Services saturated with Scripture

My friend, Richard Baxter makes this important point. 

When we point out that the Quiet Time™️ is a relatively novel aspect of the Christian life, I think we should also note that for much of the last 2,000 years, church services have been full of the hearing of God's word, not just one short section.

— Richard Baxter (@NotThatRBaxter) July 12, 2023

I think there are a few reasons why church services can feel like they’ve been shorn of Scripture reading. Daniel Blanche raises one possibility here.

Why do you think we have so little Scripture reading in our services? One theory I have is that we don't trust the Bible to be comprehensible, so we'll only read bits that we're also going to explain. https://t.co/77NQskFtSW

— Daniel Blanche (@sgingerthoughts) July 12, 2023

I agree with Daniel but I want to add a couple of other reasons here in order to help us think practically about how we enable more Scripture to be read. The first is that I think we simply don’t plan for it.  Traditionally a structured church service would have a liturgy, soaked with Scripture and it would have planned readings, often both an Old Testament and New Testament reading.  The person responsible for leading the service, whether or not the same person as the preacher would ensure that someone read the readings.  However, I’ve noticed a trend in conservative evangelical circles that the reading of Scripture is left to the preacher, this links to Daniel’s point about only reading what we will explain.  The risk with that is the preacher may forget, assuming it will be read before or they may not have a set passage if the sermon is more thematic or topical. So, point one, make sure you’ve planned for the Bible to be read. 

Secondly, I fear that some of our church services are designed for efficiency and it can feel like we are getting them done as quickly as possible.  We don’t have time for things, we don’t give space for them.

Now, here’s a thought.  If you are singing lots and lots of songs then there is a good likelihood if they are well chosen that the songs, like the old liturgy will be Scripture soaked.  It may even be better for us to be singing Scripture than simply hearing it read. It may stand a better chance of going in. 

Then if you open up for people to share, if you give space for the Holy Spirit to work, then in my experience, you’ll hear prophecy and testimony, you’ll hear prayers. These will often draw on Scripture. And often you’ll get several people sharing Scripture readings that God has impressed on their heart.

So, if you want more Scripture in church, plan for it and make space for it.