Worship: the Heart of Religion - The Priority of the Word

"The first want of our day is a return to the old, simple and sharply-cut doctrines of our fathers" 

JC Ryle

I'm currently re-reading Crown Him Lord of All - Essays on the Life and Witness of the Free Church of Scotland.  It was published in 1993, 150 years after the Free Church Disruption.  I was 21 and in the middle of a university degree in Aberdeen.  I remember my father working on the production of the book as he settled into a new ministry in Edinburgh.  The storm clouds were gathering on what would eventually lead to a split within the Free Church in 2000 but in the early 1990's, the Free Church felt like it knew what it believed.  We didn't have the Healthy Gospel Church matrix but the gospel was preached and the ministers I knew were godly and faithful men.  They were men of conviction.  We may not have had the right DNA or culture, but we gathered at the Glasgow Psalmody Recital every year to sing the songs that Christians had sung without interruption for 2000 years.  

One of the many excellent essays in the book is Worship: the Heart of Religion by Rev Hector Cameron.  Those of us who had the privilege of knowing Rev Cameron remember him with great fondness.  He preached a big God and a beautiful Saviour.  He held his principles gently and was a greatly loved preacher and pastor.  As with so many of his generation, he held his convictions with compassion.  Cameron reminds us in his brilliant chapter that the Westminster Divines believed that no worship is acceptable unless it is prescribed by holy scripture.  As reformed Christians we gently but firmly believe in Biblical principle not pragmatism.  The issue in worship is not what is acceptable but what is Biblical.  

In his essay, Rev Cameron reminds us that the Westminster Divines believed there were 6 parts or divisions belonging to public worship:

• Prayer

• The reading of the Word

• Sound preaching

• Conscionable listening to the Word

• The singing of Psalms

• The administration of the sacraments

Rev Cameron goes on to explain these parts of worship outlining the reformed, and until recently, the Free Church position.  

The Priority of the Word
As reformed Christians, we believe that the word of God should be central to our service of worship.  It is not man that is central in reformed worship but God and his word.  We do not believe in idols, vestments, gimmicks, smoke machines, puppet shows or clowns.  We believe that 'faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.'  The pulpit, not the praise band should be central in reformed churches.  The Bible not the drumkit give our service their power and focus.  That is why we, traditionally, have given such a central place to the public reading of the word of God.    As Cameron says:

'To give the Word such a status has practical implications for the style of religious service to be expected from churches which concur.  Presbyterians tend to be viewed as dour and their services dull.  There may well be Presbyterians who approximate to that description.  Usually, however, the criticism has been prompted by the plainness of the church buildings, the subdued complexion of the services, the strictly basic character of the ritual, the conspicuous lack of activity up the front (apart from the preacher) or the less than picturesque attire of the church officials.'

As Cameron emphasises, reformed worship is simple, spiritual, God centered and Biblically rich.  That is why we sing the Psalms, God's ordained hymn book of praise.  New Testament worship is the worship of the Synagogue not the Temple.  The early church could have easily adopted the Greek culture with its music style but it did not. Our worship is prescribed not by Hillsong and Bethel but by the Holy Spirit in the written word.  

We are living in confusing and bewildering times.  Many who love the Free Church feel lost and grieved at the changes and the innovations.  Let me leave you with Hector Cameron's words:

'The temptation is always there to seek to short-circuit this foundation principle of worship and to seek pragmatic solutions to questions concerning worship which are strictly theological; or to shelter unthinkingly behind the views held about worship (on one side or the other) by some good man of former days.  It is a better option to wrestle with the basic principles involved - every question being brought to the bar of Holy Scripture - and to apply the conclusions faithfully.'