A pulpit is a raised stand for public speaking, especially in a church. The word may also refer to the standing surface itself, often including its base but sometimes excluding it. The word pulpitum (derived, via Italian and Latin, from the original French word pulte) was first used in the early modern period to refer to the “lecture hall stage of medieval playhouses.”
When I think of a pulpit, I have to laugh. The image that comes to mind is a preacher standing behind a wooden box on the stage of a church, speaking into the microphone while his congregation looks up at him. But what does that word mean in a spiritual sense? How did this wooden box become so ingrained in our culture that we don’t even question its origin or meaning anymore?
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Spiritual Meaning of Pulpit
When you hear the word pulpit, what do you think of? Do you envision a preacher standing in a wooden box behind a podium in front of the congregation? Or, when you hear the word pulpit, do you think of a holy place, a sanctuary?
When you hear the word pulpit, what do you think of? Do you envision a preacher standing in a wooden box behind a podium in front of the congregation? Or, when you hear the word pulpit, do you think of a holy place, a sanctuary?
The ancient Hebrews and Christians used this sacred platform for many different purposes. They called it by many names: Aisha (Hebrew) named as such because it was from here that Yahweh delivered His law to Moses; or dais (Greek), which means “to stand out” or “to be conspicuous.” The idea was that this would be “the place where God stands out.” In fact, in some parts of Europe during medieval times there were two separate pulpits—one for preaching and one for singing!
Secondly, I want to say to you, “The Pulpit” is worthy of the most excellent scholarship.
The work of the pulpit is demanding. It requires the most assiduous attention to the Sacred Text, the context, the study of Biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, the original languages, pastoral theology, spiritual formation (how faith and life mature), rhetoric, logic, elocution, anthropology, and the sociology of “the parish.” The pulpit requires a ministry of the presence of one who has been with God. Even the pathologies of the human soul must be a lifelong study.
Each division of continuing education requires your unswerving dedication to its assiduous study. You must be consecrated to (by prayer, and fasting when necessary) convert the catalytic knowledge derived from the respective subject into your pastoral love for the Saints—e.g., for a fourteen-year-old “covenant child” seated before you on the Lord’s Day, as she wrestles with “Jacob’s angel” to make her parent’s faith her own. The scholarship gained for the pulpit must be poured through the narrow channel of that funnel which distills the essence of God’s love for His People. This sweetens the pulpit’s solemnity and is what causes little children to stand on tipped-toes and “play preacher” after the service is over. Love makes transcendence imminent.
You are a “doctor of the soul.” Study the contours and crevices of the human soul, the “soft tissue” of the spirit, so sensitive and subject to wounds, and and the possible “sclerosis” of a part of the soul that could deny health to another part, signaling a spreading “disease.” Study the ways of assessing the parishioner’s presenting issue. Be careful to observe and allow the “presenting issue,” e.g., of “anger towards God,” to stir diagnostic questions that could direct you to the “under-belly” of the problem.
Only in a careful, prayerful, scripturally informed assessment (of the presenting issues) and diagnosis (discovering the deeper issue beneath the presenting issue through study, question, prayer, observation, and testimony) can you move toward spiritual treatment of the maleficent maladies of the Trinity-cherished lambs of God for whom you were called to be (under) shepherd. This, also, is the work of the pulpit as well as the study. Indeed, none of us are as qualified in this methodology as, for example, the great Martyn Lloyd-Jones, MD. That Welsh giant in the twentieth-century history of the Church used the unsurpassed medical training at Saint Bartholomew’s to surgically assess, clinically diagnose, and meticulously treat with the scalpel of (just the right portion and proportion of) the Word of God.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV).
Though we might lack medical training in diagnostic technique, we may study, practice, and learn how to clinically assess, diagnose, and treat spiritual woundedness before us with those unassailable medicines, the copper-bottomed remedy in the means of grace: Word, Sacrament, and Prayer. My beloved son, give your life to such valuable employment. You will never regret it. What does St. Paul say to young Timothy?
“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you: (1 Timothy 4:13,14 NIV).
Of all the many tasks that St. Paul could have urged upon Pastor Timothy, he chose the public reading of the Scriptures. So, also, I would advise you take the pulpit seriously and do not diminish its importance and its power: the power of the Word of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit for spiritual healing and for fulfilling the mission of God in the world. But this requires a reorientation (read Martin Thornton’s Reorientation to the Pastoral Ministry) to the pastoral ministry wherein your primary identity is that of shepherd, ambassador, steward of the mysteries of God, scholar of the word of God, and, to, again, borrow from the Seventeenth Century English Puritans, “physician of the soul.”
These are but a few thoughts concerning “the pulpit.” I pray that the Lord will give you strength to withstand the temptations to allow the pulpit to become a soapbox, or a lectures stand, or an entertainment platform to show off your rhetorical, personality-centered prowess. You are merely a “preacher-boy.” But you are an Ambassador of a King. And you are always the God-ordained shepherd to speak the Word of God to that little 14-year-old girl. She deserves nothing less than the full dedication of the pastor to the sacred work of the Pulpit.
One final admonition: do not seek the pulpit of great preachers to attain to some greater reputation in ministry. It is very likely that the dais where they preached was inherited from some humble, anonymous minister. The pulpit does not make the man. The man of God makes the pulpit. The pulpit entrusted to you by that congregation, presbytery, association, district or diocese—the pulpit where you preach today—is the place where others may one day say, “Oh, what a faithful ministry went forth from that sacred desk.”
Who Is Allowed In The Pulpit
The pulpit is generally reserved for clergy. This is mandated in the regulations of the Catholic Church, and several others (though not always strictly observed). Even in Welsh Nonconformism, this was felt appropriate, and in some chapels a second pulpit was built opposite the main one for lay exhortations, testimonies and other speeches.[3] Many churches have a second, smaller stand called the lectern located in the Epistle side, which can be used by lay persons, and is often used for other Scripture lessons and ordinary announcements. The traditional Catholic location of the pulpit to the left side of the chancel or nave has been generally retained by Lutherans and many Anglicans,[4] while in Presbyterian and Baptist churches the pulpit is located in the centre behind the communion table.[5] Many modern Roman Catholic churches have an ambo that functions as both a pulpit and lectern.[6]
Equivalent platforms for speakers are the bema (bima, bimah) of ancient Greece and Jewish synagogues, and the minbar of Islamic mosques. From the pulpit is often used synecdochically for something which is said with official church authority.
How To Conduct Yourself In The Pulpit
“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
- Sit respectfully and alertly
Things such as leaning on your elbows with your head down and chewing gum send signals that you are not interested in what the preacher is saying. Remember that others are watching you and being influenced by you. Your attitude and bodily posture affects the preacher, those sitting around you, and the entire atmosphere of the service.
Young people should not be allowed to sit together unless they are spiritually-minded and serious about seeking the Lord, because they will distract one another as well as others. We have many spiritually-minded young people in our church who sit together and encourage one another to listen carefully and to take notes from the preaching, but when young people are only in church because they are forced to be and don’t have a heart for the truth, they should not be allowed to sit together. This is for their sake, for the sake of the other young people who are influenced by their example, and for the sake of the entire congregation.
One reader wrote about teenage boys who sit together and play a video game during the service. “As one plays, the boy on either side watches until it is his turn.”
Another reader described two young men who played video games on their phones the entire service, even when the congregation was standing and singing. The father of these young men was in the service and sitting on the same pew, but he didn’t do anything.
This is a sad thing, and one wonders about the parents. In the case of a parent who would sit in a church service and allow his children to play games, where is his head! Such a parent is on the proverbial “cloud 9”! Like Eli, he honors his sons more than God and God’s Word (1 Sam. 2:29; 3:13).
And why doesn’t the pastor put a stop to it? What kind of pastor would allow people to play games in the house of God when the congregation is supposedly worshiping God? For a pastor to allow such a thing is not fair to those who are there to worship God and hear His Word. Such a thing is a great dishonor to Jesus Christ who owns the church and walks in the midst of the churches (Rev. 2:1). Who does this pastor really honor? Who does he fear?
The adults might be afraid of “losing them” if they apply discipline, but they have “lost them” already. The bodies of such young people might still be in church, but their hearts are solidly in the world.
At least the adults can break up this unholy cabal and make the service conducive for others to hear God’s Word without the distraction of these foolish boys and their games. And who knows, if this cabal were broken up and these young people were required to sit quietly during the singing and preaching, God might get hold of their hearts and they would repent of their disrespect of holy things and be born again before it is too late.
Along this line, the church must make sure that young people are not hiding out somewhere and playing. I have seen young men in the sound room and sound booth talking and playing games during the services. Only spiritually-minded young people should be involved in such ministries. Otherwise, this is the type of thing that happens.
- Don’t distract others
Examples of things that distract others are talking and writing notes back and forth between persons, texting, and playing video games, making noise (i.e., cracking your fingers, stretching and moaning), picnicking (eating and drinking and passing around candy and gum), playing with babies, children gawking at the people behind them, and children running back and forth in the pew when the congregation is standing to sing. Parents need to be aware of what their children are doing and make certain that they are not distracting someone.
One reader wrote, “Some families spread the pew with mounds of candy and other snacks, sticky and otherwise, and the children gorge themselves. Then of course, it’s not long before parent or grandparent will take each child, one at a time, back and forth to the restroom to wash sticky hands, etc. And no, they do not sit in the back.”
Another example is leaving the service to go to the restroom. Parents should make sure that their children don’t develop this distracting habit. The child quickly learns that it can control the mother by asking to go to the restroom after the service starts. It is the all-too-common case of the child training the parents. This practice is extremely dishonoring to the Word of God being preached. There is plenty of time to go to the bathroom before and after the services. Of course, if a baby is involved or if an individual has a medical or health problem that requires him or her to leave the service, that is a different matter altogether. But such a person should sit in the back and slip in and out quietly.
One reader gave the following feedback after reading an earlier edition of this report:
“The section regarding ‘Don’t Distract Others’ really hit home to me. I prefer to sit up front ‘near the action’; however, because of my work, I am on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there are occasional calls on Sundays, so I sit at the back so that I may slip out should I receive a call. However, I have seen others that sit near the front and walk all the way to the back for one reason or the other, and, upon their return, walk all the way back to the front. It is human custom to watch movement. I have tried my best to train myself to pay attention to the preaching and to not be distracted by people moving around. When I was young, we were taught that in any group, if one had to leave, one sits near the back, and even if one is sitting up front and needs to leave, upon returning, a seat should be taken in the back. I don’t know why people aren’t taught this (rather basic) group courtesy.”
- Listen well
LISTEN WITH COMPASSION TOWARD THE PREACHER. God uses all kinds of men and not all are powerful, fascinating speakers. It appears that Paul wasn’t (2 Cor. 10:10). Jonathan Edwards preached one of the most famous of sermons, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but Edwards was not a great speaker. In fact, he simply read the sermon. The preacher who was instrumental in the conversion of Charles Spurgeon was not a mighty speaker. Spurgeon described him as a very simple, uninteresting speaker, yet how greatly God used him! Remember that God can use weak men. An example is Solomon. He had some serious issues, but God used him to write three important books of the Bible, including the book of Proverbs, which is the book of wisdom. Our eyes must be upon God and not upon the preacher. Listen to the preacher as you would want people to listen to you. Avoid a critical attitude.
LISTEN PRAYERFULLY. Nothing significant is accomplished apart from prayer (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2; 1 The. 5:17). Pray for yourself. Pray for the preacher. Pray for others who are in attendance.
LISTEN ATTENTIVELY. Listen as if Jesus Christ were speaking. The preacher is to preach as the oracles of God (God’s mouthpiece), and the people should listen to him as the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11). If you listen carefully and seek something from the Lord, you can be edified even from a seemingly boring message. See also Luke 8:18; Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22. Lazy minds don’t learn and grow. Don’t let your mind wander to other things. Don’t do something else when you should be listening to the preaching. I have seen people read novels in church! More often they read the hymnal or pass notes or other such things. You won’t get anything from the preaching if you don’t listen attentively.
LISTEN WITH AN OPEN, SUBMISSIVE HEART. God’s invitation is extended throughout the message and not merely at the end. Let God speak to you, reprove, rebuke, and exhort you. Don’t think that the preaching is for someone else. Don’t make excuses for your sins and faults.
LISTEN WITH FAITH (Heb. 4:1-2). The Word of God is ineffective unless it is “mixed with faith.” Some listen to preaching as a form of entertainment. They enjoy it but they don’t believe it enough to change how they live. This was how the Jews were listening to the prophet Ezekiel: “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not” (Ezek. 33:31-32).
LISTEN DISCERNINGLY. The Bible warns that we must not put our trust in man (Jer. 17:5). We must carefully test all preaching by the Word of God (Acts 17:11; 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 The. 5:21).
LISTEN STUDIOUSLY (2 Tim. 2:15). Have paper and pen ready so that you can capture something from the message. Write things in your Bible (important things, such as cross references, definitions, important thoughts, what God is saying to you through the message). By the way, you should have your own Bible rather than merely looking on with someone else. Take notes of the important points. Write down things to study later, things to check later, and things to share with others. This will help you remember what is preached. If you are studious during the preaching, you will be a good example to others. I remember fondly a young man in the first church I joined. He was always there in his place with his big study Bible and his notebook and his pens and pencils, ready to capture something from the preaching.
- Treat the invitation seriously
Respond to the invitation as Lord leads, and pray for others.
It is important to be quiet until the the last prayer is finished. Some people are so spiritually insensitive that they start preparing to leave during the invitation and final prayer, shuffling around, folding papers, zipping up Bible cases, putting on jackets, digging keys out of purses, etc. This is very distracting to those to whom the Lord might be ministering.
Conclusion
The pulpit is a place where preachers and teachers can stand to deliver their messages. The word “pulpit” comes from the Latin word “pulpitum,” which means “stage.” The pulpit is usually placed in front of the congregation, so it’s easy for everyone to hear what’s being said.
Pulpits have been a part of church worship since ancient times. During the Middle Ages, pulpits were often used as a place for people who were accused of crimes or other misdeeds to confess their guilt. Many pulpits still have this function today! Pulpits are also sometimes found outside churches, such as at memorials or gravesites where people gather to honor their deceased loved ones.