You ought to bring your Bible to church

The real title is,
On Why We Should All Bring Our Bibles To Church And Follow Along During Scripture Reading

But I thought that might be too long!

We are part of Church of the Resurrection, a member of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). We have at least two Scripture Readings each Sunday, usually three – Old Testament, New Testament, Gospel. I like that. While I’m happy with that, I’m not happy that they don’t encourage us to open our Bibles and follow along. Before the service I always mark the scripture readings in my Bible so I can open up and follow along.

We are in Ohio this week and yesterday we went to Centerville Community Church (Christian & Missionary Alliance)

They have two services, a traditional and a contemporary. We’ve always gone to the contemporary service, but this Sunday we went to the traditional service. That took me back! They had a Scripture reading (everything inside of me wanted to say afterward, The Word of the Lord, actually, I may have said that out loud!) and they did the same thing – announced they were going to read from Psalm 97, then read it without offering the opportunity to turn there.

I don’t like this and don’t think this is a good thing. One of the features of the Reformation was restoring the Bible to the Church. By that they meant making it available to the people in whatever language they spoke. Let me offer two wonderful quotes concerning this:

William Tyndale was serving as a tutor for the children of Sir John and Lady Anne Walsh. According to both Richard Webb and John Foxe, Tyndale was engaged in a conversation with a fellow priest concerning the need for the Scriptures to be in the English language (at that time it was not permissible to own a copy of the Bible in the English language). Tyndale’s companion was not convinced of the need for the Scriptures in English. He is reported to have said that as long as people had the Bishop of Rome’s laws, the Scriptures were not needed.

To this Tyndale replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws, if God spare my life, I will make a boy that driveth the plough know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” †

Erasmus, in the introduction to his Greek New Testament said,

“I would that even the lowliest women read the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles. And I would that they were translated into all languages so that they could be read and understood not only by Scots and Irish but also by Turks and Saracens. Surely the first step is to understand in one way or another. Would that, as a result, the farmer sing some portion of them at the plow, the weaver hum some parts of them to the movement of his shuttle, the traveler lighten the weariness of the journey with stories of this kind! Let all the conversations of every Christian be drawn from this source. For in general our daily conversations reveal what we are.” ‡

One hard fought principle of the Reformation is the Bible available in my language, a Bible in my hands. Why would we go to church without our Bible? Why would the church offer a reading of the Scriptures and not encourage me to open my Bible to that place and follow along? The problem before the Reformation was the people did not have access to a Bible. Martin Luther rectified that by translating the Bible into German so everyone could have access. Tyndale translated it into English so everyone could have access. We should bring our Bibles with us to church. At church they should say, “Turn to ____________ for our New Testament reading.” When we preach or teach, away with putting it on the screen! The church should urge interaction with the Scriptures. If they don’t I’m afraid it is a slippery slope back to pre-Reformation days.

You may say, “Jeff, the fact that you have a Bible in your hand, on your phone, on the internet, is proof that the Reformation was successful.” No, only partially successful. Tyndale said, “I will make a boy that driveth the plough know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” Know it, not just have it. People are lazy, if the church does not encourage and teach them to interact with the Bible, they will not. I can still remember when the pastor would say, “I invite you to turn in your Bible to ________” and would wait while we did so; offering guidance to help us find it, “Mark is the second book in the New Testament...”; or would comment on the sound of pages turning as people opened their Bibles. That is encouraging interaction.

Bring your Bible to church. Whenever there is a reading, turn to it and follow along. When the pastor says he is preaching from a passage, turn there and follow along. And the church should say, “Bring your Bible when you come.” And, “For our Scripture reading turn to _______” and allow time to turn there. When the pastor begins his message he should say, “I invite you to turn with me to ______” and wait while we find it. I believe this is fundamental to a healthy church and a vibrant Christian life.

A Bible in my language. A Bible in my hand. An open Bible at church.



† William Tyndale, born: 1494; died: 1536; translated the New Testament into English in 1526 and the Pentateuch [the five books of Moses] in 1530

‡ Desiderius Erasmus, An Exhortation to the Diligent Study of Scripture. Eramus's Exhortation was prefaced to his 1516 edition of the New Testament in Greek with facing Latin translation. Made famous by his call for making the scriptures available and accessible to the unlearned.