Worship and Reading the Scriptures

Jim Hamilton has some thoughts on Reading the Bible as an Act of Worship in Church. One of the simple things he encourages is that the person doing the reading should go over it a few times the night before. May be obvious, but my guess is that it's usually not done.

The purpose of reading over the text several times is so that the reader can get a sense of the flow of thought in the text and pronounce it accordingly.... We don’t want to be ostentatious about this, and we certainly don’t want to draw attention to ourselves as we read. But the person who reads the Scripture publicly is, in a sense, leading the people of God in worship. He is worthy of our best efforts, of our cognitive and emotive engagement, and reading the Bible this way helps us render to him the glory due his name.

Does this apply in a house church setting, where there may not be a scheduled reader but more "spontaneous" readings by people? Yes. I would encourage house church members to come prepared to share a scripture. Don't think unprepared is more spiritual - it is probably less spiritual because it means you haven't been thinking beforehand about how you will encourage the body. So if you have a Bible passage in mind, read it over a few times before the meeting. Then if the way is open, read it - as Hamilton says - with "cognitive and emotive engagement." But if the way is not open to read, that's okay too. We don't all need to clamor to be heard.