A Word-Saturated Church

These Vision Gatherings are an opportunity to dig a little bit more into what will be our central commitments of Providence Presbyterian Church. And so, we need to begin by putting first things first. What is more important for a church than committing itself to Biblical fidelity? Shouldn’t being a Biblical church be our first priority?

Lifeway has done some interesting research on Biblical literacy among professing Christians. They’ve learned that 52% of people believe that the Bible is a good source for moral teaching. But things get worse from there.

38% say that the Bible is a historical account.
37% say that it’s helpful today.
36% say that the Bible is true.
35% say that it’s life-changing.

Isn’t that scandalous?!

In fact, only 32% of “people that regularly attend church” read the Bible daily.

What’s peculiar to me about this information is that professing Christians on the one hand acknowledge the importance of the Bible, but on the other hand also acknowledge their inability to read it.

There is a clear disconnect between belief and practice. Who is to blame? Of course individual Christians bear the majority of responsibility, but at the same time it seems churches are failing professing Christians as well.

The church broadly encourages Bible reading, but for some reason, people rarely pick it up and read it.

I don’t believe it’s enough for the church to encourage people to read God’s Word. The church must do more. Acknowledging the importance of Scripture clearly isn’t good enough. If we want the Scriptures to be central in the lives of Christians it must be central in the life of our churches.

How much or how little Bible reading takes place in the life of a worship service can tell you a lot about how seriously a church takes God's Word.

Because everything we know about God, Jesus, salvation, and what He wants from us is contained in the Scriptures.

As R.C. Sproul says in “What is Reformed Theology?”, [the] authority of Scripture is rooted and grounded in the fact that Scripture was originally given under divine inspiration.”

The Bible was written by human hands with real personalities under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So yes, people wrote the Bible, but really, God wrote the Bible.

So if we want to know God, then we need to know His Word.

Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the church to demonstrate their commitment to this theological belief.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

One of my favorite stories from my time at the church in South Carolina was when a young college girl visited our church for the first time. I asked her after the service, “so what did you think?” And she said, “y’all read the Bible and prayed a lot!”

And I said back to her, “Aren’t you supposed to read the Bible and pray a lot in church?”

In many ways, her comment was an incredible compliment. The Church should be about the Bible and prayer.

But at the same time, it was profoundly sad. This girl went to church with some degree of regularity and yet, the Bible in church was unusual for her.

Is her church experience the exception or the norm? Unfortunately, I think it’s the norm.

And I don’t want this to be the experience of folks at Providence Presbyterian Church. I don’t want people to say, “yeah we believe the Bible, but we don’t know it.” It’s my personal prayer that we will all grow spiritually by knowing God better as he’s revealed himself in the Scriptures. We should look to God’s Word to be central to all aspects of the church: worship, church government, and all the church’s ministries.

Word-Saturated Worship

You can tell what’s important to a church by attending a worship service. A worship service communicates the priorities of the church. Can churches that read one verse of Scripture before preaching a sermon be surprised by the fact that no one in their congregation takes reading God’s Word seriously?

I’ve mentioned in passing over the last few weeks that our worship needs to be centered on God’s Word. Our worship needs to be saturated with God’s Word. We will begin and end every worship service with God’s Word. We will sing songs centered on God’s Word. We will confess the truths of Scripture. We will read through entire books of the Bible. And we’re committed to expository preaching. All of these elements of worship communicate the centrality of God’s Word.

Beginning and ending with Scripture

Every service begins with a “call to worship” and ends with a “benediction.” The call to worship is typically derived from the Psalms with the Lord calling his people into worship. Psalm 95:1-2 is a great call to worship. It says,

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!”

God invites us to worship Him. “...come let us sing to the Lord.” The pastor doesn't call people to worship God - God calls us to worship Him!

In a similar fashion, we end every worship service with a “benediction.” Benediction is latin for, “good word.” A good word is really a blessing. But the pastor can’t bless you, only God can bless you.

So at the end of a worship service the pastor will often read a blessing or benediction from Scripture.

A classic benediction is the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Again, this is a blessing from the Lord. Only He can bless you.

So every worship service will be opened with God’s Word and closed with God’s Word.

Hymns centered on Scripture

We talked about this last week, but it’s a point worth reiterating. If we’re committed to God’s Word, our music, lyrics, and song selection need to be centered on God’s Word as well.

We want to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs! We want to sing Biblical truth! We want to sing God’s Word and truths that reinforce what Scripture teaches us.

We want to sing the whole counsel of God’s Word. We want to sing about salvation, the second coming, Christian fellowship, lament, all of it.

I recently came across an article that stated that a large portion of worship music centers on heaven. It’s a Biblical truth, but it’s not the only Biblical truth.

I had an old seminary professor that would say, “we want to be balanced like the Bible is balanced.” We want to sing the whole counsel of God. We want to sing about a variety of Biblical themes.

But in order to get there, you have to first commit to singing Biblical lyrics.

This is another component to ensuring that our corporate worship, our public worship, is centered on God’s Word.

Confessing the truths of Scripture

Another aspect of worship is confessing the truths of Scripture. It’s important to faithfully summarize what God’s Word teaches. There are things that Scripture clearly teaches, but doesn’t explicitly define. Take prayer for example.

If someone asked you to define prayer, how would you define it? You’d probably say something like:

“Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies (WSC 98).”

That’s a faithful definition of prayer, however, that’s not a Scripture quotation. Technically speaking, there isn’t a verse that defines prayer. We define it based upon many verses. We’re summarizing Scripture.

Isn’t that what we naturally do? We summarize the teaching of Scripture when we talk about the gospel, or sanctification or prayer or any Biblical subject.

But again, some definitions are more Biblically faithful than others. This might not be the best analogy, but it’s like how some laws are more constitutionally consistent than others. Some laws are good, while others are bad.

Some confessions and summaries of Scripture are good and faithful, while others are bad. We want to use in worship good, Biblically faithful summaries of God’s Word.

Furthermore, summarizing theological truths is Biblical. Paul’s states five times in his epistles, “the saying is trustworthy…” followed by creedal language. And in like fashion, many Biblical scholars believe that Philippians 2:5-11 is a creed or confession of the early church. It's a popular text of Scripture.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

That passage communicates in very theological terms what Jesus did when he left the heavenlies and took on human flesh. Again, many scholars believe that this text was a creed of the early church. It’s often referred to as the Hymn of Christ. Confessing creeds and summaries of God’s Word is a Biblical concept. Reading creeds and confessions in worship helps us understand Biblical concepts and ideas.

Reading through entire books of the Bible

Not only will we read historic, faithful, creeds and confessions from the church, we’ll also read portions of Scripture in worship in addition to the sermon text. Again, if God’s Word is God-breathed, inspired, inerrant, infallible, we want to demonstrate our commitment and dependence upon Scripture.

I also think that a plain reading of Scripture in the context of a worship service gives confidence to the congregation. They can have confidence that they too can understand God’s Word and that the task isn’t insurmountable.

God has revealed Himself to us through Scripture, and because of that we should seek to read it and understand it. Why wouldn’t we read it?

Expository preaching

In a similar vein, we will preach verse by verse through books of the Bible. This practice is commonly called lectio-continua expository preaching. Lectio-continua is simply the idea that you pick up in a passage right where you left off.

My definition of expository preaching is, “mining God’s Word to deliver truth to his people.” I really believe that there is a doctrine or some teaching that lies beneath every part of Scripture. Some passages that doctrine is crystal clear. Other passages are much more difficult. Sometimes the gold is just laying on the ground, and other times, you have to dig and mine for the gold.

The idea of expository preaching is that the idea of the sermon is derived from God’s Word. This stands in contrast from topical preaching that begins with an idea and uses Scripture to support that idea.

Expository preaching serves God’s Word on a platter to you, while the other uses Scripture to support the message of the preacher.

My prayer is that the preaching of God’s Word will drive you deeper into your walk with God. That it will help you better understand the character of God and what he has done for us through the sacrificial death of Jesus.

Now before I beat topical preaching into a pulp, I do believe there is a time and a place for it. Sometimes, there is a topic that needs to be addressed from the pulpit and you should use Scripture to support your point.

But expository preaching should be the majority of a church’s sermons. Topical preaching should be used sparingly.

Because again, we want our worship services to consistently demonstrate our commitment to God’s Word. We should want our worship to demonstrate that we stand under the authority of Scripture, that we don’t come over top of it and superimpose our views onto it. Rather we come under the Word of God.

And I firmly believe that nothing communicates that more clearly than expository preaching.

Word-Saturated Church Government

Similarly, how a church is governed tells you something about how seriously they take God’s Word. I firmly believe that everything a church does communicates something. If the pastor is the only authoritative person in the church - not only is that practically problematic, but it’s simply unbiblical.

Churches should look to God’s Word for guidance concerning how the church should be governed.

God’s Word outlines two church offices: elder and deacon.

God’s Word teaches that there are two offices within the church: elder and deacon. 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are the classic proof texts for these offices.

The office of elder is one of leading, ruling, and shepherding. They are in charge of protecting the peace and purity of the church. The elders should know the congregation, check in on them, and pray for them regularly. You might even say it’s more spiritual in nature.

The office of deacon is one of sympathy and service. It is the duty of the deacons to minister to those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless, and to any who may be in distress. It is their duty also to develop the grace of liberality in the members of the church, to devise effective methods of collecting the gifts of the people, and to distribute these gifts among the objects to which they are contributed. They shall have the care of the property of the congregation, both real and personal, and shall keep in proper repair the church edifice and other buildings belonging to the congregation.

Both offices should simply reflect the gifting of men. Some are more prayerful and spiritually encouraging while others are more in tune with the particular needs of people. This elderly widow needs her grass mowed or whatever.

We should never think of elders as varsity and deacons as JV. It’s all about gifting, wiring, and how God has made you.

A healthy church is marked by a Biblical church government.

So the local body should be governed in a biblical manner, but there should be accountability outside of the local church as well.

I’ve mentioned this previously, but the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and Jethro’s advice in Exodus 18 are proof texts that demonstrate there should be a governing body beyond the local church.

Churches should be connected to one another and they should have some degree of accountability and authority over one another. This is Biblical. There should be an authoritative structure beyond the local church.

In the PCA we have presbyteries which are regional and the General Assembly which is national. To use my imperfect American government analogy, the presbyteries are like state governments and the General Assembly is like the federal government.

The big difference and where my analogy breaks down is that everything the General Assembly deals with is brought to it from a presbytery, which originates from a local church.

In other words, the PCA is a “grassroots” denomination.

The General Assembly doesn’t have the authority to act unilaterally. It has to act on something that has been brought from a “lower court” of the church.

I don’t want to get us lost in the weeds, my overall point is that a church should get its church government from the Scriptures. Red flags should go up in your mind if a church’s government is set up for nothing more than practical reasons or this is what we think will work best.

We want Providence to be governed in the most Biblical way. Here’s an little fact for you: The Greek word ‘presbuteros,’ the word from which we get Presbyterian means elder. Interestingly, the word Presbyterian is more of a reference to our form of church government than anything else.

It’s also important for me to say this as well: God’s Word is clear that the office of elder and deacon are limited to men. One of the qualifications that the Apostle Paul makes in both 1 Timothy 3 for both elders and deacons is that they must, “be the husband of one wife.”

And you couple that with what Paul says in the previous chapter, when he’s about to begin discussing qualifications for elders and deacons he says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.” This is obviously in reference to the organization and structure of the church.

My point is that God’s Word prohibits women from holding the offices of elder and deacon.

Now obviously, women are crucial to the life of the church. Paul entreats Euodia and Syntyche - who had, “labored side by side with [him] in the gospel together.”

Statistically more women go to church than men. Women are central to the life of the church and women should teach each other God’s Word and encourage one another. Again, I’m talking about the offices of the church, not whether or not women are valued, which is so inherently obvious it’s not even worth discussing! Of course, women are important and valued. If you’ve been involved in church at any point you’ll quickly realize that you’ll never get anything done if women aren’t involved!

When God’s Word tells us that the office of elder is reserved for men it isn’t arbitrary. It’s not just a pernicious rule God created for no apparent reason.

This distinction is rooted in the very makeup of men and women. Men and women are different and that is not a bad thing. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a God-ordained, God-created thing. That’s why the Apostle Paul appeals to the creation order in 1 Timothy 2:13-14.

God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Our society desperately wants to destroy any differences between men and women. And if we hate the distinctions between men and women we hate God’s creation.

God created men to be providers and protectors of their homes. He created women to love, nurture, and care for others. God created men and women to complement each other.

I recently read it put in this way, “the roles are not mere limitations as to what men and women can and cannot do, they are invitations to live in accordance with the way our wise, good, and gracious God has made us.”

Are we willing to not only accept, but embrace, love, and cherish the roles that God has given to us even if they are culturally unpopular?

You see the church shouldn’t take its cues from the culture, rather it should take its cues from God’s Word.

Word-Saturated Ministries

Obviously, we want every aspect of Providence Presbyterian to be saturated in God’s Word, including all our ministries. Our ministries will approach everything from a Biblical worldview.

Children’s Ministry

I want our children’s ministry to be focused around Scripture memorization and catechizing. There are resources out there that have both set to music. I would love for little children’s Sunday schools to be sing-a-longs.

And as they get older we’ll move away from sing-a-longs to more didactic teaching. Going through books of the Bible, apologetics, church history, we’ll make sure we have a good mix of curriculum that’s centered around God’s Word. Great Commission Publications also has a lot of good materials out there as well.

Sunday School

Likewise, I envision a good mix of curriculum centered around God’s Word. Maybe one quarter we’ll do an in-depth study of a particular book of the Bible, then do a book study, followed by apologetics and church history. I’m just throwing stuff out there. My goal is for us to have a range of topics and things that we study. Because obviously, we’ll be preaching through books of the Bible, and it’s nice to have a range of materials to look at, and I think Sunday School is the perfect environment for something like that.

Bible Studies

And then we’ll have occasional outside books and Bible studies. A men’s breakfast that studies a book of the Bible. A women’s lunch that does something similar. A mom’s group that does a book study. Again, I’m just throwing stuff out there.

My prayer for Providence is that we are first and foremost a Word-Saturated Church. That is really everything isn’t it? If we want to grow in our walk with God, if we want to know the character of God better, then we have to know His Word.

That is in part your personal responsibility, just like it is mine. But I also believe that Providence shares in that responsibility. I don’t want to simply encourage you to read the Bible. I want Providence to demonstrate it for you. I want our congregation’s stated beliefs on display. I don’t want Providence to be another church statistic. I’m praying that we’re an outlier, because everything else flows from your commitment to God’s Word.