As I write this, I am hopeful that we are all Bible-Believing Churches that use God's Word as the central basis for our worship. But do we read scripture only before the sermon? How well do we incorporate scripture into the other areas of our worship?
Lately we have been intentionally incorporating the Psalms in our worship service. Sometimes we read a Psalm as a call to worship. Sometimes we sing a Psalm as a lament or confession. But I always ask myself "can we do more?" I was looking back at some of our recent worship services and thought maybe we could have read this scripture text with two or three readers.
As we prepare worship services the thought should be what scripture passages can we relate to the central text (sermon) or theme of the service. How can we present it as relevant to today's culture eventhough it was written in another culture? How can we express visually in worship God's Word? How does our congregation receive God's Word? With Joy? With a mournful and monotonous stare?
I attended a session at a confrence and the discussion was on youth and scripture. I was alarmed that the youth do not know where to find books within the Bible (Old Testament or New Testament). And that they didn't have much of basic scripture memorization. The result of the session was a collaborative effort to include scripture passages that were outside of the sermon text. But here's the catch—to include them so that they were relevant, and creative.
So I throw it out to you—What do you do to present God's Word in worship creatively? How much emphasis is there when we prepare a worship service that it include scripture that is outside of the sermon text? When do we start inviting children to read scripture in worship? Can we creatively express God's Word visually in our worship space?
