Bible as the Absolute Authority

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Boxjobox

It wasn't the pop up free for all that excited me, but the meeting where fellowship, and prayer, and praise, and singing etc., included all the saints. Most current Christian gatherings are pastor driven. In the LC, it went from fellowship to LSM dogma. The content of the LC became not the fellowship of the saints, but a selling of one's soul to LSM. You might say the soul of the LC became LSM.
I value the priesthood of every believer- in modern Christian church gatherings, it's pretty much pastoral.

Somewhat true. And moreso in some places than in others. But the idea that we all are teachers in terms of the meetings for worship is inconsistent with the example provided. It does seem that the apostles taught (in the beginning) and then teaching was also done by elders (if we consider Paul's qualifications for elders). Not saying there is no place for the voice of the rest of us. But maybe our voice is mostly in the praise and worship of God.

And in the evangelical setting, this limited to singing (and too often songs that are more about us than God). We are more observers of others. And the amount of singing and scripture reading has been reduced further so that we can listen to a longer theological treatise that is often of little practical value other than to check off a box saying we "learned more about God." As much as we tend to dismiss the older liturgical traditions as "Christless," I wonder if we are missing something of the participation in worship beyond singing. Speaking together in almost all parts of the time of worship besides that much shorter sermon that is common there.

It is something that has seemed worthy of some further study.