Poll: Public Reading of Scripture
Michael Spencer (iMonk) has been working on a great blog series call “evangelical liturgy,” and his most recent offering addressed the public reading of Scripture. Growing up in Southern Baptist churches all my life, I was not a member of a church that employed the public reading of Scripture until I was 26 years old. I was originally planning on sharing about my journey into this practice here at Grace, but before I do, I wanted to poll the P&P audience and ask you about it. So here it is. Be sure to cast your vote!
* For clarification, I am not talking about the preacher reading the text as part of his sermon but rather a time dedicated to the public reading of Scripture outside the sermon itself, usually during the period of singing, where the congregation is called to hear the Word of God.
If you’d like to share why your church does or does not practice the public reading of Scripture, please do so in the comments.
Tags: Church Gathered, Liturgy, Public Reading of Scripture
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
September 9, 2009 at 9:04 am
Every Sunday morning we have a call to worship early in the service, which consists of a Scripture reading pertinent to the sermon text. Then the sermon text is read aloud before the message. In both instances we normally stand.
We also read a Psalm or a chapter in Proverbs publicly before we pray at our mid-week prayer meeting.
September 9, 2009 at 9:58 am
I think there’s an assumption that the verses read at the beginning of the sermon (which isn’t always guaranteed) count as public reading of scripture. Plus, because of time, adding that somewhere else might mean removing very important things like special music or the altar call.
September 9, 2009 at 10:05 am
Josh,
That’s a good point. When I’m referring to the public reading of Scripture, I am speaking of a part of the service dedicated to reading a portion of God’s Word outside the portion of preaching that may or may not be the text of the sermon (usually included somewhere in the singing).
September 9, 2009 at 11:38 am
I understood that. I was giving the probable reasons why the church I currently attend does not practice the public reading of Scripture. I personally would like to see it done though! There was a David Spade-quantity of sarcasm in my last sentence for sure. For being “people of the Book,” we Baptists have lately put the Bible on the backburner in our services, often in favor of some negotiable elements.
September 10, 2009 at 11:00 am
For being “people of the Book,” we Baptists have lately put the Bible on the backburner in our services, often in favor of some negotiable elements.
Yep. Sad, but true.
September 9, 2009 at 10:28 am
I think this is making a comeback, esecially in church plants. Our plant is 2 years old and we typically read a lengthy text as a church or one of the elders reads and the congregation reads aloud during underlined sections. I appreciate that others see the importance of this.
September 9, 2009 at 9:44 pm
We also do a benediction from a passage of Scripture and then pray that passage as the benediction.
September 10, 2009 at 11:01 am
Good stuff, Keith, and I agree about Scripture reading coming back through church plants. Most if not all new churches started that I’ve seen do including Scripture reading in their services.
September 9, 2009 at 11:05 am
We read aloud scripture from time to time, but I don’t like it because the speaker must be assuming that the audience has the same translation. When I read from a different translation, it is like speaking in tongues before those around me.
September 9, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Our church uses the ESV and recommends that everyone use an ESV because that is the text we read and preach from. We have a couple paperback copies of the ESV available for those who don’t have one and we project the scripture reading on a screen for those without an ESV to read from. This fixes the “it is like speaking in tongues” problem.
September 9, 2009 at 11:25 am
Our assoc. pastor (KJ) is reading through the Psalms. This past Sunday he read 113.
I don’t remember this reading happening before his coming to our church. So, I guess we’ve only been doing this for 113 weeks. Even so, I’m very glad our leaders have made the public reading of scripture a priority.
September 9, 2009 at 3:37 pm
When I became pastor this past June, I began reading from the Psalms during the worship time. I think that worship without Scripture reading is one-sided, at best.
September 10, 2009 at 11:04 am
I think that worship without Scripture reading is one-sided, at best.
I agree. It goes back to the idea of worship, I think. God has spoken and revealed Himself to us in His Word. Our worship is in response to the revelation of who God is and what He has done, and this we know according to Scripture. The more emphasis on God and His Word, the less emphasis on man and our opinions.
September 9, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I pastor a church that practices a contemporary music style. We have two Scripture readings (from ESV or NIV), a prayer of praise, a Pastoral prayer given by an Elder, and a time of reflection after sermon (not to be confused with an “altar call” – although sometimes we CAREFULLY do one).
September 10, 2009 at 11:05 am
Brian,
So is going with the ESV and NIV a means of promoting unity within the church?
Just kidding. I like the balance in prayers, reflection, and scripture readings you mentioned.
September 10, 2009 at 11:10 am
Timmy,
I probably should have clarified that! We are in the process of transitioning to the ESV as our translation. (kinda like the frog in the kettle thing)
September 9, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Both of the churches I have served have had a dedicated portion of the service set aside for the reading of Scripture. In my former church, it was almost exclusively from the Psalms. In the church I currently serve, we’ve just switched to using the current week’s family memory verse (from FamilyWorshipGuide.net). The scripture reading is usually accompanied by a brief meditation on the passage and then followed by prayer.
September 10, 2009 at 11:06 am
Greg,
That’s almost exactly what we do here, expect the reflection and prayer following the Scripture reading is the pastoral prayer which is the longest prayer of the service.
September 9, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Does it count if the worship leader reads 2 or 3 lines as what amounts to be a song transition? I was in a service (I think more than one) where the leader read a little from a Psalm, but before he could finish the drummer began leading into the next song. His drumming was so loud that I could not hear the reading anymore.
I am not sure how I would answer if this was still my context.
September 9, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I don’t think it counts, Bill. Scripture should be the foundation for the music, not the other way around. Unfortunately, I have seen what you have described as well.
September 9, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Can’t imagine not including the public reading of Scripture weekly in light of 1 Tim. 4:13.
September 10, 2009 at 11:09 am
Me neither, but I wish someone had shown me that earlier in ministry! I think for many who don’t, it’s not an outright dismissal but never seen it done and understood the importance of it. Instead, that time is replaced with “fellowship” or meet and greet kind of thing. I think raising the discussion and bringing to light the significance of this element of corporate worship needs to happen more often and will encourage others who are not doing it to consider it.
September 9, 2009 at 10:45 pm
We’ve used a separate time for the reading of Scripture for many years now (at least since I’ve been pastoring… 12 years). We also incorporate verses prior to many of the songs we sing; not every time, but when we sing 5 songs in a service, at least 3-4 have Scripture passages that help prepare us for that particular song. This past year, we also began challenging our congregation to memorize Scripture and then to volunteer to stand up before the congregation and recite each week’s verse. It’s gone fairly well, although I’d still like to see a slightly higher participation rate. All these efforts are to make sure anyone who comes to Cornerstone EFC knows that God’s Word is that upon which we stand and that from which we preach & teach.
September 9, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I read from the Scriptures every Sunday to begin our time of worship. I have been reading a chapter of Hebrews a week for the past several weeks. It is amazing how often the Scripture read fits so nicely with the text being preached.
September 10, 2009 at 10:14 am
We read a passage of Scripture in each service in addition to the sermon text. It is almost always a reference from which ever testament the sermon text is NOT from (if the sermon text is from the NT, the scripture reading is from the OT). It also ties in with the sermon text. If the sermon text was talking about Jesus being a priest in the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews, the public reading would be from Genesis regarding Melchizedek and Abraham.
Our sunday evening service also will use a verse from the Sunday morning reading as its key verse.
September 10, 2009 at 1:24 pm
We have two Scripture readings (separated by prayers and singing) in the service prior to the sermon. They have been chosen to reflect main idea which the preacher will be conveying from the Scripture text of the sermon (yes, expository preaching occurs at Cornerstone.)
The first is usually a Psalm, but not always. The second is often a NT reading. Sometimes short (Deut 5:1) and sometimes long (Heb. 11…the whole thing!)
September 20, 2009 at 11:55 am
We usually have two readings, sometimes two whole chapters, but not necessarily, and usually one O/T and one N/T but not necessarily. The main thing is that one will contain the verse(s) to be the focus of the sermon, and the other will be chosen to shed light on it.
We also provide church bibles (NKJV) so people can read along.
September 26, 2009 at 8:36 pm
My Christian denomination has always included regular public readings of scripture. Usually 1 or 2 OT/NT, a psalm, and a related Gospel passage.
Apparently, this has long been Christian tradition according to Justin the Martyr:
“And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits”
First Apology of Justin the Martyr
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.lxvii.html