The Worst Moment in Most Church Services

Quick: What’s the worst moment in a lot of church services? Too often it’s when God’s Word is read aloud.

Haha... it brings to mind my weekly Sunday services. You know, it really pains me every time we read the Scriptures so half-heartedly during Sunday services. We read it as though it were a boring textbook. Which should not be the case! "For the word of God is living and active..." we claim, but our own tone when we read out the words of God reveal our hearts' true attitude toward the Word of God. "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City wrote, "In most church services, the reading of the Word is poorly and hurriedly done. What a missed opportunity!..."

That's why I appreciate our pastors speaking the Word of God with conviction, and asking us to stand up and read the Bible together to show reverence for God's Word. Let's face it: it's perfectly normal to have traditions in our worship services. And I don't think they are always bad - because they can help remind us of what is really important, as long as they don't substitute for the authority of the Word.

In our culture today, it is the normal thing to read a book quietly. But did you know that in ancient times, it was the other way round - to read a book aloud? Libraries of those days were closer to wet markets than our libraries of today. Thus, we see written instructions in some of the Scriptures to read them aloud to the Jews/Christians listening.

I've started doing this with my sheep, and we both really enjoy the time of reading and dramatization. More than just vivifying the Scriptures for us, it helps us remember and savour a fuller flavour of the beauty of God's Word. You ain't read Isaiah until you've read it ALOUD. I remember my Literature teacher borrowing my Bible one day, and reading from Isaiah 55 aloud. His firm, booming diction as he recited these immortal words:

"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

It was absolutely enthralling to hear my teacher speaking forth each stanza with his rich diction and steady cadence. And I still remember these words to this day.

And how can you not but help weep when you read out Isaiah 53? It is so deeply poignant, and just to hear these words spoken of Jesus Christ 500 years before He was born, oh, it is more than enough to make you weep.

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Or what about this? I heard Ravi Zacharias pronouncing these majestic words from Psalm 19, and it was so captivating to hear him reciting this as though it were an imperial edict:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

The Psalms were meant to be read aloud! :)

And Martin Luther King in his famous speech, "I Have A Dream", rolled these resounding words from the book of Amos:

[Let] justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Haha. Yah, I think in our post-literate post-modern culture, the art of storytelling and speaking is so helpful to help our people see that Scripture is not dry and stultifying, but that it really is sweeter than honey. Especially for those who struggle with reading reams and reams of printed ink. :P

Anyway, I write so much. Can read more here...