Dr. David W. Manner is the Associate Executive Director for the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. He blogs at http://kncsb.org/blogs/dmanner . You can follow him on Twitter: @dwmanner.
Why are churches that so zealously defend the Bible rarely reading its text in public services of worship? Does its limited use convey a lack of trust in the very Word professed to be foundational to faith, doctrines and practices? And by limiting its text to a single reading prior to the pastoral exhortation are leaders implying that a higher level of credibility is found in the exhortation than in the Word itself? Can’t it stand on its own or must we always attempt to prop it up with our own words and actions?
Robert Webber in Ancient-Future Worship wrote, “We are nourished in worship by Jesus Christ, who is the living Word disclosed to us in the Scriptures, the written Word of God. In spite of all the emphasis we evangelicals have placed on the importance of the Bible, there seems to be a crisis of the Word among us.”[1]
Congregations continue to struggle in their understanding of spirit and truth worship by maximizing music and depending on it alone to negotiate the worship impasse. At the same time those congregations minimize the very foundational text from which those songs must spring forth.
John Frame offers two truths that highlight the value of God’s Word in our worship: “First, where God’s Word is, God is. We should never take God’s Word for granted. To hear the Word of God is to meet with God himself. Second, where God is, the Word is. We should not seek to have an experience with God which bypasses or transcends His Word.”[2]
The dialogue of worship is formed when God’s Word is revealed. This revelation causes worshipers to respond through the prompting of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 2:12-15; I Thess 1:5). The result is a vertical conversation with God and horizontal communion with others. This dialogue develops a community that congregations have been desperately trying to create through their worship actions.
Scripture must be foundational to our songs, sermons, prayers, verbal transitions and even announcements. It must be frequently and variously read and allowed to stand on its own. And when the biblical text organically yields our sermons and songs rather than serving as fertilizer for our own contrived language, we will leave in here worship with the text in our hearts and on our lips for continuous worship out there.
I insist on the public reading at least once in the service apart from the reading that goes along with preaching. Thanks for some helpful ways to explain why.
Each worship service we read from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, and then from one of the four Gospels. Every time. Without fail.
Amen
Dr David –
This is my worship philosophy exactly!
“In humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” James 1:21b, 22 NASB
Since it is inherently “risky” to encounter God’s Words, perhaps a gambling phrase is appropriate. “I go all in.”
I very much appreciate your post. I sympathize greatly with your hope for the churches. I fear the real hope is for the individuals who respond, as in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
I agree completely. If I could structure a time of worship, it would include periods of reading long passages from the Bible, with some explanation where needed, as well as singing psalms. Liturgical churches already do this to some degree, but they largely limit themselves to the three-year lectionary which I find insufficient and unnecessarily constrained to the liturgical church calendar. I would also center the service on the sermon where the church would be admonished by their pastor. But no one ever asked me to do this, probably because they fear it would be boring and a bit odd to most people.
Hi JIM,
what is more ‘constrained’:
reading the sacred Scriptures aloud in community?
OR
not reading the sacred Scriptures aloud in community?
The early Christians began their service with ‘the Service of the Word’, and some Christians still have that beginning to their worship of God
A lot comes out of hearing the sacred Scriptures ‘speak’ . . .
a helpful sermon may put light on those Scriptures, but a sermon can not take the place of sacred Scripture read aloud to a community of faith
in short, if a sermon draws its ministering power from the Word, in community, the connection still needs to be made to the source of that power. . . the sacred writings themselves
When the sacred Scriptures are shared in a ‘worship service’, it is as though the hearers are there present with all Christians who have ever heard those words read ‘in community’ as proclamation of revelation
. . .
more so than any sermon, St. John helps us to understand
that the direct proclamation of the revealed sacred Word of God
within any Christian community continues a timeless Apostolic mission that brings together all who hear them into spiritual communion within the Body of Christ:
“We announce to you the eternal life
which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard we announce to you,
so that you may have fellowship with us
and our common fellowship be
with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ”
(1 John 1:2-3).
Sorry for the delay in responding, Christiane. I was indisposed this weekend.
I can’t tell if you mistook what I said and think you are disagreeing with me while actually agreeing with me or if you are simply agreeing with me. But you started out with a question and proceeded to talk about anything but what the question had to do with, so I don’t know where you are coming from.
But to answer your question: neither. What I find constrained is the three-year lectionary to the liturgical church calendar. I said as much and it shouldn’t have taken much exegesis to understand that. There is more to scripture than what is found in the church calendar and there is more scripture than what is selected for the lectionary to match it. if you love scripture, you should be disheartened that so much of it is excluded in the lectionary. That’s my beef with it.
LET
MY WORDS
DESCEND
“Let My Teaching fall like rain
and My Words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.”
(Deuteronomy 32:2)
“10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall My Word be that goes out from My Mouth;
it shall not return to Me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. ”
(from Isaiah 55)
The simple answer is, of course, that each church determines for itself how to “conduct” worship. The more complex answer is that Southern Baptists were largely a rural denomination and as such developed some anti-scholastic tendencies and “high church”-style liturgies–including liturgical readings of Scripture–were generally rejected as a matter of practice as too rigid (my read on our history.)
Indeed, one of the primary outcomes of the Conservative Resurgence has been a much stronger emphasis on scholarship of the Bible especially “as written”. But I don’t think we’ll see a standard SB catechism or a standard SB “book of common prayers” liturgy emerge. The closest is the various editions of the Baptist Hymnal and the closest to standard readings might have been (but certainly is NOT today) the so-called “responsive readings” in those various editions.
Today, of course, the typical church probably is already using (or likely gravitating towards) a hymnbook-less worship experience. This is good because those books aren’t canonical (though many of the hymns should be and ought to be highly treasured.) But in my opinion for most churches the “responsive reading” is long dead, largely due to the clunkiness of the experience from holding a book, to reading out loud, to reading in concert with others.
I honestly cannot remember the last church I was in that used them. Most of the time there is a direct reading from the Bible either as part of the sermon or in preparation for it. I very much enjoy pastors requesting their congregations to stand in order to honor the Bible since it is God’s Word. I enjoy when a pastor will additionally ask lay people to lead the congregation through an extended passage outside of the sermon.
I’m pretty sure we could put responsive readings back into play, though they still suffer a bit from clunkiness. One technique is to have a mic’ed primary reader leading the congregation’s response. I believe that the Bible claims for itself that the Words of the Bible are transformative. Now in my mind I tend to qualify that with “if we will read them, listen to them, and observe them”, but since I’m a Calvinist I’ll acknowledge that I think of the Bible as being the center of the regeneration experience whether or not you accept it coming before or after profession of faith.
I think the Bible is that important to our ministry of the Gospel and therefore in a dynamic worship service it ought to be the central artifact of our worship as well. And one of the best things we can do for a culture where we’re introducing Christ is to get them a complete Bible in their own “vernacular”.
I’m sure this sounds like I’m just in agreement. I am.
as to worship and each Church deciding for itself, this:
the first Church was at Jerusalem . . .
as the Church spread outward, centers of Christianity developed in areas such as Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, etc.;
with each center developing their liturgies accordingly . . . EXCEPT for this:
each ‘center’ kept something of the ways of worship of the original Church in Jerusalem, some core ways of worshiping that were brought out to the ‘centers’ from that Jerusalem, the place of origin
a quiet examination today of the liturgies of those ‘descendents’ of the original ‘centers’ of both Eastern and Western Christianity will show certain similarities in worship styles that can be traced back all the way to the first center of Christianity, Jerusalem.
so when we talk about ‘each’ Church forming its own way, please know that, if the Church contains something in its worship that can be traced to the original Church in Jerusalem,
then that ‘core’ of a way of worship is something that the first Christians passed down to be received by those who are connected to them in spirit
it doesn’t take much to find out what ‘core’ beliefs and practices belonged to the ‘centers’ of early Christianity . . . just examine what is the SAME . . . likely it came from the first Christians in Jerusalem
and then look at your own Church’s way of worshiping, and see what is similar, at least ‘in spirit’ . . . I’m sure you will find something that is shared, and I believe this because that is the way of the Holy Spirit among those who love Our Lord and follow Him
I think the Bible is a very large part of worship if for no other reason than because it received such great attention throughout the sermon. In liturgical churches, the Bible comes through liturgy while the message is far more condensced. Both types see to it that scripture is read aloud. I’ll agree that a lot of time is spent on contemporary music that doesn’t reflect much scripture, but we get it from other portions of worship. I for one would like to see a return to older music or newer music arise that’s more scritpurally informed.
Great thoughts.