A pulpit controlled and dominated by one man silences the rest of the body of Christ. When ordinary Christ-followers are prompted by God’s Spirit to speak, the preacher in the pulpit too often says, “Zip it!” Words from the pulpit too often take the “two-edged sword” of the Bible and dull it.

When a pulpit on a platform became the norm for Christian meetings, gatherings of the body of Christ shifted from being Spirit-led and instead became preacher led. No Christian should ever be a passive mental puppet to a pastor in a pulpit. Pulpit talks train Christians to be audience members who sit but don’t always listen and rarely remember (much less do) what they did hear.

The ancient Greek ekklesia gave the platform to the people and let anyone present speak. That’s what Jesus said He will build.

One man preaching in a pulpit is not a safeguard against deception. Search the Scriptures for yourself with an open heart.

When the pulpit and the platform are open to the people, Jesus can speak through whoever He wants to. When the pulpit and the platform are off limits to the people, the pastor has a monopoly.

As I was walking this morning after writing this, I saw two trees — a small, dead tree on the left and a huge, flourishing tree. In an instant I felt that I was being shown an image that shows the difference between man-run church and Christ’s ekklesia (Spirit-led town hall meeting).