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Do some Baptist churches have a Lectionary?
- Thread starter Cathode
- Start date
canadyjd
Well-Known Member
Baptists churches are loosely organized, at best, and generally control everything at the local level.
There are common Sunday School materials that many churches use. There are some common events, in the SBC anyway, that most churches recognize (Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong offerings).
Normally, most Baptist churches will begin with sing (call to worship), scripture reading (readers choice), prayer (general not liturgical), more song, offering (with prayer), more sing (maybe special music), sermon (pastors choice) prayer, altar call (with singing), dismissal prayer.
The early church copied the liturgy of the synagogue with prayer, readings from Law, Prophets, Wisdom, singing (psalms) and teaching (preaching), sometimes several teachers e pounding on scripture.
That has continued mostly intact (with variations of course).
peace to you
A lectionary (Latin: lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and an epistolary with the readings from the New Testament Epistles. (From Wikipedia)
Various branches of factions within the body of Christ hold differing views of Church Polity, or how the local church is governed.
Baptists tend to be bottom up, and Reformed tend to be top down. A lectionary seems a feature of a top down organization, where the few dictate to the many. But, OTOH, a congregational church would have members periodically meet and vote on various issues, including electing or confirming those who exercise authority between "business meetings."
Various branches of factions within the body of Christ hold differing views of Church Polity, or how the local church is governed.
Baptists tend to be bottom up, and Reformed tend to be top down. A lectionary seems a feature of a top down organization, where the few dictate to the many. But, OTOH, a congregational church would have members periodically meet and vote on various issues, including electing or confirming those who exercise authority between "business meetings."
Actually, prominent Baptists such as SBC Recording Secretary Nathan Finn, SWBTS President David Dockery, and Reformed Baptist scholar Timothy George are Fellows of the Center for Baptist Renewal, whose Manifesto on Evangelical Baptist Catholicity states:
"We believe that Baptist worship should be anchored in Holy Scripture and informed by the liturgical practices of the historic church....We further believe that Baptist worship could benefit from incorporating historic practices such as lectionary readings"
"using the lectionary...gives believers each week a chance to reflect on four major sections of Scripture – Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel."
"in the lectionary, the Gospel reading comes last in the order, and so Christians are taught implicitly that the Bible’s message culminates with the story of Jesus....[this can] mitigate against the evangelical tendency to read and preach primarily out of Paul’s letters....focusing on those passages that speak directly of penal substitution and justification by faith alone. While we readily affirm the inspiration and inerrancy of the Pauline epistles, we also want to affirm the inspiration, inerrancy, and profitability of all Scripture for Christian devotion and liturgy. The lectionary provides a way to correct this Pauline imbalance"
canadyjd
Well-Known Member
No problem with local churches focusing on the whole of scripture.
The difference is, of course, these Baptist leaders are making a recommendation, they are not dictating to the local churches.
Additionally, they are attempting to correct a problem (teaching only from Pauline epistles and only on penal substitution) that I have never experienced in the years I have been in Baptist churches.
Peace to you
So it’s mostly the random selection of whoever’s doing the readings for the day?
Wouldn’t it be better to get more uniform coverage of scripture, people could read out the same scripture every day.
NEGATIVE!!! I do not choose Scripture at Random - I find a Scripture that goes with my message!
Many churches subscribe to a quarterly, such as "Our Daily Bread".......
But why would everyone need to read the same passage?
Well we do it as a kind of organic connection to the scripture and each other.
“Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.“
Our minds are all meditating on the same scripture each day with our fellow believers.
A fellowship of the mind and heart, to express the one accord and one mind written in Scripture.
No matter where we are.
canadyjd
Well-Known Member
Can’t argue with that, however, with Baptist, each congregation is bringing their own folks together in one mind.
As long as each is focused on scripture, every baptist church around the world doesn’t necessarily need to meditate in the same passage. The needs of churches differ from city to city.
peace to you
We read through books of the Bible
I have posted several times on here how we do it
I have posted several times on here how we do it
Latin’s good, it’s even oler.