PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

soul-winning and reaching every available person, at every available time, with every available
means.
CHAPTER SIX
THE BIBLE EXPOSITIONAL CHURCH
As the bell rings marking the end of Sunday School, group members in various adult
Bible study groups gather their Bibles, notebooks and pens together and make their way to the
church auditorium. Once again the teacher failed to cover all the material in the Sunday School
quarterly but no one was overly concerned. They would simply pick up where the discussion
ended today when they meet again next week. Most of the Bible classes in this Sunday School
planned to stretch three quarterlies of biblical content over the four quarters in the year.
As the people arrived at the auditorium, ushers were busy handing out church bulletins.
Inserted in the bulletins were copies of today's sermon notes. Most church members turned to the
passage being studied today and used the sermon notes to mark the text. Notes from previous
weeks fell from the well-marked study Bibles as they were opened. These notes were retrieved
and placed inside the back cover of the Bible. Others, better organized, leafed through their
notebooks until they came to the place where the new notes should be added.
Much of the early part of the worship service was somewhat matter of fact. The hymns
were sung in the order in which they were listed in the bulletin. Because of the wide variety of
translations used by members of the Bible Expositional congregation, people were encouraged to
follow along in their own Bibles as the Scriptures were read from the New American Standard
Bible. Then a few announcements were highlighted before the offering was received. Following
another hymn and a song sung by the ladies' trio, the pastor made his way to the pulpit.
A few introductory comments soon introduced the theme of the passage being studied.
Members of the congregation were encouraged to turn to the passage read earlier in the service.
The sound of pages turning softly filled the hall as almost everyone had an open Bible. As the
pastor began explaining the passage, he turned on the overhead projector built into the side of the
pulpit. The outline on the transparency was projected on to the screen raised high at the front of
the church. Across the auditorium, many began writing as various biblical words were defined
and explained in the context of the passage.
For forty-five minutes the pastor continued explaining how the biblical writer develops
his theme and why various alternate interpretations of the passage fail to take into account all the
details. As the pastor moves point by point through his message, it all seems so simple. He gave
various insights on the culture of that day, archaeological finds in Israel and the shades of
meaning implied in various Greek and Hebrew words. The message of the passage became
clearer by the minute. How could any serious student of the Word miss a biblical interpretation
so obvious?