spes clara

If your church doesn’t have readily available ‘pew Bibles’ to use when you arrive, what should you do when you go to church? Should you take a physical Bible with you, or just use a Bible app on your phone? I’ve heard of a number of churches strongly urging their congregation members to bring their own physical Bibles to the Sunday service, instead of relying on using electronic Bibles on their phones. I recently read a helpful article about this from the Gospel Coalition, in which the author makes a good case for taking physical Bibles to church and having them open on your lap during the sermon. Here are four of the best arguments he gives in favor of this:

1. It enables curious exploration while listening to a sermon.

2. It limits distractions from mobile devices.

3. It provides a durable place to write and keep notes.

4. It signals Scripture’s value to the next generation.

At first these seemed like good reasons to take your physical Bible to church instead of using your phone. But the more I thought about it, the more concerns I had. Here are a couple of reasons having a Bible on your lap during the sermon might be unhelpful:

1. It’s often uncomfortable. I can’t think of many people who sit erect in less-than-ideal seating for extended periods who read a book on their lap in front of them. It’s just not comfortable. It’s not how we normally read books. People will read books reclining on a sofa, lying down in bed, or by placing them on a table in front of them. Rarely will you go to the park and see people sitting erect on a seat with a book on their lap. For those with arthritis or a bad back or neck, they may need to move a few times during the service – making the Bible something to move and manage. I have a mild whiplash injury from a high-speed car accident, and during the service I need to adjust my body position slightly on the chair a number of times, including alternating crossing my legs. It’s just not as easy with a Bible sitting on my legs. It’s definitely doable, but it’s uncomfortable.
2. It can be hard on your eyes. Reading small font in somewhat poorly lit rooms isn’t easy. My aging eyes struggle to read the 8-point font in my ‘travelling Bible’ (the one I keep in my car). The more you’re expected to read this small text in the dry air of an airconditioned room, the more likely you will be to strain your eyes. It’s not a problem for everybody, but some people simply struggle to read small font text in a room which isn’t always well lit.
3. It’s hard to do when you have toddlers under your care in the service. For those parents who have restless little ones in their care during the service, having a toddler clinging to you and climbing on you makes having a physical Bible on the lap very impractical. And it’s a good way to ruin a perfectly good Bible.
4. It can actually be distracting. This is a big one that I’ve noticed people struggling with. In the TGC article we’re told that phones are distracting, and that’s definitely true. But a curious mind being stimulated by expository preaching can often lead people to flick around the Bible to follow up cross references, or to read footnotes in the Bible. The preacher will say, “look at what it says in verse 10” and then read it. And before I know it, there I am reading down to the end of the paragraph! I’m asking myself, “Didn’t Jesus say ____ to the Pharisees? Or was that Paul in Galatians? I know, it’s somewhere in the later chapters of Luke .. . .” [insert the sound of pages flicking]. It’s certainly true that phones are very distracting, but so are Bibles when a person’s mind is ruminating on the text and any associated cross-references. Furthermore, in what learning environment would a person give a ‘lecture’ while expecting people to read a book at the same time? Expecting people to be fully engaged with the preacher (who often also has slides projected on screens up the front), and also to be toggling between the preacher and finding and reading written passages seems like a strange way to learn. And that brings me to my fourth and final point.
5. It’s not how first-century Christians worshipped. Of course, full Bibles containing the Old and New Testaments have only been readily available for a few hundred years. But in the New Testament we find that the pattern of teaching in synagogues (with which Jesus would have been familiar as a young man), did not require people to have the text in front of them. Now I realize that first-century synagogues didn’t have 30 copies of each Old Testament book to hand out on the Sabbath, but read this account from Luke’s gospel:

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. (Luke 4:16-22; NIV).

Note the pattern. The scriptures are read. The scroll is put away, and everyone listens to the teaching. And it’s amazing. It’s focused.

Without having the text on their laps, they are entirely fixed on what’s being said. It says, “The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.” That’s what happens when the preaching is passionate, bold, and clear – (most) people listen with intent. Asking them to look away from the teaching, and to read and think about the text in front of them, then relocate their attention back on the preacher creates “holes” in their attention. Maybe not for everyone, but I would suggest this is the experience of most people at church.

The fact is, all of the key teaching moments in the gospels occur without a scroll, book, or parchment sitting on anyone’s lap. If the preaching is deep, clear, and applied to real life, people will listen and value the scriptures even more. They’ll go home and want to find out more for themselves – like the first-century Christians in the town of Berea:

¹¹ Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11; NIV)

They were captivated by Paul’s preaching. Then (it seems) they went home and did their scripture reading and cross-referencing. It’s a win-win. Good scriptural teaching in the gathering of God’s people, and enthusiastic scripture readers at home.

By all means, let’s occasionally encourage people to read along in their paper Bibles at church. Some people will bring their own Bible no matter what you say. And that’s great. But in today’s world I think we should be saying “whether it’s in print or in pixels, let’s make sure we’re getting into God’s word”. We should be committed to solid, bold preaching which fixes people’s attention on the one true God. The more we focus on giving our people good preaching that targets the heart, the more people will want to search the scriptures at home to find out more.

Turning the bringing of paper Bibles to church into a distinctive requirement for church attendance might not be helpful. This is especially true if the claims that it’s a better way to engage with the scriptures aren’t always convincing.