These are not good days for worship in evangelical and mainline churches. While the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and high-church Episcopalians/Anglicans have for the most part stuck with their traditions, evangelical and mainline churches have opted for a “newer” and “fresher” approach. There seems to be no end to their “creativity.” I have been awestruck by what I have seen taking place in evangelical and mainline churches during worship. In one worship service I viewed online a man led the congregation in song while two women painted him!

In a church in our area the Forth of July service has actual fireworks in the sanctuary during worship!

IOur tradition has always insisted that we must worship in a way that is acceptable to God (Heb. 12:28)

There is of course the ubiquitous drama “teams.” I have seen syncopated dance “teams”, stand-up-Christian comedians, artists painting during the sermon, light shows that border on the professional, and many other “new” and “fresh” innovations in worship. Add to this the new trend for churches to provide “venues” of worship. A generation ago the cutting edge venue was “contemporary” and “traditional.” Now churches have “country” services, “luau services,” “GenX services,” “Boomer services,” and more. In a word, anything goes.

Have you ever wondered why we don’t have any of that? In stark contrast to this is the simple worship of the reformed tradition. Our tradition has always insisted that we must worship in a way that is acceptable to God (Heb. 12:28) and that acceptability is determined by whether or not it conforms to Scripture. Thus, Scripture regulates our worship and hence we call this the regulative principle. In many ways this gets to the heart of the Reformation, because the goal of the Reformers was to be Reformed “according to the word of God.”

Simply stated, the regulative principle of worship states that “nothing must be required as essential for worship except that which is commanded by the word of God” (Derek Thomas, in Give Praise to God, 75). Or, as the WCF puts it, “…the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men…” (WCF 21:1).

In this way, worship then becomes quite simple. We gather to worship God in the way that he commands us to worship Him. We pray, we sing, we read and preach Scripture, we take up a collection and we serve and administer the sacraments. Mystery of mysteries is that God meets us in these ordinary means.

“I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were, in their bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction, provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honour of God. But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates, whatever we undertake from zeal to His worship, it at variance with His command, what do we gain by a contrary course?” (John Calvin, Institutes).