Mar
1
Not Too Much Dust On Sundays
Posted by Jon Trainer at 6:18 pmFiled Under blogdom
A careful hand will weave just the right amount of history into the weekly liturgy to give a congregation a sense of the ancient landmarks without thinking they are on an archeological expedition. For example, this past Sunday we used a few questions from the Belgic Confession in place of the Apostle’s Creed. This enabled us to identify with the 15th century persecuted church in The Netherlands, affirm our faith with fresh language, and avoid the danger of vain repetition by saying a well known creed one more time. Here is a quote from Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice regarding the rightful place of tradition as an aid to creating a gospel-centered worship service:
Always we are to be informed by tradition; never are we to be ruled by it. The Word of God is our only infallible rule of faith and practice, but an unwillingness to consider what previous generations have learned about applying God’s Word discloses either naivete or arrogance. God intends for us to stand on the shoulders of those faithful before us. He gives us a mission for our time, but he also gives us a history to prepare us for our present calling. Without critically and constructively examining this foundation we are ill equipped for building the church God wants today (p. 16).
This paragraph captures the beautiful balance that permeates Chapell’s work. We tend to bounce between the extremes of structured vs. free, traditional vs. relevant, objective vs. subjective, doxological vs. delightful, solemn vs. celebrative, transcendent vs. accessible, common vs. excellent, emotional vs. cognitive, dialogical vs. proclamatory, historic vs. contextualized, and saved vs. seeker-sensitive (p. 137). Instead of looking at this list and thinking either/or, Chapell argues there is biblical warrant for each of these values depending upon the circumstances and goals of any particular worship occasion. It requires biblical wisdom to create a sound structure that is Christ-centered and appropriate to the task at hand, as well as historically informed.
Jon,
I, for one would like to thank you for including confessional standards in the worship. I believe the confessions are every bit as necessary for our grounding in the Word of God as they were when first developed. Not to be equated with the authority of the Word of God, they should be held in high regard for the dedication and scholarship that went into their development. I do subscribe to the so-called Three Forms of Unity (Belgic, Heidleberg and Dort) along with the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) and Catechisms, and make no apologies for it. Subscription does not mean that I agree with everything in them(For example, I do not agree with everything the WCF says on the use of the Sabbath), but rejection of any part is only done after extensive prayerful study. The reason I think this is so important is because of our tendancy to be carried away by various doctrines. The Standards give us a home base, a safety rope, that we can hold onto until such time that we have been able to fully examine each doctrine and confidently say that we agree or disagree. By the way, I also like the London Confession, which seems to be essentially the same as the WCF with one unfortunate major error.
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for your comment. Confessions are wonderful in that they force us to think seriously about truth and act as an anchor (or safety rope as you noted) when the “winds of doctrine” blow. A concise doctrinal formulation stored in memory is a good antidote against error.
The realization that confessions are secondary or tertiary is a good one. The ability to disagree must be exercised and practiced, as well as conformity when truth is wonderfully embodied.
We need to dig our foundation deeper and lay more solid confessional stones at New Hope. Continue to help us do it.
jon