Thursday, February 25, 2010

Christ-Centered Worship


Starting next week, D.V., we will have a new blog on Village Seven's website. When it is up, I hope to do a weekly post on the topic of worship and related matters. In the meantime, I thought I might do a quick post on Dr. Bryan Chapell's most recent book, Christ-Centered Worship.
Dr. Chapell is president of Covenant Theological Seminary, the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America. He has written numerous books. Two of his most influential books are Christ-Centered Preaching and Holiness by Grace. I imagine this book will make its way onto many pastors' shelves and even some seminaries' curricula.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 - Gospel Worship is the meat of the book. Part 2 - Gospel Worship Resources provides some guidance and some resources on how to implement the different elements of worship.

In Part 1, Dr. Chapell outlines and compares various historic church practices that have influenced worship in the western church. For those who do not have an interest in church history, this may appear to be rather dry. However, what Dr. Chapell does with this survey is very helpful. He shows that, historically, the church's worship has been shaped by the gospel story. Here, Dr. Chapell makes a strong case that the order of a worship service should not be governed by whims, or simply manipulating emotions, but should be shaped by the gospel. He notes, "Church leaders understood that if the message was inconsistent with the means by which it was communicated, then the message could easily get lost" (p.17). So, the very shape of the liturgy, together with its content, tells the gospel.

Not only does the shape of the liturgy tell the gospel, but the gospel drives our decisions about how we do worship. He writes, "Since our worship should have a gospel pattern and purpose, the only biblical way of prioritizing legitimate, but competing, worship concerns is to consider how our worship practices are consistent with our understanding of how we would present the gospel in our context" (p. 122).

Often, you will hear people (usually pastors) say that we do not come to worship to get, but to give God glory. In a chapter entitled, "Re-Presenting" CHrist's Story, Dr. Chapell cuts through this false-dilemna fallacy that pits God's glory against the needs of the people. As he notes, "Making God’s glory the exclusive goal of worship sounds very reverent but actually fails to respect Scriptures own gospel priorities" (p. 119). Instead, "Worship must be offered with concerns for God’s glory and the good of his people. Worship cannot be a reflection of the gospel without both concerns" (p. 121).

In his chapter on The Mission of Christ-Centered Worship, he develops this theme even further. In this chapter, Dr. Chapell gives some clear guidance to churches that have faced the worship wars. Too often, the debate has focused on personal preferences of musical style, with one group seeking to claim biblical superiority to the other. However, as Dr. Chapell points out, "If gospel priorities do not determine worship choices, then people’s preferences will tear the church apart" (p. 130). It is this focus on mission, realizing that the church has been placed by God in a particular context at a particular time, that should shape much of our stylistic decisions in worship.

One of the challenging issues that many churches face is how to blend people together from different generations. Dr. Chapell touches on this issue when he writes, "A church also has no future if leaders only consider how to minister to the present generation. We are mistaken, of course, to let our children determine what our worship should be; we are also mistaken not to consider how their children may need to worship" (p. 131).

Another controversy that faces many churches is, should the church minister to believers or to "seekers?" Chapell again points out that this is a false dilemna. He demonstrates, both from Scripture and church history, that the church has always had three audiences in mind in its worship services: the communicants (adult believers), the catechumens (children and new believers learning the faith), and seekers (those examining whether they will claim the truths of the gospel). He notes, "Being entirely “seeker-oriented” is not really an option for Christ-centered worship. But being “seeker-sensitive” is still an appropriate way to think about worship" (p. 139).

There is more that I can say, and will at a later date, but let me commend this book to you. It will help you think biblically about worship.

2 comments:

Andrew Ceroni said...

“Christ-Centered Worship” – at first, I’m tempted to ask “What other kind is there?”, but in doing so, I know I would be denying my own life experience. For instance, spending my childhood years in the Roman Catholic Church, I was surrounded in church by statues, and paintings of Mary, the Saints, the Stations of the Cross, and yes, Jesus… but there while there was indeed a proliferation of biblical persons and events to worship, there was never a Bible in the pew for prayerful reference. Then, there were also Purgatory, Limbo, the Ascension of Mary into Heaven, etc., and other things I could never find in Scripture, but that is another discussion. If the purpose of the church is to worship God, study His Word in God-breathed Holy Scripture, and provide prayerful fellowship, how can this be done without a focus on Jesus?

Re: “Not only does the shape of the liturgy tell the gospel, but the gospel drives our decisions about how we do worship. He writes, ‘Since our worship should have a gospel pattern and purpose, the only biblical way of prioritizing legitimate, but competing, worship concerns is to consider how our worship practices are consistent with our understanding of how we would present the gospel in our context’ (p.122))” I attended the “New Life” Church once. Once was enough. I felt as though I were at a concert and should have paid some amount of cash for the privilege of being there, hearing the music, feeling the rhythm, swaying to the music. I could almost hear James Brown shouting out, “I feel good! Just like I knew that I would…” Christ-Centered Worship… not for me. Do we at Village Seven express the meaning of God’s Holy Word by singing all six verses of a hymn instead of three and then five verses of the next instead of two, or singing the Refrain/Chorus three times? Does repetition serve a purposeful intent of our Liturgy. Sometimes, I wonder.

Re: “A church also has not future if leaders only consider how to minister to the present generation.” I would assume the reverse is also true, i.e., what does this say of the church future if we minister only to those who saw pictures weekly of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower in their Sunday papers. One of the things that caught my attention even as a young man wandering from his journey’s beginnings with the Catholic Church were the old Hymns. I love them. I think we need a good balance of new and old to sustain a meaningful liturgical service. On the website of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, PA, I noted the statement that more than 40% of all PCA congregations are less than 25 years old, but as the 20th Century ended, “the membership of PCUSA was shrinking annually with young people leaving in droves, either to no church or to evangelical churches” such as PCA. I suspect logic would shout at us that these folks are searching for something, something like a more “Christ-Centered Worship”. We at Village Seven can give them that.

This sounds like a good book. I will seek it out. Thanks!

Andrew Ceroni said...

I found Bryan Chapell's book, "Christ-Centered Worship", on Amazon.com and ordered it.

Thanks very much!