From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

A disturbing trend has appeared in the 21st century church: The virtual elimination of congregational reading of the Word of God.

During the course of a year, I have the opportunity to visit many Evangelical churches. Additionally, in my ongoing research for books and articles, I often survey the worship practices of churches across America and around the world. Many churches publish their bulletins on their websites each week, and this has become a valuable source of information as I seek to evaluate practices and trends. Over the past few years I have noticed one particularly disturbing trend: The virtual elimination of congregational reading of the Word of God, even in many of the most conservative churches.

For centuries since the Reformation, extensive Scripture reading was an indispensible part of every Evangelical church service. Often there was an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and the reading of the sermon passage in addition to those two. Sometimes the pastor or other leader read while the people followed in their own Bibles. Sometimes the people read aloud together. Sometimes the people and pastor read responsively. In these ways, most congregations would read the Scriptures systematically, week by week.

Over the course of several Sundays, a congregation would read through an entire book of the Bible together. Over the course of years, they would cover almost the entire Word. This was the almost-universal practice of Protestant churches. It was one of the great incentives for even the poorest churchgoer to obtain his own copy of God's Word, and it was one of the primary factors that led to the mass printing of the Scriptures.

However in our time, congregational Scripture reading is becoming a rarity. The oft-repeated Biblical phrase, "Hear the Word of the Lord," is being ignored. In many Evangelical churches today, Scripture reading in the Sunday service is limited to the sermon text - which may be only a verse or two - and perhaps a few related verses that the preacher may mention during the course of his sermon. In the very worst cases, the preacher launches right into his sermon without any public Scripture reading at all.

I am not the only one who has observed this, and I have found it to be true even in many churches that proudly call themselves "Bible-believing" and "fundamentalist".

Of course the dearth of Bible reading has become the norm in thousands of churches - including many formerly sound ones - because the pastor has decided to follow the Purpose-Driven or Emergent model. These pastors often discard the idea of a sermon altogether. Growing numbers of them, in TV-host fashion, serve as the front man (or woman) for a multimedia presentation using Flash or PowerPoint, video, dramatic skits, stage props, and all the other trappings of the entertainment age. These gatherings are no longer worthy of the name "church." They are, at best, self-help clubs that inoculate people against the true Christian faith and lead them comfortably to the gate of Hell. Needless to say, a Gospel preacher such as this writer is not welcome in such places.

But putting aside the Rick Warren, Jonathan Falwell, Joel Osteen and Mark Driscoll wannabes, why is congregational Bible reading disappearing from reputedly conservative churches? I have heard and read some amazing excuses from pastors and church leaders.

"We Can't Lengthen the Service"

This is, without a doubt, the lamest excuse imaginable for eliminating the reading of God's Word. Generally speaking there is too much worry about the length of the service today and too little concern about whether or not it has Biblical content. The church service is supposed to be a gathering of the people of God to meet with their God. But the growing attitude of many pastors and church leaders seems to be that God has no right to speak to His people when they gather. The church leaders and the entertainers up front (euphemistically called "worship leaders") reserve the right to do all the talking. It is time for the church to let God speak once again!

Eliminate other things from the service to give God's Word its rightful place! Remove that which is un-Biblical, such as dramatic skits and discussion segments. Reduce the time for announcements to a minimum; cover only the most vital items and refer people to their bulletins for details. (I've been in some services where the announcements consumed as much as fifteen minutes of the service time.) Reduce or even eliminate special music. And pastor, perhaps even consider cutting five or ten minutes out of your sermon so that the congregation can read the Word of God. God has the right to speak before you open your mouth. And when you do speak, it is to be as His ambassador and spokesman, as an expositor of the written - and read - Word.

"People Don't Bring Bibles to Church Anymore"

Then encourage them to do so! And give them something more to do with their Bibles than a man like Joel Osteen does. During each service at his Houston mega-church, the people hold their Bibles aloft for the TV cameras and repeat a man-centered mantra. But that is the first, last, and only time they use their Bibles in most Osteen services.

If they are truly the people of God and their pastor is truly the messenger of God, the people in the congregation should be actively using their own copies of God's Word during the service - reading it systematically, following along as it is exposited, marking passages, noting cross references, making marginal notes on how it applies to them - literally wearing out their Bibles through use! And note well - Bible reading will not be important at home if it is not important in the church.

"Our People Bring Their Bibles, But Everyone Has a Different Version"

The endless proliferation of Bible versions has made this a common problem in churches today. But it is not a reason to abandon congregational reading of the Scriptures. Churches handle this problem in several different ways, some far better than others.

Many have simply eliminated Bible reading from the service. This is the most sinful response of all. The Scriptures are essential to true worship: "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope...that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:4-6).

Some churches put the passages to be read into PowerPoint slides and project them on a screen. This is problematic for several reasons. The experience of thousands of churches has shown that the introduction of screen projection into the worship service is the proverbial "camel's nose under the tent flap." It almost inevitably leads to a focus on the medium rather than the message; expanding use of such things - sometimes very gradual, but these days often quite rapid - leads the church away from true worship and into entertainment mode. The use of screen-projected Bible texts also opens the way to the use of the "Bible version of the week" at the whim of the leadership. Often as not, this leads to the use of Bible versions that are either appallingly weak or inaccurate translations, or else mere paraphrases that substitute the words of man for the authentic Word of God.

Some churches put the passages to be read in a bulletin insert. A significant problem, as with screen projection, is that this method does not encourage each church member to use his own copy of God's Word, for congregational reading as well as for active (rather than passive) listening to the sermon. The passage being read is visually isolated from its context within the Word of God. People do not learn how to navigate their Bibles. The "Bible version of the week" phenomenon can also once again come into play.

Some churches make use of pew Bibles. This is certainly superior to screen projection or bulletin inserts, if the Bible that is used is a faithful translation. I believe that every church should have pew Bibles. This method helps standardize a congregation on a particular translation. It is helpful for visitors who may not have brought a Bible, or have brought one that is not the version the congregation uses in worship. But as with screen projection and bulletin inserts, the use of pew Bibles does not encourage each person to consistently bring his own personal copy of God's Word to church, and actively use it.

Some churches make an effort to standardize the congregation on a single translation of the Word of God. They set the expectation that the people should bring their Bibles to every service, because they will have multiple opportunities to actively use God's Word in every service. This is by far the best method of all.

Standardizing: Which Bible Version?

This discussion leaves one question yet to be answered: Which Bible version shall we use? I can in good conscience recommend only two present-day English translations: the King James (Authorized) Version and the New King James Bible. They are the only ones, among all those available today, that are reliable translations based on the Received Text of the Greek New Testament. The Received Text is the providentially preserved New Testament in the original Greek and is supported by over 95% of the available Greek manuscripts.

The Westcott-Hort or Nestle-Aland Greek text that has been used for the vast majority of Bible translations since the 1880s is in fact a corrupted text that is missing significant portions of the Greek original - in total, the equivalent of removing the entire books of First and Second Peter from the New Testament. The W-H or N-A text also contains factual errors, as well as omissions, changes, and additions that have significant doctrinal implications - diminishing the deity of Christ, diminishing the blood of Christ, and implying the necessity of works for salvation, to name but three.

You may be wondering how such a corrupted and unreliable text came to be used. It is a very interesting and enlightening story. The Lord willing, in January 2012 we are going to present it to you in a new series of articles.

A Challenge and Encouragement

So let me end on a note of both challenge and encouragement to pastors and churches. If you have congregational Bible reading in your services, by all means, retain it. If you do not have it or have eliminated it, give God's Word its rightful place once again. It is the Word of God that "is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner (in the Greek, critic) of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:12-13).

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