A Box and a Book

Dear Reader,

This morning, on the way to work, I heard a powerful lesson on the preeminence of preaching in the church. The speaker contended that the supremacy of the written Word of God is so critical that it should pervade every aspect of our worship, from the amount of time that we devote to preaching in the service (should we spend an hour on the sermon? 30 minutes?) to the layout and architectural design of our church buildings. The title of this post came from that concern that our buildings reflect the significance we place on the Bible. The speaker stated that he felt that the statement would be best made if our sanctuaries contained nothing more than an elevated platform on which rested a pulpit with a Bible upon it. A single spotlight would illuminate God's Word day and night, so that anyone entering the building or even walking past the window would see that the Bible, the second most precious gift God ever gave us (after His Son, of course) is *the* central aspect of our worship. I have found that there are many churches in America and throughout the world where the Bible is not even opened on Sunday mornings! What else is there, if not the Word of God? Frankly, I tremble when I think of the time that many "churches" devote to fundraising, feel-good "chats" from the pastor, special music, and motivational DVDs.

What do you think? How central to worship do you think preaching should be? Is it important enough to fundamentally alter the design of a church building?