One of the beauties of Reformed liturgy is that it reminds Christians week after week that we worship the Triune God. In fact, as the pastor of a small Reformed church in rural Washington State, I begin many services with these words: “We are gathered here in the name of the Father, the Son, …
The Benefits of Liturgy
The benefits of historic, Bible-saturated, Sunday morning liturgy are many. Liturgies protect the congregation from the pastor's (or worship leader's) whims and hobby horses. With a solid liturgy, you don't have to put up with those odd songs or ideas that "moved" your pastor (or worship leader) in the days before worship. Solid liturgies remind us we're not of …
Book of Common Worship
I grabbed this awhile back: The Book of Common Worship (Louisville: WJK, 1993). I had a very old Book of Common Prayer, but after using it at a few funerals and for a few other pastoral duties, I was sick of translating "on the fly" the archaic language of the old BCP. Also, I wanted something …
Vanhoozer on the Church’s Drama
Sort of on the same lines as the last few posts on worship, here's Vanhoozer on the church's drama (he's not talking about movies or skits!). "It is an unfathomable, if not unpardonable, sin to drain the drama out of the biblical story of redemption. Dedramatization happens in one of two ways: either one dilutes …
The Law, Our Comfortable Sins, and the Liturgy
Earlier, I posted a bit on Jerry Bridges' book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2007). Since then, I've finished reading it, and still confidently recommend it. As a reminder, he uses Scripture to point out and expose some sins that we're used to, that we grow comfortable with, or as …
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