Worship, Polity, & the PCA
All is not well in the way worship is conducted in the PCA. Even as observance of the Lord’s Supper becomes more frequent in our churches, it seems that errors in its conduct multiply. These include the bizarre and biblically-unfounded practice of intinction (where the bread is dipped in wine and the two actions of the supper become confused), distribution of elements by unordained persons and even children, and so-called “young child communion” where some churches regularly admit children as young as four years old to the table.
The state of worship in the Presbyterian Church in America is arguably better than it has ever been, at least as far as liturgy goes. More churches now use recognizably Reformed liturgies than at any point in the denomination’s history. These are liturgies that include the biblical elements of worship—they are not just the standard evangelical format of “30 minutes of singing/30 minutes of preaching.” What may be lacking though are the hard-to-define (but essential) qualities of reverence and awe. What may be trending is leadership of worship that does not comport with or support presbyterian polity. And what may be chipping away at the foundations of proper worship are errant and novel practices, mostly regarding the Lord’s Supper.
Granted, most PCA churches employ liturgies that have more in common with those of the Continent rather than those of the holy presbyterian isle, Scotland. A standard PCA liturgy looks something like this, with minor variations in order and terminology:
Call to worship
Hymn or psalm
Invocation
Lord’s Prayer
Confession of sin
Declaration/assurance of pardon
Confession of faith
Singing of the doxology
Prayer and offering
Pastoral prayer
Scripture reading
Hymn or psalm
Scripture reading
Sermon (with prayer before and after)
Lord’s Supper (weekly or monthly, bookended by additional prayers)
Closing hymn or psalm
Benediction
This is scripturally-regulated worship made up of biblical elements. The dialogical pattern of God speaking by his Word and his people responding in prayer, praise, and confession is obvious. There are many prayers and lots of scripture. Rearrange the order, change a term or two, and you have a liturgy that is common not only to most PCA churches, but also to most of the confessional churches affiliated with the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) and, indeed, to most conservative Reformed churches the world over for the last five centuries. But otherwise-solid liturgies may be undermined by things done, left undone, or done improperly—additions, omissions, and errors.
What are some examples of tangible and intangible things which have been added to liturgies, to the detriment of simple, biblical, Spirit-and-truth Reformed worship? We would propose the following:
First, an overly horizontal, man-centered ethos may be reflected in informal or casual approaches to the service, which could include announcements or presentations that break up the dialogical-biblical flow and tone of the service. These might focus on service opportunities or might amount to promotional pitches complete with video presentations or distribution of materials. Fellowship times in the middle of the service (sometimes called “passing of the peace” or even “halftime.”) might succeed in establishing a familiar or homey feel even as they distract from the holy purpose of worship. Children’s activities or the departure of children from the service at some point may also prove disruptive. Other unwelcome additions include showy musical performances, loud or complex musical accompaniment or leadership (which may also dominate visually as a central focus), or other inappropriate visual elements. Too often, we also find whole seasons imported to the simple, ordinary, and biblical Reformed tradition, like Lent and Holy Week. Somewhat related are the eclectic additions of the Anglican-attracted, which includes complicated and variable clerical garb and vestments, crossings, bowing at prescribed times, or turning to face a cross, bible, or procession. Finally (and possibly most destructive) we may bring “the warfare of the world…into the house of God,” as J. Gresham Machen lamented in the 1920s. In his day the imported social and political issues included “things that divide nation from nation and race from race…human pride…the passions of war.” Little has changed in the last 100 years since Machen published Christianity and Liberalism. The battle for spiritual worship continues.
-
Loving and Longing
Such is the Christian life. Full of love and full of longing. Graciously receiving all good gifts from our good Father, and looking for and hastening the coming of the Lord Jesus. Let us look to Christ with contentment and expectation.
This was originally written before the birth of our fourth son. Now that we are expecting our fifth in a month or so, I’ve decided to share again. I’m still living in the loving and longing.
We are expecting our fourth son within a week, and I’ve been filled with thankfulness and excitement as the day draws near. I’ve been reminded that God fills our life with good gifts. James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). I love these good gifts from God. Yet I know that these good gifts are temporary. My wife, my house, my children, my job. Each one of these could be taken from me in a moment. Each one of these could bring me happiness or grief. And often that is how it is: the thing that once brought the greatest joy, brings also with it the greatest heartache. So on the cusp of the birth of my fourth son, I’m torn. Torn between loving and longing.
Read More
Related Posts: -
Can Mainline Protestantism Be Rebuilt?
Written by Aaron M. Renn |
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
The negative world is almost defined by institutional incompatibility or hostility to historical Protestantism. This necessitates a countercultural approach and bars the door to a mainline relationship of the church to culture.Jake Meador wrote a recent interesting piece on a topic of great interest to me, namely about a call to attempt to create a new Protestant mainline. He says:
So to bring the discussion to reformed catholicity and what reformed catholic churches can do in our current context, here it is: The old Mainline is dead. American Catholicism is likely terminal as well, even prior to the plausible turmoil to come under Pope Francis’s successor. American Evangelicalism is now encountering its own dechurching crisis and loss of influence. The Christian movement in America is thus at a crossroads. Something new will need to be built. But I do not think we should build a new evangelicalism; I think we should build a new mainline.
That mainline should be centered around the EPC, PCA, and ACNA with room for the possible addition of Lutheran, Methodist, or Baptist denominations, should denominations interested in this project emerge from those streams. The old mainline encompassed Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Baptists. We currently have Presbyterian and Anglican communions that might plausibly grow into the “continuing church” vision once articulated at the PCA’s founding. It remains to be seen if the Global Methodists can join this movement, let alone if the LCMS can stave off its own demographic collapse or if a strengthened Baptist commujnion can emerge from the chaos and corruption currently vexing the SBC. These are the institutional pieces to watch, then: the PCA, EPC, ACNA, Global Methodists, LCMS, maybe WELS, and SBC.
I agree that America lost a lot with the decline of the mainline denominations. Attempts to at least salvage or reclaim some of that is of great interest to me, and also others as well. I think you can see Tim Keller’s plan for the renewal of the American church through this lens, and I might be collaborating on an article about that in the future.
Lind’s Four American Republics
Before digging in, however, I thought it was interesting to see Meador lay out a “four Americas” framework from Michael Lind that was very similar to my own version. I did not draw from Lind, though had heard he had something like this. But I think this sort of division of American history is one very obvious way to do it, so I’m sure it has recurred many times.
Where I differ from the framework Meador gives is that I see the “fourth republic” or “America 4.0” as less emerged than he does (or at least that’s my impression). I see us as in a liminal period where we can’t yet see the contours of what the future system will look like, just as those in the Depression didn’t know what postwar America would be like. The old is passing away but the new has not yet been born. Hence we should be cautious about over fitting solutions to the present movement.
Through Catholic Eyes
Meador is also influenced by Joseph Bottum’s An Anxious Age, which I actually read after I saw him make a previous reference to it. It’s an interesting book in which Bottum makes the common argument that contemporary elite morality and culture is a form of secularized mainline Protestantism (a view with some degree of truth). In his telling, Catholics (with evangelicals in a supporting role as public mouthpiece for Catholic natural law arguments) were the would be replacement for the mainline role in society, but that project failed because America ended up being too Protestant to submit to a Catholicism that was weakened at the time by internal issues.
You won’t be surprised to hear that Bottum himself is a staunch Catholic. That is, like 90% of the people I read who center America’s problems in mainline Protestantism, he himself is not a Protestant. Invariably in these readings, any role Ellis Islanders (like my family) might have played in contemporary America’s failings is minimized or avoided altogether. Just once I’d like to see a Catholic writer say something like, “The WASPs handed over the keys, but we ran the car into a ditch.”
This is one reason I have been arguing that Protestants must stop outsourcing their thinking to Catholic intellectuals. Invariably this leads to us repeating essentially Catholic serving talking points, as Bottum himself basically says in his book (e.g., of George W. Bush).
Meador’s Mainline Restoration Project
With those preliminaries, what does Meador’s mainline restoration project look like?
Institutionally, he sees it centered in the conservative “shadow denominations” of the mainline, mostly splinter groups (EPC, PCA) but some which are not (LCMS). He goes on to say:
Read More
Related Posts: -
Who Do You Highly Esteem?
It is God who we should seek to please all the time. It is God who we should care greatly about disappointing or letting down. No human being can ever come close. Rock-star celebrities – in whatever arena – can only go so far as those we greatly admire and want to be like. All of them will disillusion us and fail us one way or another. None of them deserve our full and total devotion and admiration, no matter how great they are in a given area.
Probably most of us can think of someone that if we knew we had an opportunity to meet we would be all agog and flustered about. We would spend heaps of time and energy to properly present ourselves to some esteemed and greatly loved and admired person. Perhaps it is the Queen or some other world leader. It might be a Hollywood celebrity, or some megastar rocker.
Most of us tend to have those that we look up to, or idolise, or put on a pedestal, or almost worship and adore. We can sometimes almost consider some people to be demigods – so highly do we value and esteem them. There is nothing wrong – generally speaking – with having role models and looking up to some people that you aspire to be like, especially if they are worthy people to emulate.
All sorts of examples come to mind of this. A budding painter may have the highest regard for certain great painters both past and present – say a Rembrandt or a Vermeer. A young basketballer may look up to (in more ways than one) a Shaquille O’Neal or a Michael Jordan.
A wannabe rocker may very much adore a Mick Jagger or an Elvis Presley. An aspiring guitarist may almost worship a Jimi Hendrix or an Eric Clapton. A young poet may strive to be the next Shakespeare. And an up and coming actor may want to be the next Clark Gable or Tom Hanks.
Plenty of other such scenarios could be mentioned here. One notable example of big-time hero worship occurred last night on a television show I happened upon. It had to do with the world of cooking. A number of contestants – both amateurs and professionals – were set a challenge by one of the icons of the cooking world.
On this particular episode of MasterChef Australia these young cooks had their world rocked as they walked into the cooking arena only to find Marco Pierre White, the famous British chef who has been awarded three Michelin stars, standing before them. Talk about being awestruck.
They all seemed to be in shock and awe, trembling in their boots. One of the great heroes of the culinary world was in their midst. They were blown away and almost dumbfounded. And things got even more hardcore when they were told to cook something that he would be tasting and judging. And worse yet, it was one of his own dishes that they had to replicate.
Needless to say, upon learning of their task the contestants were now doubly shaking in their boots. Just imagine: THEIR own cooking would be tasted by this superstar chef. No one wanted to disappoint him. Everyone wanted to impress him and please him. There was so much at stake.
Read More
Related Posts:
