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WORSHIP: Is It In Vain?

April 15, 2004

HOW SHOULD WE WORSHIP?

To understand how we should worship as believers, we must first understand what worship is. Worship can be defined as: focusing on and responding to God. Therefore, the more we focus on God, the more we respond to Him in worship. It is clear that God is invisible and so in order for us to focus on Him there has to be a revelation. Fortunately for us God has chosen to reveal Himself through His Word. So our response in worship must be a response to God’s revelation of Himself, therefore, worship should always be God centered and Biblical.

Worship is essential in the life of every believer. Because of its vital importance in our lives, it is imperative that we learn how to worship God the way He wants to be worshiped. It is obvious that in churches today believers have different preferences when it comes to worship services. Some want to use contemporary worship, others prefer traditional worship. Some enjoy guitars in worship, others simply want an organ. Some believers want to sing using projectors and a screen, and others from the Hymnals. Some people prefer sermons and others prefer drama. The problem occurs when personal preferences create conflict within the church, not because one group is right and the other group is wrong, but because both groups are focusing on the wrong things. Worship is God centered, so when our focus is on something other than God, then I don’t think God really cares which way we worship Him poorly. Shouldn’t we be less concerned with the circumstances or conditions of worship and more concerned with its elements? Shouldn’t our focus be on the truth of the message preached, the words that are sung, the scripture that is read, and the prayers that are lifted to God?

As church members we all too often design the worship service to fit our needs and meet our inclinations while completely forsaking all thoughts of God and what He wants. Worship, however, is not about us, it’s about God. It is possible that our churches have been worshiping God in vain.

“These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9)

This brings us to the question: How do we know what is appropriate for true worship? Did God leave it all up for us to decide, did he give us a few suggestions to get us started or has God specifically and clearly defined how He wants to be worshiped?

REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE OF WORSHIP - (RPW)

A doctrine that has fallen by the wayside is one called the regulative principle of worship. RPW teaches that God has set forth in Scripture the only acceptable ways of worshiping Him and it is a sin to attempt to worship him in any other way. It is an important doctrine because it provides a model of worship that we can use to examine our worship practices in the church so that we can determine whether or not what we do is Biblical. Unfortunately it is not a doctrine that is well known among our churches today.
According to the Baptist Confession of 1689 in Chapter 22, Section 1, acceptable worship is defined in this way:

But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.

In other words, Christians should not worship God in anyway other than what is revealed by God to us in Scripture. Scripture alone is our final authority when it comes to matters of worship and faith.

RPW is one of two worship practices that developed during the reformation. The view that is opposite of RPW is the normative principle of worship or NPW. This defines appropriate worship as any activity that you believe honors God, edifies the people, and is done in the right spirit, as long as the Bible does not forbid it. This was Martin Luther’s view of Worship in the 1500s. Anything that scripture condemned was certainly not allowed in worship, but if the activity was not condemned by scripture and it was believed to honor God then it was ok, even if it could not be found in scripture alone. The Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists followed this method of worship.

Later Calvin decided that God knows how He wants to be worshiped better than we do. God has revealed how he wants to be worshiped in Scripture and therefore we are limited in worship to what God has revealed. The regulative principle of worship was adopted by Presbyterians, Reformed, Congregationalists, and Baptists.

For worship leaders and churches that do not know these two worship practices the default is almost always the normative principle of worship. After all, at first glance it seems like the right answer. If the Bible doesn’t forbid it or mention it then it must not be wrong. However, this leaves an essential practice in the life of every believer open to man’s own ideas, views, preferences, and traditions. Ultimately we presume upon God how it is He should be worship instead of us doing it the way He has prescribed in Scripture. This could lead to worship no longer being God centered or biblical.
For Baptists, our forefathers decided that it was in Revelation through Scripture alone that we discover how God wishes to be worshiped. In the book “Reformed Worship” by Terry L. Johnson the regulative principle is summed up in this way:

“The Bible provides both the structure and the content of our worship… To put it simply, in worship we pray the Bible, sing the Bible, read the Bible, and preach the Bible. The language of Christian worship is the language of Scripture. Why? Because this is what converts, sanctifies, and edifies God’s people.”

There is no man that could come up with a better way to worship God than what God has already approved through His word. We should worship only in a way acceptable to and authorized by Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible is authoritative and relevant to our culture and time, just as it has always been.

CIRCUMSTANCES VS ELEMENTS
It is important to clarify what the RPW model is referring to. According to this view the only elements of worship that are acceptable are those given by God through Scripture. What are these elements? The elements of worship are the actions of worship, meaning the things you do. Singing a hymn, preaching, reading scripture, and praying are all elements of a worship service. Not only does the RPW take into account the elements of worship, but it also covers the forms of those elements. For instance, preaching is a biblical element of a worship service and the form of preaching is always vocal. A sermon cannot be acted out in a drama or danced as an acceptable form of preaching. This same principle is applied to the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, and every other aspect of worship.

Every church member understands that there are also other things involved in worship, besides just the elements. These are called circumstances or conditions of worship. Circumstances of worship are the environmental factors or details such as the time, place, length, light, heat, use of books, screens, seating, and so on. There are conditions in a worship service that are common to humanity which should be structured by the people.

The Bible speaks specifically to the “what” of worship, but our freedom lies within the “how.” According to the RPW, the Bible gives us the elements of worship but does not focus specifically on how these elements are to be practiced. Our freedom comes in choosing how to practice specific elements as long as they line up with the following five commands:

1. We are to worship God in ways that edify our local church. 1 Corinthians 14:26

2. We are to worship God in a proper and orderly manner. 1 Corinthians 14:40

3. We are to worship God in Spirit and truth. John 4:24

4. We are to worship God in reverence. Hebrews 12:28-29

5. We are to worship God in awe. Hebrews 12:28-29

We know the “what” of worship is clearly revealed in scripture, but the “how” is open. Within the freedom we have in choosing how to perform each of these elements it is important that we measure everything that we do with these Biblical guidelines.

BIBLICAL ELEMENTS
There are several acts of worship that have strong scriptural support. The following list of elements is compiled by Reisinger & Allen in their book entitled “Worship.”

1. The reading of Scripture (Acts 15:21, Rev. 1:3)

2. The preaching of the Word of God (2 Timothy 4:2)

3. The hearing of the word of God (James 1:19)

4. The singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16, Eph. 5:19, James 5:13)

5. Baptism (Matthew 28:19)

6. The Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23, Acts 2:42)

7. The Collection of Offerings (Gal. 2:10; 1 Cor. 9:3-12)

God does not give us every single detail that should take place in our worship services; instead He provides these rather broad categories. The Word gives us general rules and categories that we are free to use our own common sense and discretion in, within His limitations of course. We must be careful that our freedom does not contradict the whole of Scripture or cause us to forsake Biblical elements of worship.

CONCLUSION
The regulative principle is an old doctrine in the church and yet it is a new concept to many Bible believing Christians. The church can easily find itself in a position of relying too heavily on the needs, wants, desires, and preferences of its people while all together forsaking what God desires. It is God who initiates worship, who draws us to Himself, who leads us in bringing glory unto Himself, and who meets our needs in life and godliness.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life an godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” 2 Peter 1:3

God and His revelation of Himself is an adequate guide to lead us in proper worship. Humans are fallible; at the very heart of anything we create will be fault and failure. However, the Bible is the infallible and sufficient Word of God that leads us into all truth. If we follow God’s lead in worship through Scripture we can rest assured that our worship is not in vain.

Pressed

Comments

Posted by: Jeffrey L. Whitledge
April 16, 2004 12:51 PM

I'm very confused about what you are advocating here. You say:

For instance, preaching is a biblical element of a worship service and the form of preaching is always vocal. A sermon cannot be acted out in a drama or danced as an acceptable form of preaching.

And you also say: "The Bible speaks specifically to the “what” of worship, but our freedom lies within the “how.”" I don't see where you are drawing the lines. If preaching is always vocal, then what about deaf chapels using ASL? I'm confused.

Posted by: pressed
April 18, 2004 02:18 PM

Jeffrey,
I'm saying that preaching is a biblical element of worship outlined in scripture. In scripture preaching is vocalizing the word of God to groups of people and this should be a part of our worship services. However, we have freedom as to how we preach. Do I preach loud, do I preach soft, do I preach on a stage, on the floor, in the balcony, do I speak English, Spanish, German, do I preach using a mic, not using a mic, do I preach with an interpreter or someone to do sign language for the deaf congregation, so on and so forth. Preaching by vocalizing the Word of God does not change, but the circumstances can be different.

I'm not splitting hairs here, simply saying that preaching is a valid aspect of a worship service (which can be done via an interpreter or by sign language, which are valid forms of communication to those who need it), whereas doing an interpretive dance to represent a preached message would not be a valid, biblical form of worship.

Posted by: Tim
April 19, 2004 10:03 AM

Outstanding summary of the RPW. I think you hit the nail on the head.

Posted by: Jeffrey L. Whitledge
April 19, 2004 01:36 PM

Well....okay.

But I can't help but notice that prayer is omitted from the list of biblical elements.

I think that God has given the church at least some authority to determine how it is going to go about its mission. For example, the selection of deacons was not commanded by God; it was an effort by the church to address problems that it confronted.

We can disagree about whether the deacon pericope was designed to illustrate the origins of the Biblical office or to illustrate the church taking the initiative to achieve its goals, but how can a Biblical case be made for either one? This whole discussion seems to be rooted in conjecture.

For example, the early church also (briefly) practiced communal living and speaking in tongues--practices that are rejected by most ecclesiologists today.

Contrarywise, I've heard people condemn bus ministry because it isn't mentioned in the Bible. I know of churches that don't have Sunday school because it isn't mentioned in the Bible. That sounds unreasonable to me, and I don't see any Biblical evidence that we should reject practices simply because they are omitted in scripture.

On the other hand, this could be just the excuse I need to get rid of the useless morning Sunday school report.

Posted by: Pressed
April 19, 2004 07:00 PM

Actually prayer was mentioned in this post. It didn't make it on the list of Biblical elements because I was only quoting a list from a book and I didn't list every single last element mentioned in the bible, but certainly prayer is a biblical part of worship. Prayer was not omitted, as if I took it out and I am not trying to say that the ones listed are the only Biblical elements of worhsip in case you are confused.

God certainly gave the church the authority to carry out its mission, but I think He was very clear as to what that mission would be. Make disciples.

I think you are missing the point of this post all together. The RPW model is for worship, it isn't applied to other aspects of the church. The church selecting deacons and having a bus ministry has nothing to do with worship. You are trying to take this post about the Regulative Principle of WORSHIP and make it apply to bus ministry, deacons, and Sunday school and it doesn't have anything to do with any of those things.

And I must ask this question. Why do you need an excuse to get rid of the useless morning Sunday school report? If it is useless then get rid of it.

Posted by: Jeffrey L. Whitledge
April 20, 2004 10:10 AM

Why don't I get rid of the useless Sunday school report? I hope to in time. My church practices congregational government, so I can't just make all the changes I want to make. But I am already about 5% through the list of changes that I want to make. And I've only been there seven months, so I'm doing pretty good. I don't want to spring everything on them at once, though, because that might cause panic!

I don't mean to drag out this conversation, but how are you defining "worship"? I would say that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we should do to the honor of God. Does a church only exist during its morning meetings?

What about the "love feasts" that are spoken of in the Bible (which God also didn't command in scripture). Was that worship or not?

Would an interpretive dance be okay during the potlucks?

(I hope my tone doesn't sound to harsh. None of this is a big deal to me, I just enjoy talking about it, and refining my knowledge through "Socratic dialog." Thanks for your comments. I guess I should avail myself of the clickable smilies.)

Posted by: Pressed
April 20, 2004 02:33 PM

I think there is a difference between doing everything in the honor of God and in the name of Jesus and worshiping. I think worship is specific and concise and not broad and draw out. I define worship as a response to God. It's defined in this post actually, if you just scroll up and read. However, specifically deals with the worship service at Church.

If someone wants to do an interpretive dance at a potluck then by all means... just don't block the dessert line.

Posted by: Christopher
April 21, 2004 07:12 AM

Dessert? Where?

Don't worry. I will be around to let the other party know what the other person is saying.

In looking around, I am guessing that the whole dessert thing was a joke...

Posted by: Patmos
December 6, 2006 05:04 PM

I love how every "Reformer" uses the Matt. 15:8-9 verses out of context.
Jesus was talking to the "religious" and telling them that their rules and regulations on worship were wrong. Later Jesus tells the woman at the well that a day will come where it will not matter where you worship but who. Worship is not about rules but about God and the condition of the heart of the worshiper.