FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY
Neville Callam
Not Neglecting the Sacred Text Faithful reading of the sacred scriptures of the church
is an important prerequisite for the faithful proclamation of the Good News of Christ. Beginning in the early 1800s, Bible Societies have focused on making the church’s sacred book available to all who would feast on its riches. We are indebted to these societies that have aided greater familiarity with the message of the God who liberates and sustains us. Are we devoting enough time to reading the scriptures in the public worship of the church today? From the beginning, Christians have understood the
importance of gathering to read and reflect on the text of scripture. Not surprisingly, in the early second century, Nablus-born Christian apologist, Justin Martyr, characterized the Christians’ day of worship as the time when “all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.” Following the example of the early church, Baptists
have traditionally regarded the reading of the sacred scriptures as an important part of their corporate worship. Whatever one makes of John Smyth’s views on the legitimacy of the public reading of the Bible in English, two members of Smyth’s congregation, Hugh and Anne Bromhead, reported that congregational worship in the early seventeenth century was marked by serious engagement with the Bible. According to the Bromheads, worshippers read “some one or two chapters of the Bible.” Following this, presenters would “give the sense thereof and confer upon the same; that done, we lay aside our books, and after a solemn prayer by the first speaker, he propounds some text out of the Scripture, and prophesies out of the same by the space of one or three quarters of an hour.” And each service provided opportunity for worshippers to hear more than one preacher!
4 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE
What place do Baptists assign to the reading of scripture in corporate worship today? It seems, sometimes, that zeal to satisfy the demand to
confine worship within the limits of a specific time frame has led to severe reduction of time for the reading of scripture. Too often, the diet of publicly read scripture in church has been reduced to a few verses which are sometimes chosen as a pointer to the message the preacher desires to convey. Thankfully, in some churches, the limited time allowed for corporate worship is organized in such a way as to ensure that Bible reading is not severely minimized among Christians who fancy themselves to be “people of the book.” Another threat to serious Bible reading in our gathered
assemblies is the penchant for much singing when we meet. All but the unwise will affirm the important place and value of music and singing in corporate worship. And sometimes the songs used are firmly based on words of scripture. Yet, it seems that so much of the time set aside for corporate worship is given over to singing that precious little time remains for the reading of scripture. Often, it is only after we have exhausted ourselves with singing that we slump into our seats to make a gallant effort to listen to a few verses read from the Bible and a sermon that sometimes is totally unrelated to the scripture that has been read. What a pity! Baptists today may not need to spend the hours that John
Smyth and his congregation devoted to corporate worship, but they can learn much from worship in the early Christian community and among Baptists in the seventeenth century about the importance of Bible reading in worship. Whether we are alone or together with other Christians, we should never neglect the reading of the sacred book.
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