Very Little Bible Reading In Church

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

I don't believe it's necessary to read the whole chapter. In fact I feel kinda stupid if that happens, as if I can't read on my own.

However I also can't stand the "read one verse then ignore it the rest of the time" approach. If they want to read a verse then build the message around and on that verse. Explain it. Explain the grammar and context. Instead verse reading is a pretext to tell anecdotes.

If the teaching is going verse by verse and expounding on it exegetically, that might be interesting, yeah to do one chapter at a time

Well, that's what I meant. They didn't read a chapter just to read a chapter. It was a method where the chapter was the 'sermon' from the apostle, prophet, etc and whoever was reading would expound on whatever they were led to expound on. Hard to describe, but it wasn't just reading only.

Much more indepth.

As much as I think Arnold Murray was out in left field on some issues, one thing I learned from him that I value highly is the 'chapter by chapter, verse by verse' approach to teaching the Scripture.

Expounding on one verse for a message is okay, as long as it stays biblical and references other scriptures. Gene Scott used to say a preacher ought to be able to take one verse and preach the whole of the gospel message, practically the whole bible from it (which is true to a point, I believe).

What I really can't stand is where a preacher uses a verse as a 'starting point' for a message, where the only connection to the message is similarity of terms or ideas. For example, the famous 'Peter walked on the water' passage used as a sermon text for a message on 'have faith, trust in God, you can do amazing things, blah blah blah'.

I do like EXPOSITORY preaching however, where a passage is EXPLAINED and APPLIED, not just used as an allegory 'topical source of ideas' for someone's rhetorical skills.