Biblical Worship: Reading of scripture prior to the sermon seems to be of recent origin. Does the one who reads the scripture have to be a baptized believer? Based on the silence of the scripture re this issue I think yes. But this seems to be an argument from the silence of the scriptures.
Certainly there is no doubt whatsoever that even Christian women are forbidden by Scripture (where men are present) to pray aloud, teach or preach in a public assembly of the church for worship (1 Corinthians 14:34). Jesus Christ only authorized apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (elders) and teachers to edify the body of Christ (men and women) in the first century (Ephesians 4:11-12), and hence, the churches of Christ do not permit non-Christians to instruct them in public worship. Furthermore, it is reasonable to conclude from an understanding of the roles of Christian men in public worship that only faithful male Christians may lead in Christian worship assemblies.
A leadership role in public worship occurs when one or more men by course or one at a time speak or conduct some facet of the worship, while everyone else is obligated to be quiet and compliant (1 Corinthians 14:27, 29-31, 40). It would be hard to conceive of it being inappropriate to read Scripture in the assembly, and this definitely was central to any teaching or preaching in assemblies of God’s people under either Judaism or early Christianity (Luke 4:16-21; Acts 13:14-16); New Testament assemblies mimicked synagogue assemblies with the addition of the Lord’s Supper.
An unbaptized believer of any age, including a child of a Christian family, does not correspond with biblical information regarding who may share leadership roles in the assembly of the church for public worship on the Lord’s Day. There may well be latitude for training purposes under other circumstances outside of the Lord’s Day assembly for public worship.
