As we commit ourselves to being distinct from the world around us and even the ebbs and flows of modern worship practices, we come together with like-minded brothers and sisters to form a vibrant community, one in which the glory of God is the central focus! When that is the case, we will understand that gathered worship is no ordinary thing, but it’s an extraordinary foretaste of the grandeurs waiting for us in Glory!

Recently I have been considering this idea of a “distinctive.” Seemingly, in all facets of life, we have distinctives. For example, you have aspects of your family that distinguish you from other families. Likewise, everyone has gifts that distinguish them, and some particular practices and doctrines make denominations dissimilar. When considering this last example, not only does the practice of and the driving principles behind Reformed Worship differentiate between denominations, but sadly, it is not a distinctive that all our congregations in the Presbyterian Church in America share. However, to make the case that our church must hold this distinction across our denomination, let’s first consider how gathered worship makes Christianity distinct from the world.
Distinct from the Sin-Filled World
The Reformed world has an eschatology that declares that the church will continue to look more and more different than the world. This eschatological view suggests that the Bride of Christ will progressively be more distinct in this sin-ruined creation that She currently inhabits. Now, I believe that the church will continue to grow as it becomes more and more distinct, but even if you do not, the overwhelming consensus is that the distinctives of God’s people will be increasingly more evident.
These eschatological thoughts consume me when I think about the distinctives of the early Christians in the Roman Empire. The countercultural, revolutionary actions of the Early Church are often overlooked by many Bible readers and preachers today. In the Acts narrative, the stories like Peter’s Pentecost sermon, where thousands are convicted of their sins and seek the salvation of the Lord, are beloved. Yet, there’s very little attention to the declaration of faithfulness unto God that the early Christians made by their ordinary actions. Believers need to consider these “ordinary” actions. For example, gathering for Lord’s Day worship was, and still is, countercultural.
Consider this, as Christians who believe in the authority of the Word of God and seek to obey its commands, we gather for the public worship of God. We are making a public declaration that we strive to live by God’s standards. If we regularly gather with the saints on the Lord’s Day, we are publicly demonstrating our obedience to the commands of God – to worship Him and find our rest in Him. It is a public display that our lives and days are not our own, but they belong to our Lord.
Does not that distinguish us from this postmodern, individualistic world surrounding us? It did for the early Christians in the Roman empire, and it does so today.
Distinct from the Evangelical World
Often, when considering the broad worship practices of the evangelical world and the lasting beauty of reformed worship, I begin humming John Newton’s well-known hymn, Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, as it sings:
 Savior, if of Zion’s city
I, through grace, a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in thy name:
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know. [i]
Many evangelicals desire a worship style full of “pomp and show.” Usually, evangelicals defend this desire with the practice of contextualization; teaching that our worship must look like the world around us so that we may better reach the lost and make the skeptic feel more comfortable attending our services. Yet, if we consider the worldling’s pleasure, as John Newton writes, it is ever fading and constantly fleeting. Therefore, what might gain the attention of one seeker will not gain the attention of the next. Likewise, what might attract this generation will not attract the former or subsequent generations.

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I challenge you to consider the BCO in light of what the Bible says about the church. Read it carefully and deliberately. If you disagree with a statement made in its pages, ask why, and investigate further. Ask your pastor and elders about it. Order pleases the Lord, and he desires for his people to be built up and edified, by all the teachings of the Bible about the church. The BCO helps the local church accomplish this vital task.

Like many in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) who come from baptistic backgrounds, I found my church’s inquirers’ class to be a welcome & intriguing experience. Most Baptist churches in the United States can fall anywhere along a wide spectrum of educational practices and confessional commitments, so it was a refreshing drink of mature biblical doctrine to walk week-by-week through the Westminster Confession. My wife and I came to our church already presbycurious, but emerged from the inquirers’ class as full-fledged Westminsterians. We couldn’t get enough of the glorious teaching contained within our Standards. We craved more.
As I spoke with my pastor and elders throughout this class, I came to learn there was more.
You see, Presbyterians love books. They love order even more. They even have a whole book devoted to the establishing & keeping of order in the church. Reading the PCA’s Book of Church Order (BCO) has helped me to learn about my denomination and to love it even more. Laity in our church would find much benefit from the troves of wisdom in its pages. Many a pastor labors in its pages, and perhaps even many elders & deacons, but I believe it can be of great use to the everyday believer in forming their thoughts about the church in its operation.
Giving Shape to the Church
Oftentimes as we read popular works of theology, we gain many insights into what Scripture teaches about God, the Christian, salvation, repentance, and living out life as Christ’s redeemed. The doctrine of the Church, however, can sometimes be unfortunately neglected or even wholly ignored. The BCO provides the reader with the standards by which a Presbyterian church is constituted and maintained. It outlines the scriptural doctrine of church government and defines both the visible church and the powers of that church. It details a governing structure for the local church, its initial organization, its officers, and the rights and duties of its members. The courts of the session, the presbytery, and the general assembly are all defined, as well as the relation of elders to the courts.
For laypersons, the Form of Government (Part 1) of the BCO teaches us about the church, properly governed. We are taught that the visible church’s government reaches its perfection in the presbytery, but that the absence of presbytery doesn’t deny the existence of the church. This comforts many of us who have loved ones and relations outside of Presbyterian churches. This also teaches us what to expect of and for our pastor, how to relate to him in his ministry, and how a church can call a pastor if it does not have one. For any who have spent time in the Wild West of nondenominational churches, such guidance is like water from a spring. No church and no church order is perfect in its execution, but the procedures that the BCO lay out for a church to live by provide a firm foundation of unity & practice for a covenant body of believers.
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Church
Church discipline is a dirty word in many circles of the evangelical world, and not without good reason. Some Christians may have felt the overzealous hand of a church or officers who thought that excessive discipline was the best way to separate the chaff from the wheat. Others may have been exposed to church environments where practical discipline was entirely absent and unrepentant flagrant sin abounded in the body of believers. Neither of these are healthy, nor are they faithful biblical expressions of Christ’s command to care for His sheep. For these tender matters, the BCO is singularly useful as well. In its second part, The Rules of Discipline, standards are laid down for the church to know what church discipline is and how it is to be exercised. BCO 27-3 guides us to the Bible’s described ends for church discipline: the glory of God, the purity of His church, and the keeping and reclaiming of disobedient sinners. Discipline has godliness for its principal end in the life of a Christian; not the stoking of egos, but the salvation of sinners.
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Where to find the BCO?1. The PCA website2. The Apple App Store3. Consult with your elders about one of those legendary blue binders.
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The recent expunging of the name “Buswell Memorial Library” came as the main concrete outcome of a lengthy committee study of the history of race relations at Wheaton College, commissioned and then approved by President Philip Ryken and the board of trustees. The study itself was a worthy enterprise, revealing many dark spots as well as bright ones. History is important. The Wheaton community should indeed look back and lament the institution’s previous sins, including the ones committed by my grandfather. We should learn from the stories of our past, decry racism and every other shortcoming, and aim always to do better as we live out the gospel of grace together in Christian community.

What does the gospel have to say about the names on buildings in Christian communities?
The Biblical gospel holds at the center the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died for our sins, rose from the dead, reigns in heaven, and is coming again to judge and to dwell with His redeemed saints forever. How can a name on a building possibly show forth the beauty of these gospel truths?
The question becomes complicated when we deal with buildings named after sinful saints—that is, true followers of Christ who led in a significant way but who were imperfect. That would be all of them. How can we honor significant leaders who were sinful saints? There are two options: First, we could refuse to name any building after any person, for in honoring the person, we would be honoring the sin he or she surely committed. We would then need to “un-name” all the buildings of our Christian institutions. We would need to cancel all the honorary chairs of departments and lectureships named after beloved figures who have gone before; they were sinners, too. Even we who make these judgments are sinners. We should just all be quiet.
The other option is to honor sinful saints of the past by thanking God for their leadership while telling their stories truly and thereby honoring the God who saved us by His grace through His Son. We can honor godly leaders by putting their names on a building because their names point to lives redeemed by God and used by him even in their imperfection. To honor sinful saints honors the sinless Savior; He is the only righteous One.
Wheaton College in Illinois recently expunged the name of its third president, James Oliver Buswell Jr., from its campus library. President Buswell was my grandfather, whom I knew and loved. He died in 1977 when I was a senior at Wheaton. I acknowledge with sorrow that my grandfather sinned by refusing admission to a black applicant to the college back in 1939.
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