Deus Misereatur

Okay, so I'm thinking through the subject of Worship as the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) plays it out. What is below is simply a "thinking-out-loud" chart of the three basic "Regulative Principles of Worship" in Christianity (each branch, and all sub-branches have a regulative principle, or so it seems to me; but we simply draw up the lines in different places). Give it a look, and let me know what your thoughts are: 1.       Position A (More Constricted Position): Ÿ   True Worship -Only what is commanded in Scripture. Ÿ   False Worship -Anything outside what is commanded in Scripture. 2.       Position B (More Lutheran, Anglican, Some Reformed, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic) Ÿ   True Worship -What is commanded (and anything not specifically forbidden is permitted and at times mandated). Ÿ   What is prescribed by Church Councils sometimes required sometimes permitted, Ÿ   Gu...

Story-Shaped Worship: Following Patterns From the Bible and History   Robbie F. Castleman IVP Academic (imprint of InterVarsity Press) PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 www.ivpress.com Copyright: 2013 ISBN: 978-0-8308-3964-3; $16.00 Reviewed for Deus Misereatur by: Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber Foundational Formularies - 4 Stars out of 5      In my experience, after years of sitting in the pew and now years of standing in the pulpit, many people have given little thought to the "why, wherefore, and how come" of Christian worship. If there is any gauge by which to decipher the rightness or wrongness of any worship service, it is usually a subjective, "Was I blessed" or "I really felt like it encouraged me" kind of decoder ring. That's what makes "Story-Shaped Worship" by John Brown University associate professor of biblical studies and theology, Robbie F. Castleman, an important resource. This easily readable, 224 page paperba...

“Contemporary worship” sounds really hip and cool, especially when a person throws it up against the dusty, dry, wrinkly “traditional worship” style. Yet, there are several problems here. What most folks think of as “traditional” is only yesterday’s “contemporary” style. Even Willow Creek Church’s hip style that grew out of the 70s and 80s is now being called “traditional” by the teens & 20-somethings. And what the middle-agers disparage as “Traditional” is really a format that erupted after World War II, when returning soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines spurred on an explosion of new churches all across the nation. Nothing wrong with that, in-and-of-itself. But it did galvanize a specific mode of worship that was quite contemporary in its day. A style that most of our grandparents and great grandparents were comfortable with. Therefore, when I hear people whine about “traditional worship” being old and stodgy, they’re usually referring to the very contemporary-to-the-1940s form...