In my preaching class as a student, the professor required us to stand before the class and read a Scripture passage. He critiqued each of us for our reading. At the time, I thought the exercise was an unnecessary, if not demeaning, one. Now many years later, I’m convinced the professor took us in the right direction. Here’s why we need to practice reading the text aloud before we teach it publicly:
- The Word of God is the Word of God. That simple truth ought to make us think deeply about how clearly we read the Word aloud when we’re teaching or preaching. We must handle the Word with care.
- We often spend much more time on preparing the sermon than on reading the text aloud. That makes sense, but many of us devote no time to reading the text aloud. It should not be that the first time we read the text aloud is when we stand before God’s people.
- We sometimes stumble over hard-to-pronounce words in the Scripture when we don’t first practice reading the text. In some cases, our congregation then hears our mispronunciation more loudly than the rest of the reading. Practice may not result in perfect pronunciations, but we’re much less likely to stumble if we’ve already worked diligently on reading the Word.
- Different genres and stories of the Scriptures lend themselves to different reading styles. For example, how I read proverbs in the book by that name is different than how I might read warnings in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Likewise, I would not read the serpent’s words in Genesis 3:4-5 the same way I would read God’s words of judgment in the same chapter.
- The Scriptures are filled with emotions, and we can help hearers enter those emotions by the way we read the text. Think about it—wouldn’t we read the grief-stricken words of the prodigal son in Luke 15:21 differently than we read the celebratory words of the waiting father in 15:22-24? Too often, I’ve heard scripture reading—unpracticed, I suspect—in such a monotone, dispassionate style that the speaker misses an opportunity to communicate the Word well.
- Knowing and reading the passage well can help us avoid the common mistake of reading the Scriptures too fast. We don’t genuinely think this way, but it’s almost as if we want to rush through the Scriptures so we can get quickly to the words we think really matter: our words. When we practice our reading, though, we can watch for natural pauses in the biblical text that give the speaker a break and the hearers a moment to let the Word sink in.
- We model for our listeners the practice of reading the Word when we do it aloud. Sure, they’re much more likely to be reading to themselves in their own quiet times, but they nevertheless learn how to read the Word as they listen to us.
What are your thoughts about practicing reading the Word aloud? What other reasons would you add to this list?
It might clash with what you are planning to preach. I have seen that when reading 6-8 verses beyond what was read, the sermon would have been contradicted by the Bible. So the preacher only read a verse or two and preached the sermon anyway.
The seminary I attended had a speech therapist as part of the faculty, that would regularly have workshops on reading Scripture out loud. In those workshops/seminars we were often reminded that Scripture was to be heard and intonation played an important role. It changed the way I read Scripture, but more importantly it changed the way I heard Scripture.
The English Reformer Thomas Cranmer believed in the power of the Holy Scriptures when they are read aloud to transform the heart and mind. For this reason Anglican services have more than one Scripture reading. A good reader becomes a channel through whom the Holy Spirit breathes life into a passage of Scripture. A poor reader, while he may not quench the Holy Spirit, can rob Scripture of its power. The way we read Scripture also sends a message to the congregation. If we read it indifferently without feeling, it conveys the message that God’s written Word is not that important. If we at the same time preach with far more emotion, we are saying that our word is more important than God’s. There are many ways that we declare God’s praises in a church service. Reading aloud the account of his mighty deeds is one of them. There will be occasions when God will use a Scripture reading in a powerful way to touch hearts and not the sermon.