been
wrongly understood throughout Church History, and in fact mean nearly the
opposite of what the Church has always taught.
3.
A hostility toward the Church which is seen as
the ‘mission field’ in need of correction to bring it back to its supposed
roots as a Torah observant movement within Judaism.
4.
That the books of Moses, the Torah, are more
fully the words of God than other portions of holy scripture, making them the
lens through which all scripture must be interpreted. Even Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, has
no authority to establish anything beyond the Mosaic Law.
5.
That Jesus did not fulfill the Mosaic Law,
rather it is still operative and normative for all of God’s people, Jews and
Gentiles alike.
6.
That there is no covenant with the Gentiles,
thus all followers of Jesus Christ accepting the Gospel must be grafted into
Israel by ‘becoming a Jew’ in spirit, and in Torah observance.
7.
That on this basis true Christian discipleship
requires the keeping of the Mosaic Law, including the dietary (kosher),
Sabbath, and festival provisions, which is how Christians demonstrate their
love of God.
If the tree is diseased, so will its fruit be. We would warn against the use of bible study materials
produced by the Watchtower Tract Society (JW) or LDS (Mormon) organizations,
even if locally 100% of the parent organization’s theology was not being
adopted. The risk that heretical
teachings would gain a foothold is simply too great. If the desire is to learn from Judaism or
Messianic Judaism, a host of materials from an orthodox point-of-view are
available for Christians to use in our churches, to use that which comes from
the FFOZ is an unnecessary risk, plus a union with an organization whose stated
goals would harm the Church and warp the Gospel.
In the end, while protesting that they do not offer a
works-based salvation, and claiming that faith in Jesus is sufficient, this movement
is built upon and structured around the claim that all faithful Christians will
begin observing the Law of Moses once they become followers of Jesus, that faithful
Christians will, in essence, live like Jews.
They may not outright claim the Law of Moses as the gatekeeper to salvation
and Christian discipleship, but when you make it the gauge of genuine faithfulness
you are adding it to the Gospel message, casting dispersion upon the faith of
99% of the world’s Christians, both past and present, and spreading doubt and
division within the Church. This movement
is no benign appreciation of the scriptures, but rather an aggressively proselytizing
misappropriation of them contrary to the established teachings of Orthodox,
Catholic, and Protestant Churches alike.
Given this, our duty requires that we warn our congregations
against participation in these groups, and call upon those who do so now, and
especially those who are promoting them, to repent and return to the faith our
ancestors rejoiced in as, “you are not under the law, but under grace.”
(Romans 6:12)
By unanimous affirmation of the Franklin Christian Ministerium,
Rev. Shawn Clerkin, Vicar/Pastor, St. John’s Episcopal Church/Grace Lutheran Church, Franklin
Deacon David Betz, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Franklin
Rev. Dr. Darrell L. Greenawalt, Christ United Methodist
Church, Franklin
Rev. Larry A. Myers, Polk Presbyterian Church
Rev. Eric Phillips, Redeemer Anglican Church, Franklin
Pastor Randy Powell, First Baptist Church of Franklin
Pastor Chad Troup, Fox Street Church of God
An Examination of the unorthodox beliefs of the First Fruits of Zion, their Torah Clubs, and the Hebrew Roots Movement in general - by the Franklin Christian Ministerium - our 10,000+ word primary source documentation of what the Torah Clubs and FFOZ believe and teach.
An update on our Victorian Christmas Concert donation: The total raised for Mustad Seed Missions is $3,178.50.
This total more than triples the previous high that we've been able to achieve through one of our Christmas or Mother's Day concerts. The local generosity is a tremendous blessing to our community.
Thank you to each an every sponsor:
Miller Construction
Carbaugh's Barber Shop
Joseph Liotta, Attorney
Paul Como, Allstate Insurance
Dr. Padin
Antonucci Masonry
VFW #1835
The Franklin Elk's Lodge
Moose Lodge #83
Mr. and Mrs. Chris Rakow
Anderson's Greenhouse
I will give thanks
to the Lord because of his righteousness
A County-Wide Thanksgiving Service
Sunday, November 20th
at 6 PM
At Victory Heights United
Brethren Church
5978 US-322
Featuring: Congregational
Singing,
Scripture
Readings, and a message
from Pastor
Zayzay Kpadeh of
Seneca
United Methodist Church
This event
is free and open to the
public, all
are welcome
An offering will be collected to support the food pantries of Franklin,
Oil City, and Seneca
What Every
Christian Should Know About:
Church History
A three-part
educational discourse created by Pastor Randy Powell
First Baptist Church of Franklin
1041 Liberty St. Franklin, PA
16323
6:00-8:00 PM
Thursday, October 13th, 20th, and 27th
Will
include segments on: The Early Church, Early Heresies regarding the person of
Christ, The Ecumenical Councils, The Great Schism, Monasticism, St. Augustine,
The Crusades, the battle for supremacy between Popes and Emperors, The
Reformation, The 30 Years War, The Modern Missions Movement, and the status of
the Church in the world today.
This event
is free and open to the public, no reservations necessary, and will include
time for Q&A
For more information,
please call 814-432-8061
Recently I was asked by Pastor Charlie Cotherman if there was something about rural ministry that I might write for the Project on Rural Ministry (of Grove City College). After a short period of thinking the obvious choice was to write about the lessons learned from the success of the non-denominational parachurch ministry, Mustard Seed Missions, that I was blessed to be part of the founding and have continued since it began in 2012 as its President.
