Some of our friends from church recently read an article on Reformed Worship. Sarah and I attend, Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church, a PCA Church in Tucson. The issue of proper worship should be a question that all churches should deal with. It seems that with worship, most of the battles are about music tastes. What I like or don’t like when it comes to music should not be the issue, as important as that is, but the real issue is what is worshipful to God. Many in Reformed churches, it seems, have been moving further and further away from the theologically rich Reformed tradition and exchanging it for the “feelings oriented” contemporary evangelical worship. Every church has liturgy, it just depends how much, what kind, and how theologically deep it is. The reason to do liturgy in a worship service is to expose the people to the Bible. Every element of worship should be steeped in the Bible. It should drip with the richness of the Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistles, etc. The Old Testament and the New Testament, the Word of God, should be read publicly, preached, prayed, sung, confessed, and rejoiced over. Unfortunately, for many people in church congregations, the only Bible they get that week is what they hear on Sundays. (This is a sad testament to the spiritual walk of many Christians, but a topic for another time). Many people approach a church service and say things like; “The worship was good, and the preacher said some encouraging words.” Modern Evangelicalism, equates worship with singing. Everything that happens in the worship service from the Call to Worship to the Benediction, IS worship. Most of the fighting when it comes to worship, seems to be over music, but there is so much more to it then that. Our worship, as I said, must be Biblically, and theologically rich. There is one danger on the other side of this issue that we must deal with in Reformed Churches, and that is that is that just because something is older it is better. Not all hymns written in the 16th century are good, and not all praise songs written today are bad. That to me is not the issue. All elements of worship, and this of course includes music must be Biblically based. All generations of Christians should be writing new songs and singing old ones along with the new ones. Music in worship, along with confessions of faith, connects us with other Christians in time and space. Music must also preach the Gospel, just as the pastor does. This is the purpose of music and all elements of worship. The Gospel going forth to the people, encouraging, challenging, convicting of sin, and rejoicing over the salvation that is only through Jesus Christ. Let us go forward in worship and make it Christ exalting!
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Becoming a parent is an exciting and joyous thing. . . it is also a scary thing. The realization that we are bringing another human being into the world bears an enormous responsibility. Sarah and I have been discussing our philosophy of parenting. What I think both of us realize is that it is easier to talk about and will be harder to do, but at least we are talking and planning. I mean let’s face it, we will most assuredly mess up somewhere along the way. We desire to do much to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and we want to provide a loving environment for our kids, but I know that we will make mistakes (and we will do somethings right too). We are thankful that we have many lessons that we have gleaned from our own parents that will help us parent our children. It is hard to believe that in only 2 short months, we will have our first born. When I hold that little one in my arms and look into her (?) eyes, it will be . . . wow! There is so much I want to do, I can hardly wait! Please keep us in prayer that the delivery goes well and that we will be good parents to this new little life, this image bearer of the King.
