Again, on pulpits

Life have certainly taken a different turn for me lately as far as my blogging is concerned - i.e. I wished I could spend more time thinking and writing but alas, by the time I get back home, my mind would be too fried to do much else.

However, what has been still burning in my mind is the treatment of pulpits in churches. I know the 1st century churches most probably do not have pulpits, and I know contemporary speakers these days desire to be more hip and happening and would traverse the entire chancel area to deliver the sermon. Maybe I am a tad too conservative. I get repelled by that. I always treat the pulpit as a symbol of the centrality of the Word of God and every speaker should respect it and stand behind it and to deliver God's message to the people in humility. In a sense it is more than a place to put your notes, it is submitting to the fact that we are only but a mouthpiece for the message of God to the people.

I suppose I would be ok with a church without a pulpit and the speaker can roam about but when there is one, there is a need to stand behind it.

Or maybe, that is just me ... that I need to loosen up.

But it is difficult for me ... the worst was when there was this speaker I encountered once, whose notebook where his sermon notes were could not startup and he walked to the back where the Powerpoint slide driver was handling his slides, and he delivered his sermon from there. You should have seen my face :) ... and I had no idea what the sermon was all about!

pearlie