March 03, 2006
Steve Lawson and Public Reading of the Word
Steve Lawson was on fire this morning. As a pastor in a church that has associated with Steve’s church over the past several months, my heart was overwhelmed with pleasure and delight to hear Steve preach in a way that so precisely echos our own heartbeat. The title of his message was, “Bring the Book.” His text was Nehemiah 8 which he read in its entirety, difficult names and all. And that was to make a point. It is also his practise. I want to purchase a recording of this message to put in our church library.
One of the reasons that I want others to hear this message is because Steve does what few have done. He calls for public reading of the Word. At Morning Star Baptist Church we read at least five chapters of God’s Holy Word publically every single week. The positive effect of this extensive public reading (we believe Paul instructed Timothy to give himself to the public reading of the Word) has borne wonderful fruit in our congregation. Steve motivated me to continue this tradition.
Order the message.
Posted by Bob Bixby at March 3, 2006 12:41 PM | eMail this entry! | 184 WordsThis entry was posted in the following categories:
Pastor,
I am glad to here you are motivated to keep the tradition, because it is one that I really enjoy. It is amazing at how many marketing schemes churches try to come up with to grow, and we have found that reading the Bible and praying will get you groweth. It shows that when you do it God’s way He will bless. I look forward to hearing that message. I talked to Jeremy today, and he said it was fantastic. As I told him, I wish I could be out there with you all. Lord willing, next year. Looking forward to your return next week.
There is a corollary to public reading of the Word, and that is public listening to the Word. By that, I mean listening to what is said out loud, and NOT following along in your own Bible (or bulletin insert, or whatever).
I became suspicious of following along in a printed text many years ago when I discovered one Sunday that I was not listening to the Word at all. Instead, I was listening to the reader’s delivery. I caught myself anticipating how I thought he should render a phrase, where he should put an emphasis or pause, what kind of “attitude” he should express with his voice, inflection, and rate of delivery.
A consequence of this was to put myself as the judge of what was being read. This is not a good thing, right?
So, I stopped reading along and began to listen. It’s amazing how different the experience is. In the current church plant which I pastor, I avoid providing the printed text of the generous lections from Scripture which we have in our service bulletin. And, I have exhorted our parishioners to look at the Reader and to tend carefully to what he is saying. All of them acknowledge that this was difficult for them to do at first. And, of course, the quality of the Reader will make this more or less difficult.
I’d recommend your selecting some members of your flock, asking them to listen, rather than following along in a printed text, and to do this for at least three months. Then interview them as to whether or not they found any added benefit. Some, without a doubt, will happily go back to following along — particularly if your readers are not very good at it. But, you may find that some of them — maybe all of them! — will report a benefit from actually listening to the Word.
BQ
Posted by: Brother Quotidian at March 7, 2006 01:09 PMBQ,
This is a very interesting thought and it struck me only just this past Friday night when John MacArthur read Hebrews 11:1 - 12:3. He asked us to close our Bibles and to listen. I think your point is valid.
Bob
Posted by: Bob at March 7, 2006 06:00 PMDear Bob/BQ,
I’m glad I have today come across your blog, particularly this idea of public reading of the Word. In fact, I have got a similar idea to adopt in my small Indonesian church (we’re located in Sydney, Australia) for some time but not yet implemented.
According to BQ, public reading & listening to (and not following along) the Bible passages being read will reap benefits resulted by the congregation’s actual listening to the Word. Would you happen to have a chance elaborating on the real benefits from this not-so-common practice? (Or perhaps your own sharing that you were amazed to see “how different the experience is”.) I think I need to have some solid, convincing reasons before bringing this idea into light to my pastor and the elders.
Thank you.
Emil
