Those who come to a calvinist or even reformed understanding of the Scriptures will at sometime or another also come to a view that corporate gathering on Sunday is worship of God, and that if worship really is a group activity carried out according to God’s will and directed toward God then it’s going to be distinctive.
As they move toward this position they will discover that the church and the reformed expression have a wealth of carefully considered material expressing the form and content of worship. This material can be grouped under the title: liturgy.
Perhaps as they discover this valuable material they will muse with some confusion that churches which already believe the Scriptures in the manner they are arriving at are busily in the process of hurling much of this material on a liturgical trash heap and are instead adopting forms dictated by arminian revivalist theologies.
A few recent posts that touch on this subject are:
Re: Hip Christianity, by Hunter Baker.
Steak on a Paper Plate by Trevin Wax.
An empathetic counterpoint to Wax’s post is:
Steak on a Paper Plate: A Response by Zach Nielson.
I think Nielson’s points are helpful, but I don’t think portraying the situation as one of formality against informality embraces the proper scope of the issue.
Bob Kauflin writes about Discerning The Difference Between The Container And The Content on his blog.
I appreciated Kauflin’s dedication to vitality in worship, while also affirming that form and content do matter.
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