Heroes - a good read!

	Book Title: Heroes
	Author : Iain H. Murray Banner of Truth
	Price: £ 15.00
	ISBN#: 9781848710245

Worship

'While believers are to worship in secret as individuals and in private as families, they are also to worship as churches in assemblies of public worship, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken. Public worship occurs when God, by his Word and Spirit, through the lawful government of the church, calls his people to assemble to worship him together ... '

From the proposed Directory for Public Worship of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Reflections

With the Church of Scotland fiasco still fresh in the memory thoughts turn to those who stood for righteousness and truth in that very mixed denomination. I don't know anything about them so can't comment but my mind goes back to those days in the late 1960's when churches began to secede from the Presbyterian Church of Wales. By that time Presbyterianism had become a dirty word among Bible believing Christians and the ensuing exodus - well it was more like a trickle of churches over a period of years - resulted not in a reformed Presbyterian church but a multiplication of independent churches and a solidifying anti-denominational feeling.

I regretted the loss of connectionalism, though was glad to leave behind that shell of a denomination and shed no tears over the eventual demise of the Presbyterian theological college, where I 'trained'. I was just wondering what hope there is of a reformed Church of Scotland emerging from the present mire. Maybe those brethren are as variegated and unconnected as many of us were in the days of yore. I hope not.

to étrangère

Thank you! I think it's nice too, even special. I'm praying that we will get to where we are going.

If you ever go across the sea to Ulster

Our group of churches (EPCEW) has been talking to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ireland (EPs) about coming together in a synodical relationship. Last Saturday, May 9th, we had a day conference (pictured) to listen to each other and try to figure out where to go next. Everyone is convinced about the Biblical mandate but as usual, the practicalities loom large. I was encouraged (have been all along) because both groups are singing off the same sheet (have been all along). The backgrounds and ethos are different and we don't have a history like theirs but I'm encouraged to believe that the spirit of grace, so evident among us at Cambridge, will enable us to surmount peculiar habits of thought and practice and unite on the things that matter. I also think we can do each other a lot of good and present a better witness to the world.

No, No?

As a small group of churches we were recently asked whether multiple worship-leaders and guitar amplifiers were a 'no, no' among us? The question comes from the fringe but manages to persuade us that it belongs to the centre - such is the heat it always manages to generate! When it actually becomes centre-stage, we find that lots of other things have moved to the fringe. Worse still, so has Christ!

Does anyone ever ask who may and may not lead worship? The OPC did in the 1990s and came up with 'only those properly authorized' among whom they included missionaries and approved students for the ministry. Pretty conservative - but that's what they are - me too. There was nothing about music, even though the worship wars had by then begun to affect some of their congregations. What's with the music thing anyway - we are about worship not music and certainly not performance. But there must surely be some regulation.

Our freedom is to worship God, what a privilege! Poor old regulative principle! - we show such disrespect by charging it with bondage. It really is about freedom, like the freedom of Adam and Eve before the Fall - freedom on God's terms not ours. Remember Cain and Abel. There is such a thing as true worship - it must be in spirit and truth. It means at the very least doing it God's way not ours. Make me a captive, Lord and then I shall be free!

Concrete examples

doggiesbreakfast said...
Interesting. I have had one of Blamires' books (on the post-christian mind) on my Amazon wishlist for while but not got round to getting it. You are right it is a pressure! Have you any more concrete examples of the phenomenon?

Well I suppose we must look in the context of church practice at the fall of the sermon and rise of 'chat' as a prime example. Associated with it is the emergemce of 'counselling' and the widespread expectation that ministers should be community workers.

More generally, many assume that 'helping people' is so essentially Christian and 'witness-ful' that the 'how' doesn't matter. I spent four years (long ago) as a family case worker before fully realizing how humanistic social philosophy and social work practice are. Should have known better - there is no room for God because there is none for sin either. I'm not sure that we have really grasped what a minefield 'contextualizing' the gosel is.