Our church believes in the regulative principle of worship. That means is that we only do things in our worship service that are commanded in the Bible, specifically,
1) reading of the Scriptures,
2) preaching and hearing the Word of God,
3) singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord,
4) prayer with thanksgiving for all things lawful, and
5) administration of the sacraments.

Most churches in our American culture use the inventive principle. The inventive principle is basically the Roman Catholic view, i.e., the church is free to establish the parameters of worship. The church may invent or create as it pleases.

Today’s church seems to be driven by the inventive principle – just a cursory look at contemporary Christianity reveals an amazing number of gimmicks and entertainment techniques used in the name of reaching out to the unchurched. Drama, modern dance, comedy routines, etc., are common to worship services all through the land yet none of these are mentioned in the context of worship in the Bible. I believe that part of the motive for all this foolishness is a basic insecurity on the part of churches. Will the Gospel stand on its own in the public arena of ideas, or do we need to ‘dress it up’ it with a fancy new outfit? All too often churches will try to modify the message to fit what they think people want and in the process their message becomes a lie or a misrepresentation of the facts. They will say that people don’t want to hear about theology but I think it is dishonest and insulting to downplay the message of the Bible. If eternal destiny is at stake then in good conscience we should be honest with people!

In addition to the above, I think that our view (regulative principle) is more honoring to the Lord since he ought to be the object of our worship. Worship is not meant to ‘please’ people, it is aimed at the only worthy object of worship: God.

Curiously, one would think that this sort of worship might be boring or ‘uncreative.’ In practice we find biblical worship rich with heartwarming and enthusiastic joy! Humans were created for worship though the fall twisted us into God-haters. By the mercy of God the fellowship of the redeemed have been granted new hearts that now have a passionate love for the things of the Lord. When those who have yet to believe come and witness our worship they will hear those doctrines of the Bible that direct them to their responsibility – may the Lord grant them salvation!

Posted by Robin on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 7:09 pm.