As I write this, I am sitting at my desk on my first day back from vacation. For the past three Sundays I have not had to preach. I love to preach the Gospel and teach the Bible more than anything, even more than music (and for those of you who know me well, you know that’s saying something). But it’s always good to have a break from the labor of preaching, and I think it’s good for a congregation to have a break from their pastor now and then, too.
So for the past three weeks I have had a rare privilege of worshipping in three different churches as a part of the congregation. I have heard good messages from three different pastors, and amazingly, all the messages had to do with “the church”. In fact, I stole the title for this article from my friend and brother Tobey Johnson, who is the pastor of Gray Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis, where my father and youngest brother are members. (It’s a compliment, Tobey: I only steal from the best!)
I loved his play on words: not only is it referring to church issues, but it is also a statement: church means something. Church is important. It is significant in our lives and in the world.
What follows here is not an outline from any of the preachers I heard, but rather some things I thought about as I worshiped with my wife and family in different church settings. Every church struggles with how to effectively be Christ’s witnesses in our time and culture (at least, every church ought to). We sometimes come up with different answers to that challenge. This is not to be judgmental of any church’s efforts; these were just some thoughts that kept coming back to my mind as I worshiped in other churches.
First thing I thought was this: put the Bible in the center. It ought to be the focus and basis of all that we say, sing, teach, pray and do. But I also think it should physically be at the center of the congregation’s focus. Now, I do understand the wonderful symbolism of what’s called a “divided chancel”, where the pulpit is on one side and a smaller lectern on the other. The idea is to communicate that nothing is to stand between the congregation and God, represented by the communion table which is at the center and back of the church’s platform. I like that symbolism…but I like the symbolism of putting the Bible at the center more. I even think that there should be a pulpit there, to hold the Bible. I know that Jesus and the apostles didn’t preach from a pulpit. Usually they were outside. The common wisdom today is that “communicators” shouldn’t use a pulpit. Even my hero Charles Spurgeon didn’t use a pulpit, preferring to preach from behind a rail on the platform of the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Nevertheless, I like a pulpit. Actually, it’s a pulpit desk. The whole platform area is the pulpit. It comes from the King James Bible, in Nehemiah 8:4-5, 8 – “And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose… And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up. …So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the reading.” The raised platform (as modern translations render it) was so everybody could better hear and see Ezra as he read and taught from the Scriptures. It doesn’t say that he had anything to set the Scriptures on; but later, as the synagogue developed, they had not only a special cabinet in which to keep the Scripture scrolls, they also had something to rest the scroll on as it was being read to the gathered assembly.
When Christian churches began building their own places of worship, they followed the synagogue in having a desk or lectern on the platform, on which to rest the Scriptures. Over time, the pulpit desk became simply “the pulpit.”
I don’t think it matters what kind of pulpit you have: big or small, wide or skinny, wood or glass. But I like the message it sends: Regardless of who the preacher is standing behind this desk, the focus is not on him, but on the Book that rests here, at the center of the congregation’s attention. The preacher isn’t “the big deal”, and the pulpit isn’t “the big deal”: the Bible is “the big deal”! The Bible should be at the center.
Second, let’s keep the old words. There is a school of thought that says, “People don’t understand words like justification, sanctification, or salvation. Even the word Christian leaves the wrong impression with some people. So let’s use other words and phrases that won’t put people off: spiritual journey, spiritual progress and Christ-follower.”
Now, let’s be honest: no matter what words we use, those who are not interested in Christianity (…can I still call it that?) and those who are hostile to our faith will soon come to object to our “new” words as much as they did the old ones. And more to the point: those old words come from the Bible, from the very Hebrew and Greek texts themselves. We must not abandon those words just because the world objects to them or defines them differently. We had them first! The Holy Spirit inspired the apostles and prophets to write those words down, and that makes every word important. If someone misunderstands or doesn’t understand what it means to be a Christian, or what salvation or sanctification is, then it’s our job to teach them what those words mean, Biblically. Paul wrote to Timothy, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” (1 Tim. 4:6, ESV) Let’s keep “the words of the faith”. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.
And finally: generations need each other. When you separate the older Christians from the younger ones, it’s not good, I think. Without the younger generation, the older generation lacks energy and enthusiasm. Without the older generation, the younger generation lacks roots and wisdom. Generations were meant to worship together. “One generation shall commend Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:4, ESV) Older Christians need to see the faith through younger Christians’ eyes, and we need to be reminded of what it was like when we were young, and young in the faith. Younger Christians need the guidance and counsel of older believers (often the result of poor choices and bad consequences in the older ones’ lives), and the sense of rootedness and connection that the older generation of believers can give.
Church matters… and when I am away from our church, I realize anew how much our church matters to me, and to my family. There’s no place I’d rather be, and no congregation we’d rather worship with, than our First Baptist Church family. It’s good to be home.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor David