There seems to be a war in the church today. It is not a senseless war of words, but an engagement by various parties concerning a vital area of our religion, namely how we engage in responsive worth-ship to our gracious God. Different viewpoints are held passionately and fought for unto the death. There is a legitimacy to the controversy being termed “worship wars”.

I was recently asked to answer a panel question on how modern worship corresponds with Scriptural command. The thoughts below contain my basic answer.

To what extent is worship to be moderns? I would reply, totally, since we are to worship God today in the modern world. To what extent should it be ancient? I answer again totally, since it is to be in accord with his ancient Word. If further pressed on the contradiction between my two responses? I answer that there is tension, yes, but contradiction no.

Without going into great detail I want to give out some principles by which we must engage at least our thoughts, and also then our practises. My own views have been borne out of my own upbringing. I was brought up around much traditionalism, and within that much religious hypocrisy. Hence, out of rebellion against that, I drifted for a little while into charismatic gatherings. I’ve seen both traditional and moderns, at their worst, and I don’t like either! So what fundamentals should we employ?

Worship is to be Regulated⤒🔗

By Scripture alone. Scripture would present to us several aspects of worship namely, prayer, praise, scripture reading and exposition. (Nehemiah 8:4-6. Acts 2:42)

We believe in the regulative principle – but the out-working of this principle is the area of greatest debate. Yet I do believe there is room for difference of opinion within the regulative principle – some sing psalms only, some psalms and hymns all claiming the regulative principle. But we must make clear that worship is not a free for all with dance, drama, and puppet shows.

Furthermore within the context of prayer, praise, and preaching, we must also affirm according to the ruling Scriptural principle that prayer in worship is to be meaningful, praise is to be purposeful, and Scriptural teaching is to be life related, not simply pure theological abstractions.

Worship is to be Respectable←⤒🔗

We know that in Corinth worship was in a mess and 1 Corinthians 12-14 was a sorting out of that mess. Without dwelling on the detail, notice how Paul ends – 14:40. Orderly decency.

Let all things be done decently and in order.

There is a tendency in many walks of life now to down-grade dress. There is a current debate in the business world about men wearing a tie to work.

We must affirm that the worship “dress” is to be respectable. The form, the manner, the nature of everything we do is to have a respectable character; an orderly decency.

Some practices in contemporary worship are downright disgraceful, even indecent. There is a vulgarity, not only to outward “dress”, but the whole manner of the presentation unto the Lord.

We may add that some pieces of music and some instruments are more respectable than others. Some are more appropriate for informal occasions than for formal Sunday services of worship – but who has decreed that we must worship God accompanied by an organ, singing four parts harmony, with poetic four line stanzas?

There is a respectability to that but that form is not the only thing respectable. However we must recognise that there are many not so respectable forms.

Consider when “dance” is used. Why is it that those who dance about are always young, and of slim build? And what effect does this have on older men? Would larger, older women be suitable for the “dance” routine? In some situations orderly decency is absent.

Worship is to be Reverent←⤒🔗

Serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:28b, 29

We must always consider the holy majesty of God. Remember what happened when Isaiah saw the Lord? or Ezekiel? or Job?

God is not our plaything to engage with frivolities. In worship we do not bring God down into our fun gathering. The Scriptural principle is of heads bowed, and hearts broken. This is the right approach with reverence and awe.

This does not exclude holy joy; nor does it exclude exhilaration and times of spiritual delight. But we affirm that worship is not a worldly party with a religious makeover.

The thrill of the saints in glory should be our example – “holy, holy, holy – worthy the Lamb...”

Worship is to be Real←⤒🔗

These people draw near to me with their mouth... but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me...Matt 15:8, 9

There is to be sincerity of heart, rather than vain repetitions of ritualism and Romanism. Reality in worship demands intelligibility. It is not to be in Latin; not in an unknown tongue, but in the common language. This is a reformational principle.

Prayer is to be offered in the normal language. God has given no “holy language” other than the natural tongue of a saved soul. Praise similarly is to be offered through the means of understandable, intelligible psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Some lines of praise commonly used are quite simply not understood by the majority of those who just sung them. This cannot be “real” worship, for reality demands intelligibility.

At the same time some choruses are so simplistic that they say nothing and are simply vain repetitions of phrases – “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. Is that real worship? I make a plea to avoid mindless mantra and engage head and heart in real worship.

Worship is to be Relevant←⤒🔗

I prefer not to categorize “modern” and “antiquated”, but rather consider the relevance of some of the matter and the manner of worship.

Our worship is to be contemporary. It is to be life related; 21^st century related. It is not being relevant to simply deal with 16^th century heresies or theological hot potatoes of a bygone age. The preacher must lead the congregation in worship that is related to their life, their work-place, their world. Therefore the content matter of worship may be different in Nigeria than in East Belfast!

The manner also may be different yet within the parameters of the above principles. Should we impose a western traditional worship style on Papua New Guinea? Should we impose an Ulster Protestant worship style on Dublin?

I make a plea that each, in his own culture, worships with reality and relevance, not an imposed uniformity that is unreal and irrelevant within the mindset and mores of the locality.

Some Final Issues←⤒🔗

Take care to think radically, and use the same criteria of judgment with the “old” and the “modern”.

I was recently at a Disabled Christian Fellowship meeting. The people were singing bouncy choruses from 50 years ago and the walking sticks were thumping the floor! Is there a difference between that and some of our young people “enjoying” contemporary Christian songs?

No doubt the war will continue, maybe with guerrilla fighting from both camps. Or maybe we need to enter into peace-talks, or an “Agreement” that permits the best of both ancient and modern to form part of our worship. Is that too much of a compromise and so more “blood” will be spilled in our worship wars?