Reflections on the Regulative Principle of Worship (original) (raw)
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In the past decades, worship is infamous for its wars over forms. This is mainly due to many Christians confusing worship with music. These Christians come in various persuasions from a libertine end all the way to the other end. In retaliation, some Evangelical theologians respond by saying that what matters is the heart and, hence, implying indifference on forms presumed to be preferential. Many have since written articles on worship wars and on biblical worship in the spectrum of whether or not forms matter. What seems to be the consensus among Christians who uphold the authority of the Bible is that acceptable worship must come from a sincere heart and involves all of life. Therefore, this paper seeks to biblically evaluate the relationship between the essence and forms of worship to constitute true worship.
There is More to Worship: A Plea for Liturgical Worship
Theologisches Lehr- und Studienmaterial, 2023
This study seeks to show that a carefully planned, solemn service with the inclusion of classical texts and with several recurring elements in addition to the sermon, as it has been practiced by the majority of the church for almost two thousand years, does not represent spiritual rigidity. Rather, it is in harmony with biblical revelation and is a great spiritual help. To show this, we will discuss in detail which elements, based on biblical testimony, are indispensable to regular worship. The goal here is not to urge Christians to change churches or to impose a completely different worship service on congregations. I believe that many elements of this book can be incorporated into any worship tradition, and the book contains many suggestions for all Christians, regardless of whether they are used to a much ‘freer’ or a much more ‘liturgical’ worship service than I propose in this book.
This paper is a brief explication of the relationship between mission and worship, first in late twentieth and early twenty-first century evangelicalism and, comparatively, in the early centuries of Christianity, prior to the Constantinian settlement. It unfavourably contrasts the missional efficacy of the seeker-targeted or seeker-sensitive worship of the former, with the missional philosophy and strategy of the latter, and proposes that twenty-first century evangelicalism adopt and adapt the latter missional philosophy and strategy.
Exploring the Worship Spectrum - 6 Views (Book Review) - Paul Basden and Paul Engle
Paul F. M. Zahl writes about “Formal-Liturgical Worship”, which he also calls Bible-based verticality. He defines the concept formal as “dignified service that is not governed by the spontaneity of the moment or the spontaneity of the officiant. It means service in a form, within a mold. It is not off the cuff or as mood would govern. Rather, it accepts the constraint of a consistent and predictable pattern.” And, liturgical means it is a “prescribed worship, service that is required for a given occasion.” He insists on the prominence of the Bible as the source for all kind of worship. It must be based on the Word. Theology has to precede the act of worship, he says.
Most church leaders readily recognize that God has tasked churches with several different purposes, yet how those purposes work together has equally mystified them. One of the most potentially difficult ministry relationships to reconcile has been that between worship and evangelism. The church growth movement addressed the issue by insisting that a church's primary service should be an evangelistic meeting designed to attract and meet the needs of "seekers." This perspective drew fire from some who argued that this ignores worship altogether, others who complained that believers were not discipled, and still others who claimed that this "attractional" model of evangelism just did not work. 2 In the past twenty years a new movement has emerged in evangelical Christianity that has reshaped the conversation in subtle yet profound ways by suggesting that these two priorities of a church are not separate but in fact essentially connected, subsumed under the umbrella of the mission of God. This missional church movement has significantly altered discourse about evangelism and worship, influencing the evangelical church with both a new posture toward culture in general and a new vocabulary regarding every aspect of its existence. Instead of wrestling with how different aspects of a church's ministry relate to one another, missional church advocates explore how each ministry relates to the overarching idea of "mission."