Review: A Primer on Worship and Reformation

How will we hear without a preacher? And how will they turn red and embarrassed without a satirist?

In his forthcoming book, Pastor Douglas Wilson acts as both preacher and satirist with regard to contemporary evangelical corporate worship. He makes the case that we need to repent of the triviality, irreverence and worldliness which characterises modern evangelicalism. While the excesses of the commercialism which characterises the American evangelical culture into which Wilson is writing has not yet reached British shores to quite the same degree (at least in Anglican evangelical circles), nevertheless we too have stumbled in our corporate worship and church life, and we need to hear this message. He rightly points out that “all cultures have a cultus at the center [sic]“, that “the center [sic] of every culture is its worship”, and he appeals to Henry Van Til, who said that all cultures are the externalisation of religion. Faulty worship is what has gone wrong with the modern evangelical church, the kind of worship that is driven by an admittedly well-meaning desire to present the gospel to unbelievers in a way that is “relevant”, and he blows right out of the water the myth that the contrast between traditional and modern forms of worship is because one emphasises external forms and liturgy while the other does not: all inward faith has a physical expression, but the so-called liturgical forms stand out because those external forms are so different from the culture around them. What Wilson is not doing is merely advocating a return to traditional forms: it begins in the heart, but it musn’t end there. The love of God that is required for God-centred worship is an incarnational love; to use Wilson’s phrase, it “begins in the heart, and ends at the fingertips”.

Wilson diagnoses the underlying problem as individualism. People refuse to humbly submit to lawful authority and one another, and so as soon as disagreement arises, even over trivial things, war arises and splits occur. He suggests that the right alternative is humility and mutual submission – to God and his authoritative and infallible word, to God and his authoritative and fallible church, to God and the other fallible authorities he has placed in our lives – for example, families and civil government. What we want is reformation without schism, not simply setting up a different banner under which to gather people. Evangelicals (American and British) have a tendency to think they have an elect-o-scope, the ability to see the invisible church, and so they divide from those who, on their terms, can’t possibly be Christians. Evangelicals who flee from this Scylla, however, have the tendency to collide with the Charybdis of dispensing with doctrinal standards to welcome anyone and avoid any hostility. The way Wilson suggests is the Biblical, covenantal way: we need to take covenant status seriously. Those who are baptised and profess faith in Christ yet who deny even key doctrines of the faith are unfaithful Christians, but they are unfaithful Christians and that has to determine the way they are treated. We don’t simply split off from them and so retreat in the name of purity. Nor, however, do we simply pass over disagreements as if they don’t matter. It is because these people bear the name of Christ that we stay and we fight, for their sakes and for others, and we do so, again in Pastor Wilson’s words, with “a large heart and a narrow sword”. This explains the subtitle for this book: “Recovering the High Church Puritan”. The majority of the early Elizabethan Puritans, Wilson rightly reminds us (and I might include the early Stuart Puritans such as Richard Sibbes in here as well), while wanting to further purify the church according to Scripture following the Elizabethan Settlement (hence they were abusively called “Puritans” by those who opposed them), nevertheless did not desire to separate from the church or behave like a schismatics, separatists, independents or individualists but had a high view of the covenant and their corporate identity, and they recognised their need for accountability and so for one another (hence they can be described as “high church” Puritans). The way of the high church Puritan is the way he commends.

With this framework in mind, it is Pastor Wilson’s belief that the right worship of the church will impact in the world outside and this leads him to give a helpful, liberating corrective on the subject of evangelism. While he acknowledges that direct evangelism is necessary for local churches in each genearation (as per the Great Commission), he challenges the practical approach taken by the contemporary evangelical church: it seems to be the case that in American colleges as well as in British universities, young people are taught that integral to their walk with Christ is the need for personal, daily, direct evangelism, with the result that as these people grow up and there is less time and fewer opportunities, guilt arises and the evangelistic zeal of the whole church is wounded. While Scripture makes it clear that Christians should be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in them (1 Peter 3.15), the work of an evangelist is a demanding task, the office of which is a gift from the risen and ascended Christ. This approach to evangelism flows from the nature of the church as a body in Paul’s letters. Some have the ability to be good personal evangelists. Others don’t, and actually their function is to support the evangelistic work of the church as a body – working faithfully, attending church faithfully, giving to the work of the church. In this, they are no less evangelical (and actually, this kind of lifestyle tends to provoke questions anyway). Moreover, Wilson argues that biblical corporate worship is the weapon God is pleased to use week by week to knock down the unbelief in our communities. The form that biblical corporate worship takes is covenant renewal worship.

The individualism of contemporary evangelicalism manifests itself, among other ways, in our approach to Scripture. We tend to think it is a message for me about my personal life, and while personal faithfulness is a requisite response to Scripture, the Bible is nevertheless the collection of the church’s covenant documents which demands corporate faithfulness, and that is particularly the case when it comes to corporate worship. Wilson makes the case from Scripture, especially the Psalms, that worship belongs primarily in the public congregation, and not in private spiritual exercises. It is something that we are to do together. He demonstrates that Christians when they assemble together on the Lord’s Day spiritually ascend into heaven (cf Revelation 8.4 and Paul’s description of the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 2.5-6). Given the corporate nature of the book, this is particularly clear in the letter to the Hebrews, which urges meeting together (Hebrews 10.25) because that means ascending into heaven with the boldness that comes through Christ’s shed blood (Hebrews 10.19, 22). The gathered church comes to the heavenly Jerusalem, the assembly of innumerable angels, the universal church, and the presence of God himself (Hebrews 12.22-24). It is the realisation that this is what happens in worship services which will inspire in us reverence and awe (Hebrews 12.28 ) and thus a desire to approach God in the way he wants. While Wilson acknowledges that under the new covenant, animal sacrifices are done away with because of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice of himself on the cross, such sacrifical patterns undergird new covenant worship – the sacrificial language is still there. The pattern Wilson takes is the order of the Old Testament sacrifices – the guilt offering to make the worshipper fit to enter the presence of God, the ascension offering, in which the smoke symbolically ascends to God when it is burnt on the altar, and the peace offering, which the worshipper eats the presence of the Lord, a demonstration of God’s acceptance of the worshipper and his willingness to share in the covenant meal. In worship under the new covenant, this corresponds to confession of sin (exhortation, prayer of confession, assurance of pardon and congregational singing of thanks), offering ourselves to God (through the reading of Scripture, prayers of petition and thanks, sermon, a hymn or a psalm, and the bringing forward of the offering), and the Lord’s Supper. All this is preceded by a call to worship, and a commissioning (including a blessing). Wilson wants us to see the glory of all this and so be stirred up out of the laziness into which we have fallen.

Wilson then focuses on specific elements of the worship service. He impresses upon us the significance of the preaching of the word. The word cuts us like a sword (Hebrews 4.12-13) cuts sacrifical animals to be offered to God. The sword-like nature of the Scripture, and its living and active character must shape how the preacher handles it – with conviction, not merely making suggestions. Wilson roots our Scriptural focus, our focus on the word, in our focus on Christ, the Word, whence human words derive their power to communicate truth, goodness and beauty to us. “The pulpit should be one of the liveliest places on earth, because in it, words are imitating the Word,” Wilson says, words through metaphor revealing God to us as the Son reveals the Father. For this reason, handling of Scripture must never be truncated or wooden: our preaching needs to be liberated from mere tight historico-grammatical exegesis (which goes beyond the responsible hermenutic advocated by the Reformers against out-of-control allegory in a decidedly rationalistic direction) and needs to be guided by the way Scripture teaches us how to handle Scripture. We need to be sensitive to the sensus plenior of Scripture, a hermeneutic which precedes the Greek Fathers, and is found in the words of Christ and Paul. We need to be faithful to Scripturally-controlled typology in all its Biblical fullness. Covenant renewal worship also features weekly communion and Wilson argues this not so much from proof-texts, but by leaving us content with nothing less when he demonstrates what is happening in the Lord’s Supper – being knit together by the Spirit, and, in line with the historic Protestant view, partaking of the body and blood of Christ when we come by faith, and so being transformed into a new humanity. The Lord’s Supper is a corporate act – we have communion with one another – and so the way we celebrate it must reflect this: rather than withdrawing into private introspection, we should be sitting up, looking around. Faith shows itself in doing what God says, meeting him where he says he will be found – at his table. Wilson also calls for reformation in the music of the church: both the music and the content has become progressively more simplistic (although there are some encouragements from the American Sovereign Grace Music and the Australian EMU). Wilson reminds us for the need for a robust faith and an evident zeal, and for Christ’s word to dwell in us richly, which is to overflow in our singing (Colossians 3.16). The reflection of a rich faith in Christ will be rich lyrics, rich melodies, rich harmonisation, rich, joyful and robust singing. As with every other aspect of our life, public worship should be fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord (Romans 12.11), Wilson notes. Wilson himself admits that he found contemporary music refreshing and more accessible when he first encountered it in contrast to the dirge-like traditional music which seems to have characterised his early church experience. But he challenges us to consider why more traditional forms can be inaccessible – has it become mere professionalism or a lifeless traditionalism? These things, not the music itself, are the real problem. He doesn’t want us to be satisfied with anything less than robust, intelligible content and glorious words and rich music. Moreover, good content, zeal and Biblical consistency are best served by a return to the Psalms. We need to be prepared for hard work in recovering a music heritage that we have thrown away, but that shouldn’t stop us. He finishes by noting that the psalmist had enemies which he dealt with the music: the Psalter is a battle hymnal which is vital to recover if we are serious about conquering the world with the gospel through biblical worship.

Wilson concludes his book with two chapters on the wider implications of the biblical vision he is proposing. The first is that of the Sabbath and feasting. Not only ought we not to be disregarding the Sabbath day, but we must not overreact and misuse it in a restrictive way. It is a positive ordinance, providing for us rest and pleasure. We mustn’t keep it gnostically, denying ourselves the physical enjoyment of preparing a meal or going for a walk. Rather, the Sabbath is a feast (Leviticus 23.1-3) and the way the church organises its services and programmes shouldn’t push that out. It, with the public worship of the church, should be something to which God’s people look forward the whole week. Finally, we are reminded that Scripture encourages us to see things far more through the lens of covenant than the lens of election (for we do not know the elect, but we do know those who are in the covenant) and this has important implications for our children. Thinking that we can know if our child is one of the elect harms our children: in the name of high conversion standards, the faith of a young child is doubted and they then grow up in doubt. In the New Covenant, God promises himself to us and to our children (Ezekiel 37.24-26, Isaiah 59.21, Acts 2.39). God promises himself in mercy. We must look to God’s word of promise for our children in faith and conceive, bear, discipline, feed, comfort and teach them in faith. This attitude will have implications, not only for the home, but in the church, as we bring our children to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

My minor quibble with this book is that Pastor Wilson from time to time tries to make the verses he quotes say too much, or they don’t make the point that he is making – if there is application from them, then it’s not obvious to me and I’d like to see some more of the working. Accuse me of exegetical pedantry if you will, but I think this is important, and has the potential to weaken the otherwise very good arguments that he makes. In one case, Wilson makes the point that God in his kindness permits us to assemble in his courts every seventh day, and appeals to Leviticus 23.3. While it may be true that we assemble in heaven every seventh day, that verse makes no mention of assembling in God’s courts. The other verses Wilson quotes in regard to assembling in God’s courts are much more explicitly about the temple, which Leviticus 23.3 clearly isn’t. All it says is that God in his kindness commands us to keep every Sabbath day as a feast. Wilson goes on to identify the Lord’s day with the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God in Hebrews 4.9. While I certainly affirm the keeping of the Sabbath, the Sabbath rest which remains for the people of God in Hebrews 4.9 is the parallel to the rest which the Israelites failed to enter, namely the Promised Land, a rest into which we are to strive to enter, which I take to be the new creation. Finally in this regard, Wilson says that Paul urged feasting on the Lord’s Day and appeals to 1 Corinthians 5.8. However, Paul isn’t making the point about literal feasting there. In the previous verse, he is using the typology of the Passover lamb. Christ is the Passover lamb who has been sacrificed. Christians are therefore to keep the antitype of the feast of unleavened bread, which is to live lives characterised not by malice and evil but sincerity and truth. The surrounding context of the verse makes it clear that Paul is criticising the immoral, boastful lifestyle of the Corinthians which is inconsistent with their Christian calling and of which they must repent, like removing yeast from dough.

In conclusion then, Wilson is not merely offering a criticism of the external forms of public worship and advocating a return to traditional liturgies. He goes to the heart of contemporary evangelicalism, makes his diagnosis and prescribes a change of thinking about the church. Whilst standing for Scriptural truth, we must nevertheless take the church seriously and the covenant seriously. Wilson then offers a manifesto for change in our view of evangelism, Scripture, what happens when we gather together, our forms of worship, our music, the Lord’s Supper, the Sabbath and our children. Each chapter on its own could be (and probably has been) the basis of a book. While Wilson is writing into an American Evangelical context, British evangelicals have our own problems and would do well to listen to what Pastor Wilson is saying. We, too, have bought to some extent into the idol of individualism and we fail to take the church seriously. We use simplified liturgies, have communion infrequently, and neglect our musical heritage in the name of evangelism. We don’t really even think about the Sabbath, feasting and the status of our children. And particularly with regard to Anglican conservative evangelicalism, our desire for reformation and purity seems to be increasingly at the cost of our commitment to the wider Anglican church. This book, then, is a welcome call back to the way of High Church Puritanism, where true gospel potency lies. And as Pastor Wilson remarks in his closing chapter, “To be understood, almost all of this has to be tasted, not discussed.”

A Primer on Worship and Reformation: Recovering the High Church Puritan by Douglas Wilson is due to be released on November 11, 2008 and is published by Canon Press, from whom this book can be pre-ordered at www.canonpress.com.