T H E O R I G I N A L FA C T C H E C K E R by Craig Ruhl
One Sunday, many years ago, my wife, Karen, and I attended a church near our new home for the first time. While getting seated for the morning worship service, I noticed that many of the congregation had brought their Bibles into church with them. The rack in the back of the pew in front of us had enough Bibles and hymnals for the number of people seated in our row, and I presumed that was true for all the pews in the church. I wondered why people brought their own instead of using the ones provided. It occurred to me that maybe people liked to use different versions, and they wanted to highlight or make notes in their personal Bible. The choral worship portion of the service ended. As we sat back down, the pastor took his place behind the podium he would preach from. Opening his Bible, he told us he would read the day’s scripture verse to prepare for the sermon he would deliver. Looking up, he told us that before starting he wanted us all to take our Bibles out, locate the chapter and verse and prepare to follow along as he read. I heard the rustling sounds of books being opened and pages being leafed through. After a few moments, the pastor read the verses, pausing for emphasis, and then ending in prayer. 30 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 3 29
What happened next took me by surprise. The pastor held his closed Bible aloft in his outstretched hand. He explained why we should bring our personal Bible to church with us. To my surprise, the first reason he gave was that we, as Christians, need to be careful about the information we receive. The example he gave was the Bible passages he had just read. Most of us assume that the pastor or minister leading the service knows what he or she is talking about and they are using correct biblical text in their teaching. We were told that it is our responsibility to confirm that what we are hearing is true and the only way to do that is to look it up for ourselves. He explained the need for us to make notes on what he shared and taught in his sermons. The purpose of doing this was not just to have a record we could go back to; it provided reference points that we could look up later and verify for ourselves. This was feeling more like a college class than the church services I knew while growing up. What an eye-opener for me. A pastor is telling me I should be fact-checking his sermons and then teaching us how to go about it. Fast forward to today. The church is different for us this year with a pandemic virus curtailing our gathering inside a physical church building. We gather instead in front of our computer screens, tablets, or cell phones to watch and listen to church services. Karen and I have our Bibles open on our desks while we worship digitally with our church. Our pastor sends out sermon notes in advance with key scripture verses highlighted and areas to make notes. This makes it simple to follow along in our Bible as he preaches and teaches. We take this open Bible practice further by using our Bibles daily when we pray, read devotionals, and follow a daily scripture reading plan. Karen uses a study Bible which adds the benefit of explanation and provides context. Since both of us write, edit, and publish Christian content, we constantly refer to our Bible to make sure we are not going astray.
