Originally Posted by Pilgrim
....One of the prominent elements of Protestant biblical worship is the centrality of the preaching of the Word by those called to that responsibility. (Scripture references can be provided if needed) grin This preaching of the Word is to be done by those who "labor in the Word and doctrine" (1Thess 5:12, 13; 1Tim 5:17). This cannot be done as suggested by some, i.e., a extemporaneous speaking by anyone who happens to be in the assembly.

Agreed that there need to be times when one's yes, sit in their respective pews (or on the grass or wherever) and just listen.

What I find incredibly ironic is the fact the the Church of today, which claims to be acting out what Jesus would want, has taken what Jesus did when He preached in the open before a mass of people and made a form out of it. A form that has become the primary form of Church practice today.

A form that outright denies the validity of any other form of Church assembly (such as the one I have quoted from 1 Cor).

Why do we highlight and make a tradition of the style Jesus used in open air teaching, bring it into a building, decorate that tradition with certain trappings (i.e. a pulpit, an order of things, a style of dress on the part of the teacher...suit and tie usually) and then go around decrying any attempt to do what is otherwise allowed in the New Testament that does not conform to our now established form of Church tradition?

Carlos