There is a temptation within contemporary church planting to take the preferences and tastes of the group or individuals that they are trying to reach and excise as much from the practice and culture of their corporate meetings that may be alien to those people.
In Presbyterianism in Australia one can observe a distancing (in some quarters) from covenant/reformed theology, as it relates to our understanding of corporate gathering and what happens during those meetings, to a position that is basically five (or four) point Calvinism. Worship becomes ‘meetings’; children are not included; and the tone of things seems more like a get together with a bunch of mates rather than a time doing what God has redeemed us to do.
At times the challenge of cultivating a biblically and historically recognisable expression of covenant/reformed theology in a town of 25,000 has seemed very daunting.
These challenges also include the fact we count numbers of folk who have culturally diverse experiences of reformed worship among our membership.
Malcolm McLean, coming from a Free Church of Scotland position (ie. singing Psalms only), considers the question: ‘Can effective church planting involving praise marked by exclusive psalmody without musical accompaniment take place outside Free Church areas of influence?’
His answer outlines his reasons for believing that it can, and also why he believes it is worth attempting.
His answer is worth reading because the principles that he applies are true for any of us. They also challenge those who would plant on a generically five-or-four point basis that they are actually jettisoning elements that cultivate and nurture the broader understanding of Scripture that we would call covenant and reformed theology.
At the same time I have also been reading about a visit to Seoul, Korea by Iain D Campbell, as recorded on his blog Creideamh.
There are five posts so far, with pictures and video elements. The groups Campbell has been visiting are Presbyterian and psalm singing. You can watch a video that contains Koreans singing psalms a capella.
As McLean points out, churches such as these have been planted in the most unlikely places, and the reason they have flourished is that God was pleased to grow them.
As we seek to grow our churches, perhaps we need to ask not so much what we can rid ourselves of, but how to keep and incorporate all that we know belongs.
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