Question re: use of scripture in Evangelical churches

MJ. Smith

Does anyone have a good resource - in Logos, online PDF, or book currently in print - that traces the history of the amount of scripture used in the Sunday services in an Evangelical Church? Background for my question: I've recently discovered additional reading cycles used with Judaism that indicate the Jewish practice of scripture use included more scripture than I had realized. Therefore, I assume that the New Testament church used more scripture than I had realized which means I need to readjust my ideas of which traditions added more scripture or reduced the scripture. I use Oriental Orthodox for the most heavy use of scripture and Evangelical for the least heavy use of scripture in standard services. Note this explicitly ignores how much scripture individual believers read outside the standard services.

Rosie Perera

In my experience, Evangelical churches (of various denominations or non-denominational) until recently haven't had any set amount of scripture included. They usually haven't followed a lectionary, and practice can vary from church to church. Usually the pastor or preacher chooses a text to preach on, often in a series (e.g., preaching through a whole book over a span of many Sundays). The portion preached on each Sunday could be as little as one verse (I went to one church where the pastor was preaching through Genesis one verse at a time for the several months that I was attending!), or as much as an entire chapter or longer discourse. That passage is often read in the service before the sermon, but it is usually read by the pastor just before the sermon. Sometimes an additional bit of Scripture (e.g., a psalm) is incorporated in the service via responsive reading.

I don't know of any resources/books that trace the history of these practices. But a search for "public reading of Scripture" evangelical found a few interesting hits in my library:

1) From a chapter on "Blended Worship" in Perspectives on Christian Worship: 5 Views

"Too often the only time Scripture is read in an evangelical service is right before the sermon, and the only passage read is the passage on which the pastor is going to preach. Why is it that to hear Scripture read publicly these days, you have to attend a Roman Catholic mass? In a blended service, we would encourage the pastor not only to read the passage on which he will preach but also to plan for others to read publicly as well. These readings could be on the same theological theme as the sermon but from the opposite Testament being preached on, or from the same Testament but looked at from another angle. Furthermore, a blended service will not only have individuals reading while the congregation listens but will also invite the congregation to read, either corporately in unison, responsively with a leader, or antiphonally to one another."

2) From There Is No I in Church: Moving beyond Individual Spirituality to Experience God’s Power in the Church:

"Traditionally, Christian worship has included three passages of Scripture: one from the Old Testament, a second from the Epistles, and a third from the Gospels. Only in recent times have evangelical churches discarded this practice due to their 'pressing schedule' or because they don’t want to become 'too formal.' By doing so, we have displaced God’s Word with our own words—greetings, singing, and announcements. What are we saying by doing this? Do we really think our songs and announcements are more important than God’s Word?"

3) From Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church:

"One would expect careful attention to the reading and preaching of Scripture to be a given in evangelical worship. Sadly, in my experience, this is not always the case. Frankly, I have become tired of readings—often only one in a service—read badly, to a congregation that appears to have little expectation of being addressed by God’s word, followed by a sermon that pays little more than lip service to the passage as it launches into a talk on a theme. The Reformers were passionate about the place of Scripture in worship. They were committed to the restoration of systematic attention to Scripture in liturgically coherent ways to the worship of the Church. In my own church, Thomas Cranmer’s programme for ‘the public reading of scripture’ (1 Tim. 4:13) was as important as his principles of Eucharistic theology for the reform of the church. His work has been continued and creatively applied by contemporary evangelical liturgists who argued for systems for the reading of Scripture which are both catholic and congregational. They secured the adoption of ‘open and closed lectionary seasons’ in the Church of England. These unite the church around common readings during the incarnational and paschal cycles, and allow congregations to use alternative lectionary material at other times during the year to serve their particular pastoral or missionary needs. This provides evangelicals in one ecclesial community at least with a systematic structure for the catechetical reading and preaching of Scripture, both in terms of the provision of patterns of readings and in the freedom to depart from them in responsible ways. The challenge for them is to use what has been offered. Unless we hear the gospel through the whole of Scripture, read and expounded to us, our worship will not be centred on the gospel and our capacity to connect with the great events of our salvation, and to live the new life in the Spirit they make possible, will be seriously thwarted (2 Tim. 3:16–17)."

4) In a section titled "Recovery of Historic Traditions" in The Renewal of Sunday Worship:

"Especially noteworthy is the increasing use of the lectionary for both public reading of Scripture and sermon text, of the Lord’s Prayer, and of congregational response to prayer and Scripture reading. All of this, in turn, has led to more careful observance of the high holy days in the liturgical year besides Christmas and Easter. It has also led to a redirecting of the role of music—from mood-setter and means of personal testimony to a form of active participation in worship itself."

I also recommend you get hold of, if you don't have in your library already, The Triumph of Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Themes and pay particular attention to Chapter 2: “'That They May Hear': Biblical Foundations for the Oral Reading of Scripture in Worship."