worship

The other morning, while leading a morning prayer meeting, we concluded with singing “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name.” Before we sang, as I often do, I exhorted the group to sing with gusto, verve, and what we might call “heartiness.” It reminded me of something that I’ve been wanting to write about for a while now. Although others have addressed this before, and far better than I will, I still want to take a stab at pointing it out.

The Protestant Reformation was not merely a seismic shift in understanding Salvation (i.e. by grace through faith alone); in fact, one of the primary battles which our Reforming forbearers fought for was the restoration of biblical worship in the Church. The Roman Catholic Mass became, largely, a spectator sport, where the whole service was carried along primarily by the priest. The Reformation reestablished the biblical approach to corporate worship; namely, that it was the role and work of the whole congregation of saints. Notice that when the Scriptures speak of corporate gathering of saints, it shows (among other things) primarily, that they both heard the Scriptures taught (as we see in Neh. 8:18 & Luk. 4:17-21) and responded in thanksgiving (1 Chr. 16:9). There are numerous examples of this in both the Old and New Testaments. [Read more…] about Of Skinny Jeans and Papal Robes