A New Ministry Team at SGC: Sunday Scripture Readers

This Sunday we launch both a new ministry team and a new element in our corporate gathering. The new team, Sunday Scripture Readers, will be devoted to the task of reading the Bible for our sermons. That is, instead of having the preacher read his main text, these men and women will read from the stage.

DEVOTE YOURSELF TO THE PUBLIC READING OF SCRIPTURE

The Bible is clear that we should be committed to having it read during our corporate meeting: "Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching" (1 Tim. 4:13). Paul spoke these words to Timothy amidst others that were shared so that we "may know how one ought to behave in the household of God" (3:15). In this verse Paul is commanding what we see modeled throughout the Old and New Testaments as God's people gather at different times to hear his Word read (e.g., Neh. 8; Luke 4:16ff.).

The truth is, our meetings are filled with "the public reading of Scripture." The worship leader almost always has at least one text he reads. Prophecies and encouragements are shared spontaneously during our singing. Whoever gives the announcements generally has at least one passage. And then the preacher includes numerous passages in the course of the sermon. Clearly we are not being negligent with respect to this command. We don't take this for granted: You are a people filled with the Word of God, and our corporate worship is a vivid witness to that fact.

TWO BENEFITS

We see two other benefits (at least) with carving out this new place in our meeting. One is that it calls even more attention to the sermon text. Anything we do that highlights a particular text of Scripture is helpful and helps us to hear it with more care and alertness. Having a new voice bring the Bible passage will help us to do that.

A second benefit is that it gives us another place in our service to have people serve in a prominent way. Though many serve already in our meetings, we see great blessing in yet another prominent role for men and women to fill on Sundays.

WHO ARE THEY?

With all that said, here is the current Sunday Scripture Reader team:

• Bekah Marshall
• Donna Burnett
• Marci Hodges
• Dawn Ruhl
• Jake Martin
• Ricky Wright
• Josiah Ruhl
• Barbara Zumsteg

Dawn Ruhl will be our inaugural reader this week.

We expect there to be some trial-and-error as we step into this new piece of our service. But right now the plan is to have the preacher call us back to our seats for the sermon. Then, we'll turn our attention to the reader for the week.

Thank you for your patience as we enter into this new transition, but thank you especially for being a people of the book—a people dedicated to hearing, believing, teaching, and obeying God's Word.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16)

Daniel