Hello and welcome back! Today we are going to be looking at the normative and regulative principles of worship. These two principles are in contrast to each other and I feel that they are the best place to start when defining personal conviction when looking at theology, foundational truths, and our individual practice as Christians.
Wikipedia defines the normative principle as follows; "The normative principle teaches that whatever is not prohibited in Scripture is permitted in worship, as long as it is agreeable to the peace and unity of the Church. In short, there must be agreement with the general practice of the Church and no prohibition in Scripture for whatever is done in worship." The basics of this principle can be broken down to a simple idea. As long as something is not anti-biblical than it is acceptable. This principle is not linked with any specific group or persons.
In contrast the regulative principle is defined thus; "That God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship. The doctrine further determines these affirmed elements to be those set forth in scripture by express commands or examples or, if not expressed, those implied logically by good and necessary consequence." A little more stringent, the regulative principle is linked to Calvin and is accepted fairly widely by Calvinists and Anabaptists.
Congregationalist polity, which is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every congregation is autonomous, or self-governing, is a third principle to mention when discussing this topic. Congregational autonomy allows for the Elders of each gathering to have some control over that which they define as the foundational truths from scripture at that assembly.
It wasn't until the summer of 2020 that these principles even came into my repertoire. But once they did, I couldn't help but see them everywhere. Now, these two principles are how I find myself defining much of scripture. In order to define what a church (assembly from here out) is, we look to scripture to read its history and practice. Acts is the history of the Church (Greek ekklesia, literally an assembly of citizens,) and it is from this book and the letter to the Corinthians that we glean the format of practice and assembly doctrine.
When speaking specifically of worship, as we are today, 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 is our primary section of scripture. This section highlights four items as articles of the worship meeting, "A hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation." 1 Cor 14:26. The assembly I attend structures its worship service as an open platform, allowing for any man within fellowship of the assembly to stand up and lift up a prayer, give out a hymn, or to read and comment on a section of scripture for the whole gathering to listen to and appreciate. I very recently attended church with a friend and their worship service was 30 minutes of worship with a worship leader/host, with guitars, a piano, and two main singers. We sang ~5 songs that were prechosen and then had a 30 minute message. It was nice, very different to what I am used to.
The biggest loss of practiced worship is that it feels somewhat manufactured. A theme is chosen beforehand, rather than the Holy Spirit moving through individuals to bring a theme out naturally. The pro to the practiced side is that the worship is always cohesive and full, whereas free flowing can sometimes be choppy, lacking a theme, with empty space and silence. When comparing the two to scripture, I can see the pattern of 1 Corinthians 14 more clearly in how my assembly formats their worship meeting.
Ephesians 5:19-20 "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Referencing psalms, hymns, and songs, this section is often referenced when discussing worship services, however, contextually I don't think this is speaking of gathering to worship, rather spontaneous and personal worship. Personal worship plays a huge part in congregational worship, however, and it would be remiss not to mention it. (Romans 12, Hebrews 13, Matthew 15) Piper makes a good case for personal worship being just as, if not more important for the believer. Without personal and private worship, one cannot engage in public worship.
The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ. (John Piper "What is Worship" Desiring God, 2016)
This simple example of how the worship service is structured can show which principle a particular assembly leans towards. Musical accompaniment is never mentioned in the New Testament, therefore, many conservative churches sing a cappella. Most modern churches nowadays have worship bands and worship leaders differing from the instruction in 1 Corinthians 14. I cannot definitively say that one or the other is more correct, as the verb tenses in 1 Corinthians 14:26 do not dictate that any of these items are a command (they are not in the imperative tense, rather indicative) however, it is a command (imperative) that all things be edifying, and later in verse 40 we are also commanded, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." ((See here for imperative vs. indicative.)) I make mention of the specific verb tenses as that is how scholars dictate exactly what is a command and what is stated in the original Koine Greek of the New Testament. It can be quite tricky to break down all of scripture and there are things that are commanded that we don't do, and things not commanded that we engage in. Often, the regulative principle engages in prioritizing things that are mentioned period, whether or not they are a legitimate command. This idea is often referred to as the "positive pattern." (See here for more on imitating Christ's pattern)
Much of what we know of worship we see in the Psalms, as they are our primary example of worship. Many Psalms are quoted in the New Testament in various contexts, however, they are not referenced directly when speaking of a worship meeting, but loosely as examples of how to worship. With this in mind, I would argue that a worship meeting should be comprised primarily of prayer. The prayers we read in the Psalms are written by 12 men in total, with various themes: worship, praise, depression, sadness, unrest, anxiety, joy, happiness, and gratitude to name a few. The Psalms are made up of more than just prayers, however, they are comprised of prayers and songs and thus lifting up worship in song is biblical and encouraged.
Sproul discusses the difference between worship and evangelism is his piece "How Should We Then Worship" and emphasizes the struggle of the worship war. As time progresses, many gatherings have prioritized the bringing in of new people rather than focusing on the true definition of worship. The purpose of the worship meeting is for the lifting up of praise to our Lord and Savior. We praise the Father, about the Son, through the Spirit. We should not be tailoring this event to unbelievers, but rather to the edification of the fellowship of Christians worshipping together.
Worship and evangelism are not the same thing. The solemn assembly is to be the assembling together of believers, of the body of Christ, to ascribe worship and honor and praise to their God and to their Redeemer. And the worship must not be designed to please the unbeliever or the believer. Worship should be designed to please God. (RC Sproul "How Should We Then Worship" 2021)
In the following quote, Spurgeon states that prayer is the center of an assembly, and without it, success and growth of that assembly is limited. Preaching from Zechariah 8:21 “And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also.” Spurgeon emphasizes prayer in a definitive way. Yes, this section is from the Old Testament, however, the New Testament is a mirror of fulfillment of the Old Covenant and we can therefore see the picture of OT practices in NT doctrine (Acts 2 for example.)
The first solemn assembly mentioned here is the prayer-meeting, and certainly one of the surest tokens of a visitation of God’s Spirit to a community, is their delighting to meet for prayer. The first cry of the people mentioned in our text was, “Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord.” It is no statement of mine, suggested by unreasonable zeal, but it is the result of long-continued observation, when I assert that the condition of a church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer-meetings. If the spirit of prayer be not with the people, the minister may preach like an angel, but he cannot expect success. If there be not the spirit of prayer in a church there may be wealth, there may be talent, there may be a measure of effort, there may be an extensive machinery, but the Lord is not there. (Spurgeon, "A Call To Worship" Spurgeon Library)
The long and short of this topic is that it matters how we worship. This one thing is big enough that it effects every other aspect of our practice. According to what we read in the Acts, leadership, prayer, worship, discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, and ministry are the main functions of the assembly. These are the things we need to take into account when choosing an assembly, but before you even get to that point, you must know in your own mind what you believe makes up an assembly. What aspects of New Testament doctrine are non-negotiable for you? Do you know what makes up the doctrines of a true ekklesia? Worship is the defining action of our Christian life, and how we live it independently and congregationally matters.
Sola gratia,
Ais