John Calvin's Worship Services, Part 1!

So here we go - a great picture of what's important when planning corporate worship gatherings. For any of us showing up as the body of Christ on a Sunday morning, whether we're singing up in front or not, this can still be helpful as we think through what should be happening when we meet together as Christians. These quotes are by Tim Keller in his essay, "Reformed Worship in the Global City," found in Worship by the Book. The essay talks about some key ways the great Reformer, John Calvin, planned his church meetings in Geneva, Switzerland.

Keller tells us,

[O]ur current "worship wars" are due in great part to our unwillingness to consult the Bible, culture, and tradition together. I think Calvin did this much more effectively than did any of the other Reformers.

Postmodern people (that's us, today) are much more ignorant of basic Christian truth than their forebears and need a place to come to learn it, yet they are also more distrustful of "hype" and sentimentality than older generations. Calvin's worship tradition avoids the emotional manipulation that so frightens secular people about charismatic services, even though they desire the transcendence that contemporary praise worship appears to offer.

So what did Calvin do that was helpful?

Calvin considered the Bible to be the supreme authority and source for God-honoring worship.

[Calvin] did not claim the ability to create a pure biblical corporate worship "from scratch." Rather, he first consulted ancient tradition [...] Calvin's reliance on church tradition has been well documented.

Calvin would not choose high culture over intelligibility to the common person. The preaching and the singing were to be done so that they were accessible even to the unlearned. [...] The [order of service] was "entirely directed toward edification" (Calvin).

This is very important for us to see - Calvin kept the edification and encouragement of the entire gathered body of Christ in mind when he planned the music, the order of service, the sermon, or anything else.

When Calvin faced the question of how to arrange the "concrete circumstances" of worship (such as whether we should pray standing or kneeling, in unison or individually, etc.) he wrote that we must be wholly directed by the concern of edification.

I/we need to keep this in mind when I think of what songs we're going to sing each Sunday. What does our church, and what do we as Christians need to sing this week, based on the culture we live in, the threats against the Gospel we're facing, and on our individual needs?

Hope you enjoyed this post. It's becoming a miniseries, so stay tuned for part 2!