Pastor Alistair Begg attended the Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tennessee and he had strong words against what he called a growing Biblical illiteracy and “consumer” worship mentality in America. He pointed at the diminishing prominence of the altar on church stages as a sign of Scripture’s diminishing importance in churches, giving way to gimmicks and seeker-friendly sermons. “Traditionally, the pulpit was central and visually dominant, not as an expression of the preacher’s authority, but as a reminder of the authority of Scripture,” he said. Today, however, the altar has been replaced with plexiglass and bar stools. “Why? Well, you’ve got to please the consumers,” he said of church’s attempts to make their spaces feel more informal and comfortable.

He also stated that people who attend church are no longer coming in with the expectation of hearing from Scripture. “Instead of coming into worship with the express understanding that all of this begins with God in His glory, people come with coffee in hand, saying, ‘Let’s see if he’s got something good for us today,” he said. He warned that serious, expositional preaching had been replaced and that current preaching “gives way to therapeutical endeavors,” adding, “I’m not sure that America understands just how deep the problem is, in relationship to biblical illiteracy.” He also said it is the responsibility of the pastor to help the congregation. “You see, the task of the pastor in coming to the scriptures is not simply to provide information about what the Bible says with a few pointers to take home, fill in the blanks kind of stuff,” he said. “That’s not the primary objective in the unfolding of Scripture. The desire, the longing of the pastor and the preacher and the people is that we might have a divine encounter with the living God through His Word, that we might meet God, that we might hear from God. … We don’t need to hear what Alistair knows about this or that. We need to hear from God.”

The church, however, also needs to be led by the Holy Spirit, which goes beyond simply just knowing Scripture. “Even if we can quote it, discuss it, or memorize it, we don’t know it apart from the work of the Spirit,” he said. “Jesus is the worship leader. He is the one who makes worship possible, and He is the one who leads us in praise.” The conference focused on “The Songs of the Bible,” and Begg pointed to Spirit-led worship. “Why is it so hard, in many cases, to get people to sing? The poor people up here, they’ve got to be here one hour early in order to get themselves all jazzed up, so in the hope that they can get us all jazzed up,” he said. “And if we don’t get jazzed up immediately, then we’re going to sing it again, and we’ll keep singing it until you’re jazzed up. And we’ll repeat the chorus 14 times, and we’ll make sure that you’re finally there. What’s the problem? Spiritual deadness is the problem.”