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Shrugging Off ScriptureBy Kent d Curry In a Sunday night
service in June, the Pastor asked everyone to turn in their Bibles to his text.
I reached for mine, then noticed the row before me—a mother who grew up in
church and her three teen/pre-teen children stood without moving. Next to them,
the married daughter of a prominent minister also made no movement. A few
scriptures were read, the pastor prayed and then he began his sermon as we were
seated. I have found this scenario repeated in churches throughout our movement. One
of the great troubling trends in our ranks is how few saints bring their Bibles
to church anymore. For Youth services, and I’ve seen this at several churches,
Bibles are often supplied since they’re rarely carried. In adult services,
overheads or PowerPoint ™ slides often flash scripture at the appropriate
moment. (Both, of course, create a vicious circle of dependence—why should a
saint bring a Bible if it’s supplied or rarely “needed,” while church
administrations feel compelled to supply scripture since the attendees—both
sinners and saints—don’t have Bibles.) The
excuses to remain Bibleless are timeless: “I’ll forget it at church, I’ll
forget it at the restaurant after service, it’ll get messed up in a car full
of buddies” and “My Bible is too heavy to lug around” (though a cell phone
isn’t). There are at least two purposes for bringing a Bible to church, the first is external, the other internal: 1. To minister to others in the service, usually around the altar. Whether it be sinners needing salvation, young people needing direction or adults needing wisdom, the scripture is our source of wisdom for ministering to others. 2. To cross-reference what a speaker is saying with your own knowledge, and to have mid-service, personal revelations from the Lord via the scriptures. If you don't read the Bible at home, you're not going to have personal revelations and the preaching of the Word can grow stale to an undisciplined heart. If
the Word is not alive in your strongest spiritual moments-in prayer at church-then
you’re spiritually comatose. If
the general church leadership didn’t take public scripture so lightly this
would be even more upsetting. Yes,
leadership takes it lightly. How else to explain that Apostolics do everything
scriptural in our services except read scripture? One of our points of
pride is when we counter a visitor’s shock at Holy Ghost drenched worship
with, “Everything you see in our service is in the Bible.” I’ve heard this
numerous times and it’s true. Scripture exhorts us to shout and clap (Psalm
47:1), sing (Exodus 15:21), use musical instruments (Psalm 150:4), and dance
(Psalm 150:4) by using the spirit-heavy examples of Miriam (Exodus 15:20) and
David (II Samuel 6:14). (Running the aisles seems a short step from this.)
Public tongues and interpretation are detailed in I Corinthians 14. Likewise,
although we incorporate almost every method of service worship and ministry
(special songs, choir, instrumental solos, children’s choirs and drama,
holiday dramas), most Apostolic churches don’t read scriptural passages during
a service. True, right before the sermon, the Bible is read, but rarely a
generous amount. (After all, today’s congregations will get bored!) How
ironic that the people of the Word seldom see the need for the Word within their
regular gatherings! So why is this such a foreign concept to Apostolics? To my knowledge, most mainline Protestant churches have scripture readings in their services and most Catholic Masses include Gospel recitations. In
ancient times, the Jews met in the synagogue to read scripture, after which they
worshipped. [Think of when Jesus read scripture (Luke 4:16-20) before
prophesying or preaching.] It’s my understanding that the first century church
was organized along this manner—in each service they would read a passage from
one of the epistles. Of course, services were organized in this manner because
of the vast illiteracy of the day. I fear the days of mass biblical illiteracy
have returned. If
scripture reading is not incorporated at church nor practiced at home, where is
the biblical influence in our daily lives? Most Apostolic churches today model
serious prayer (on special weekly prayer nights), practice exemplary worship (to
the point that critics call us emotional junkies), exercise generous and even
sacrificial giving (on personal and church levels), and offer boisterous
fellowship, but there’s so little given over to the reading of the Word amid
this Christianity. I conducted an informal and unscientific epoll around the nation and found only three Apostolic churches that include regular scripture reading in their services—one was from a conservative bastion in the West, another in a Patriarch’s church in the South and a third was a Midwestern home missions work that includes a passage, usually from Psalms, about praising God before worship begins. I wish I were wrong—but I’m not—we have a crisis on our hands. National
surveys continue to prove we’re an increasingly unchurched society with an
expanding base of ignorant young people. ninetyandnine.com’s
own informal survey
highlighted a sad weakness in personal
devotions. It’s as if we’ve returned to the days of desolation, when the
prophet cried, “My people are destroyed
for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject
thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of
thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). To
counter this deluge of ignorance, public scripture readings must be a priority
in every service. (Besides, it’s a great way to get more saints involved.)
Whether it’s sharing straight passages of 8-15 verses before the reader is
seated; or a short reading with an explanation afterwards, the opportunity to
witness the Word as fire should be highlighted, nor overlooked. Why
must preaching and singing be responsible for ministering to the needs of
everyone when God’s incredible Word can fill the gap? Is there any reason why
the sinner struggling through a divorce can’t be revived by “Yea
though I walk through the valley . . .” or the seasoned saint electrified
to hear a new convert exclaim “God so
loved the world that he gave...” or the flailing youth suddenly hearing, “Be
still and know that I am God.” No
matter how great our programs or prayer, without the guiding wisdom of
scripture, our greatest efforts will be diminished. Better we train everyone to
rejoice in the Word, its changing power and eternal truths, so that we, like
Jeremiah, can proclaim, “Thy words were
found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of
mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jeremiah
15:16) ninetyandnine.com ã
2001, Kent d Curry -------- Kent
d Curry is an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com. (Editor’s Note: Help us compile more data and answer the Big Question this week!) |
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