Does your church use a lectionary of some kind ? (scheduled readings)

[ktgrok]

Was wondering if being forced to read and preach on whatever scriptures are scheduled in the lectionary, vs picking and choosing what you want to read/preach on, helps prevent some issues in churches? It seems like maybe being able to pick and choose topics and passages could make it easier to twist the Bible to one's own end. 

No idea if I'm right, just a thought I had this week. 

[Faith-manor]

Just now, ktgrok said:

Was wondering if being forced to read and preach on whatever scriptures are scheduled in the lectionary, vs picking and choosing what you want to read/preach on, helps prevent some issues in churches? It seems like maybe being able to pick and choose topics and passages could make it easier to twist the Bible to one's own end. 

No idea if I'm right, just a thought I had this week. 

I don't have a church of my own now. But one UMC that I used to play the piano for until covid did have a church calendar/lectionary that they followed for themes to responsive readings and prayers, even hymn and song selection. But then pastor could preach on other topics. He often had whole sermon series because he much preferred working through an entire book of the bible for several weeks than having a smattering of topics. A few times a year he did match his sermon to the calendar usually World Communion Sunday, All Saints Day, always Lenten themed during that time of year.

[Bensmom]

We typically follow the lectionary in my Disciples of Christ church. Yes, it definitely prevents anyone from every feeling like they were singled out for some behavior etc. It also allows members to read/study the passage ahead of time or adult Sunday school classes to discuss the passage before the sermon to help develop the history or context.  Also, I do pulpit supply and fill in for our pastor when he has vacation and it makes it so much easier for me to have the lectionary passages and know what to use to prepare a message. 
 

 

[Katy]

IME you're right. It does prevent problems, and also ensures people are exposed to ALL scripture sooner or later if they're regular attendees. This, required education, and established oversight and church discipline systems are the reason I doubt we will ever attend a non-denominational church again. But never underestimate the human ability to twist things to cause problems. Mainline denominations still have problems, it's just a different kind of drama.

[Bootsie]

I prefer a church that uses a lectionary.  It does make sure that the entire Bible is used.  It also ties Old and New Testament together. It provides more continuity for the congregation and more filling of being a part of the Church.  It is nice to be able to go to church and then disucss that weeks scripture and sermon with my aunt in another state or my friend across the country.  It makes it more meaningful if I am traveling and attend another church which is in the same place in the church calendar rather than attending a church where thie sermon is about "this week's scrabble word is..." or some other gimmicky topic.  

[ktgrok]

I should say this came up because over the last few weeks there have been some "doozies" in the lectionary, as our pastor put it, lol. Plucking out ones eye and divorce are not fun topics for the pastor to preach on I guess, lol. I respected how he worked through those, and it made me realize that having to work through those hard passages is a benefit of the lectionary. And keeps a pastor from focusing on say, a few pet peeve sins or what not every single week, or cherry picking only preferred bits of the Bible to talk about. 

[Matryoshka]

Our church references the lectionary, but doesn't use it to preach from every week.  That's our UUA half going wild, probably.  😅

Our last few ministers were UUA, and we used it way less.  Our new minister is UCC, and I'm liking that we're getting back to it more.  Wrestling with some of those doozies makes for some good food for thought.

[73349]

Mine uses the Vanderbilt lectionary, and I use the app DailyLectio each day to keep up during the week & have context for Sunday. But the preachers are at liberty to select a different text when appropriate.

[Fritz]

No, our pastor chooses a book of the Bible and we go through the entire book week by week until finished. So over time the entire Bible gets covered. 

[MrsMommy]

We use the historic one-year lectionary, and I definitely think it helps. Very, very occasionally, our pastor will preach on something else (I can think of one time in the last 18 months or so), but in general, the lectionary helps provide structure and prevents the pastor from fixating on one topic.

[rebcoola]

We don't have a lectionary.  The pastor works through a book a Book of the Bible for each series.  Their maybe be an occasional single topic lecture in between books or for like a special event or a guest preacher.

The church we went to in Wisconsin did things topically and I do think it is easier to twist because they are taking little bits and pieces out of context.  Also harder to fact check them all your self when you have to flip all over the place.

[Terabith]

4 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Was wondering if being forced to read and preach on whatever scriptures are scheduled in the lectionary, vs picking and choosing what you want to read/preach on, helps prevent some issues in churches? It seems like maybe being able to pick and choose topics and passages could make it easier to twist the Bible to one's own end. 

No idea if I'm right, just a thought I had this week. 

I think there's pretty clear evidence that lectionary preaching (with occasional changes because of things going on in your local church, but in general a set of readings that you have to choose from) solves a lot of issues with people, either right or left wing, being tempted to only focus on their favorite passages.  

The other thing I like about the lectionary is that every week there are at least four readings.  Episcopal churches will generally read all four of them in the principal service, but other lectionary churches will sometimes only read one or two.  So you still have choices.  You don't HAVE to preach on the divorce section from last week.  But your choices are somewhat constrained, and usually people are HEARING all of the readings.  

Edited October 7, 2021 by Terabith

[Danae]

I think that an autocratic pastor is unlikely to follow a lectionary, but not every pastor who doesn’t follow a lectionary is autocratic.  A lectionary is one expression of not everything in a church catering to the pastor’s whim. The problem is when a church has no, or extremely few, examples of things that don’t.

[gardenmom5]

We generally have a theme for the year that comes from local leadership (that oversees a group of separate congregations), theme for the month.  Speakers are expected to fit within those themes.

[Pam in CT]

Across the world and extending back for centuries, Jewish communities have read Torah (= "Pentateuch", the first 5 books of the Bible) straight through, in order, over the course of the Jewish year.  There's a schedule, of parashat (= "portions"), assigned to each week.  Communities around the world, spanning across the different strands/ levels of observance, adhere to this backbone -- typically all or some of the weekly portion is chanted (in Hebrew) in synagogue; the rabbi or community leader will do some sort of lesson (which can be "homily"-like, or can also be more bound to other related insights in other parts of text or tradition); and there's often also a study session in which congregants wrestle out our own responses to the text.  Since loads of people around the world are also working with the same text, there are gazillion hot takes from different perspectives from scholars and rabbis and conservatives and feminists and activists and poets and challah bakers online as well, so for any given week there is always a YUGE range of insights, questions and arguments.

I think of it as a Great Conversation across space and time and cultures; and it is among the aspects of the tradition I most cherish.  As a structure that is vastly larger/greater/more sacralized than any particular synagogue, it *definitely* widens the lens of how each passage lands... and I suppose another way to frame that same dynamic would be, the particular take that any particular synagogue's clergy might take in a "homily" riffing of the text is necessarily only one voice in the larger cacophony, LOL.