Is Your Church Like a Theater?

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Last Updated on Friday, 15 March 2013 12:20

Most church meetings today are very similar to a theater.  First there are the players, up on the stage, who are the privileged few allowed to speak and perform.  And then there is the audience, whose job it is to sit and listen, and hopefully respond in approval to the players up on the stage.

A biblical church meeting is not one in which only a privileged few are allowed to speak.  It is a lively, interactive time of learning and giving of oneself, where every man can have a turn to address the group. 

1 Corinthians 14:29-31: "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.  If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted."

That is the biblical way.  All men present may have their turn to prophesy, that is, to speak to the group for the purpose of edifying, exhorting and comforting.  That is the definition of prophesying, as given in 1 Corinthians 14:3, "But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort."

Is your church like a theater, where your role is merely to sit in the audience and listen?