I miss seeing a pulpit on the platform at church, I even miss the fact that we call it a platform. I know that’s a strange thing to hear in this day and age. Really, it’s strange because Pastor Steve was the only pastor I had seen standing behind a wooden pulpit, a big one. There was something about that pulpit that just said with its presence, that the Word was going to be preached. 

I know that probably sounds silly to most people, but that pulpit said church. You don’t see things like that at business seminars or any generic conference, you only find them in churches. These plexiglass things and other modern stands we used today are found everywhere outside of the church. Most are only big enough to hold a closed Bible and a tablet. Ironic that the Bible is closed, but most Pastors just cut and paste from their computer program anyway. 

I started going to church in the late nineties, and in the early two-thousands, everything about the church was modern. Churches these days look like conference centers, foyers look like hotel lobbies, and the Sanctuary, excuse me, auditorium, resemble nothing of churches. Now, I’m not against places for people to sit and fellowship, bookstores, and coffee areas are fine. I just think we’re missing something unique when our churches could pass for event centers instead of houses of worship.

Many churches today don’t even have crosses in them, the baptistry is portable, or done after service, and not prominent, we’ve gotten rid of the communion table if we even take communion anymore. As much as we talk about how much the “old folks” missed, or how we may think they were religious or legalistic, I think we are missing something by not having that distinct church look and feel in our modern churches. When we come to church on Sunday, it should feel different, it should look different.

Just as we have come out of darkness and into His marvelous light, our churches should reflect that. So, how about we turn on the lights during worship again, how about singing some old songs that have been sung for hundreds of years in the Church. How about preaching through a book of the Bible, with an open Bible, behind a pulpit that you’ll only find in a church.

Why not reclaim some of the things that make a church a church, so that when unsaved people come in, instead of feeling comfortable, instead of feeling like they are at an event center, they step into a place that brings them into a sense of awe. Let them hear a music style they don’t hear on the radio, with words they don’t recognize, allow them the opportunity to have to think about the songs they are hearing. Let Pastors put life lessons aside and let people hear the offensive gospel that convicts them of their sin and gives them the answer of Jesus.

They can get a concert in the world, they can get a fancy coffee at any coffee shop, and there are better places to be entertained. We don’t need to give people that, we need to give people the message of Christ and the Church is the only people that have that message. Let them walk into a place that is so different, so reverent, so unique in its furnishings and its art that they feel the working of the Spirit on their heart and think to themselves, this is what I’ve been looking for, and when they hear the message, they say that’s what I need, that’s the truth, I must surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.