The Use of the Bible in Private and Congregational Worship

The Use of the Bible in Private and Congregational Worship

The Bible is a key element in all services in the Christian faith and

used for various reasons in the church. The Bible is viewed by

Christians as the book of God, and God’s word to be followed by

faithful Christians to live their life with help and guidance to be as

God would want. Christians keep God in their hearts with regular

praying and private worship.

In congregational worship, which is a group of people worshipping God

together, helping each other to understand the way they ought to live

their lives. For example, one key time when this is used is the Roman

Catholics service, “Mass” in which many prayers are read from the

Bible e.g. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is entirely taken from the

Bible.

Services like this are held in churches daily, each service have

lessons read out from the “Old Testament” and the “New Testament”

These split the Bible into two half’s, the Old Testament being before

Christ and the New Testament being when Christ was born and after him.

The priest or vicar stands at a lectern in which the Bible rests on,

will read out these lessons depending on the subject of the service.

The Church sometimes uses readings suitable for the time of year.

These set readings are called a lectionary. The lectionary gives a

suitable selection of readings for Sundays, Holy Days or Holidays

(Festivals.)

The Bible is used as a “library” of prayers. Psalms are used as a type

of songs of praise. Prayers are in the Bible, including the most

important one, The Lords Prayer. Hymns are usually based on psalms but

the Bible contains none.

Other than congregational worship, Christians also use the bible in

private worship. This can be from meditation to small Bible study

groups. Christians may open the Bible to a random lesson, chapter or

verse and read. The verse, chapter or lesson might be a specific one

depending on the time of the day and the date of the year.