In the wake of eighteenth-century Enlightenment and nineteenth-century revivalism, evangelical Christianity evidenced two distinct philosophies of worship. The first was the conservative philosophy that generally characterized each of the post-Reformation groups despite their idiosyncratic differences. This conservative philosophy desired to preserve the theology and practices of biblical worship, mediated through the tradition of the church… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder [This essay was originally published on February 27, 2009.] Conservative Christians recognize that they have received a doctrinal and moral patrimony. They wish to leave this legacy to be enjoyed by their children for generations to come. In order to conserve their heritage, they must pledge themselves both to guarding the integrity… Continue Reading
Seth Meyers provides a critique of “altar calls”: In spite of my heritage and the prevailing moods of contemporary ministry, I do not anymore support the use of the altar call as a method for evangelism. Four lines of Scriptural thought produced this change in me. These reasons could possibly be subdivided or viewed in… Continue Reading
Many conservative evangelical and even fundamentalist churches today have transformed the Christian faith into a kind of pop-culture version of The Way. This change began to become most prominent in the early 20th century, right after the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Joel Carpenter captures well the shift to pop religion in his important work on the history… Continue Reading
Every church has a liturgy. Traditional congregations have a general order to worship. So do contemporary congregations. So do funky, artistic one. Church leaders do not have time to reinvent their services every week. Congregations are not capable of learning new forms, new songs, and following a new order every week. Even the most spontaneous… Continue Reading
A commitment to the Spirit’s Sovereign Work | Dave Saxon. Continue Reading
The development of American church music during the nineteenth century has important implications for the philosophy and practice of church music in the twentieth century and beyond. Indeed, “it would be difficult to overstate the impact that antebellum sacred music reforms had on subsequent musical developments in America, and many scholars identify this period as… Continue Reading
Conservative Christians will be committed to worship forms that foster ordinate affection toward God. Commitment to the Regulative Principles of Worship solves the question of what we will include in our corporate worship, but it doesn’t necessarily address how we will do it. Conservatives have always recognized that while the Bible clearly prescribes what elements… Continue Reading
Music philosophy is not a separation issue of the same kind of level as heterodoxy or flagrant, known sin. Probably one of the most common questions I’m asked is if I think differences over worship/music philosophy warrants separation. Here’s my attempt at an answer. What do you mean by separation? I do not view separation… Continue Reading
After considering the following theological and historical underpinnings of contemporary worship, consider the theological positions of those most influential in evangelical worship today. From W. Robert Godfrey, “Worship and the Emotions,” in Give Praise to God, Philip Graham Ryken, et.al. (Phillipsburg: P & R Pub, 2003), 368-9: When emotions are misused, there is a constant… Continue Reading
I have a feeling many contemporary evangelicals, could they time travel back to the Great Awakening, might scold churches during that time for not being “passionate about God” or “engaged”: Edward Griffin, reviewing the whole period in 1832, wrote: ‘The means employed in these revivals have been but two, — the clear presentation of divine… Continue Reading
“A final general observation arising out of this period (The Second Great Awakening) has to do with the manner in which the unusual sense of the presence of God was recognized in the churches which experienced these revivals. It was not because men saw weeping multitudes, unrestrained noise and high excitement that they believed a… Continue Reading
At the end of Hebrews 12 we find a very instructive passage that describes New Testament worship. But in order to understand the point of this passage, we need to first understand the broader context in which it is found. The purpose of the book of Hebrews is to warn Jewish Christians against leaving Christianity… Continue Reading