Why I Don’t Take My Bible to Church
The picture is one straight out of Americana and black and white movie nostalgia: the family, neatly dressed, walking on a crisp and refreshing morning to church, Bibles in hand.
I remember my Psalty Kids Bible. I remember putting tabs on my Bible when I was in middle school. I remember liking the hardcover edition of John MacArthur’s Study Bible because it looked intelligent and his name sounded intelligent. I really thought that a guy with that kind of name knows what he is talking about. I got in on the Message. I was skeptical of the rocks, tar, and feathers thrown at the TNIV. I really enjoy the TNIV The Books of the Bible. I am a push over for leather bound books, especially Bibles (or the Book of Common Prayer I just got!). Yet somewhere along the line I stopped bringing my Bible to church.
I chose to stop bringing my Bible to church because I think the Bible became a distraction for me, and it defeated the purpose of preaching: to listen. When we depend so heavily on reading and looking instead of listening in church, we can disengage from the voice of the Spirit and our fellow brothers and sisters. Until the printing press no church members brought their Bibles to church—they listened.
I wanted to recapture the art of listening, so I stopped bringing my Bible to church. When the pastor asks everyone to turn to so-and-so chapter and verse I just sit contently and wait for the passage to be read aloud. If I had a Bible I would just read the passage and veg out, that’s our mentality when we read a passage (which is really bad!). Instead, when we come to a passage and read we should be able to let the words inform our souls, not just rush to the application.
Listening is a way to try and prevent that. When we listen we don’t have to rush to the application. We have to focus on the words. There is no time to go back and re-read the passage if you don’t listen the first time (and there have been times in church when I don’t listen to the passage and then have no idea what is going on), so it becomes important to focus on the Word with our ears and then let it inform our souls through focus and attention.
And so I don’t bring my Bible to church. I try to listen. And in listening I hope to have a focused mind on the sermon and the reading of the Word.
Tomorrow I am going to discuss how I try and recover "static" reading and listening, so easy to do in our technological age, and have "dynamic" reading and listening that helps us to stop inside time and be open to the world around us.
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“I chose to stop bringing my Bible to church because I think the Bible became a distraction for me, and it defeated the purpose of preaching: to listen.”
Yes! We do become distracted by the very thing we most need to hear, the Word of God! I’ve noticed this so much in myself that I sometimes don’t tell the passage I’m preaching on until AFTER I’ve read it out loud…it really throws some people for a loop but it forces us not only to hear but to LISTEN.
I look forward to your follow up posts!
Not telling the passage until after…that’s a great idea. After growing so tired of verse dropping I will never say anything more than the author’s name or the books name when speaking of the Bible, such as "Paul wrote…" or "In 1st Corinthians…" I don’t say chapter or verse any more. Then people care more about your verse dropping abilities than what the author wrote.
You are probably the type of person who wears jeans to church too. I think for every person who takes notes during my message, there’s another 5 who are catching up on their Bible reading, and another 20 who are sleeping. I could try to preach better or by taking your suggestion and removing the Bibles, I could increase participation 5-fold.
Good point. I think for some, their love to take notes forces them to stay engaged, others like to read the text while the pastor is preaching, and I can completely see how you and others see such things as a distraction to you.
Either way, it does bring up a solid question, “Are you able to simply listen without doing anything else?”
I wear jeans, but with a dress shirt and vest indie rocker style.
Thanks for this post. I’ve also found great benefit in the past in listing to the Bible on my iPod. This is more individual than communal, of course, but it still has the power of listening.
What about if your church puts the verses on the big screen? Then, you are screwed. Should I close my eyes? Sometimes they put it up there, and I find myself looking at it simply because it reminds me of TV. Also, if I close my eyes, my pastors may think I think they are ugly. So, sounds like a lose-lose. Aha! Solution: rid the church of big screens, overheads, and Bibles.
I, too, wear jeans to church.