Presbyterian Worship?

We have a good idea of what worship is. Worship is when we give God his due. We offer our prayer and praise to the Lord. We even go further to offer our money, our time and our talents, in short, all that we are, because God is worthy of all that we are and have. Worship is not only where we give but also receive. We receive the Word of God, his sacraments, his grace and his fellowship.

The trouble comes when we try to define "presbyterian" worship. What is it that makes worship "presbyterian?" When there was uniformity in the church, the question never came up. Each congregation did pretty much the same thing. But, with the rate of innovation and change in society and in churches today, the question has become much more pressing.

Some answer the question by pointing to certain elements in the service: the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, or a prayer of confession. Other think that a heart it means signing hymns with a keyboard accompaniment, preferably an organ. Yet, none of these are shared by every Presbyterian congregation.

To get some perspective on the question, it is helpful to consider the history of worship in Presbyterian and Reformed churches.

Worship in Geneva

All Presbyterians trace their roots back to one of the key figures in the Reformation, John Calvin and the church in the city of Geneva. For it was Calvin more than any other figure who outlined the contours of our theology.

The main effort in Geneva, and in the Reformation at large, was to define worship over against the Roman Catholic Mass, which was seen to be corrupt. The need was to purify the service according to the principles laid down in the Scriptures. The key move was from a service centered on the Mass to one centered on the sermon. Some of the liturgical elements were retained in the service, such as the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed.

Another big change came in the area of music. The reformers deemed that the focus should always be on Scripture and so the congregation was to only sing the psalms. This was done a cappella, often with a cantor singing out the lines, which the congregation would then sing. The was in large measure because most of the people were illiterate. In Geneva the cathedral organ was locked up and no longer used.

According to Dr. Robert Kingdom in his Stone Lectures,

It took a while for the ability to sing psalms became widespread. Once it did, however, it was an innovation that came to mean a great deal to lay Protestants. It was often something they could embrace more fully than they could embrace some of the doctrines they heard explained from the pulpit.ⁱ

One other area where things were different was in dress. Whereas, the priest in the Roman Catholic church would wear colorful vestments that would change with each part of the liturgical year, the leader in Geneva wore a plain black robe. "To contemporaries he did not look like a clergyman. He looked like a lawyer."ⁱⁱ

Worship in America

The Reformed faith from Geneva spread quickly across Europe and became a strong force shaping the religious landscape in Great Britain. Some of the same dynamics were at were at work as were in Geneva, only there it was not opposition to the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church but on the state-imposed Anglican liturgy through the Book of Common Prayer. The Calvinist and Puritan view, according to Marsha Wilfong,

was that worship should be governed by Scripture. Hence, the primary elements of worship were the reading of Scripture, prayer, the singing of psalms, and the sermon. The use of the Apostles' Creed and liturgical responses such as the Gloria Patri were rejected, along with set liturgical prayers. Even recitation of the Lord's Prayer in worship was rejected by many.... The only active participation of the people was the singing of psalms.ⁱⁱⁱ

This view of worship was exported to America, especially as persecution grew. So that over time, as other immigrants of the Reformed faith came from Europe they would give up their liturgical elements and focus on the reading of Scripture and on preaching.^iv

The next big impact on Presbyterian worship came in the form of a renewal movement called the Great Awakening. This grassroots movement took the form of local revivals. The effect was that preaching became less focused on exposition and the teaching of doctrine and more focused on fervently calling people to greater commitment and devotion.

While evangelical preaching was the primary vehicle of persuasion, the concern for an emotional, spiritual experience in worship also led to the introduction of hymns, particularly those of Isaac Watts, in the worship of some Reformed Congregations.

It would be fair to see hymns as the "contemporary" music of the times, introduced to be more relevant to the people and more effective in spurring faith. The spread of this new music was common to all of the Protestant churches, so much so that "it became difficult to tell one American Protestant congregation (or even denomination) from another."^v

The introduction of these new methods and this new music led to worship wars. Presbyterians were divided into the New Side, which approved of revival measures, and the Old Side, which was opposed to the revival movement on both theological and practical grounds. This conflict led to an official Presbyterian division, which lasted from 1745 to 1758. Worship wars are never easy.

The following century there was the Second Great Awakening, which generally took the form of camp meetings.

They generated new forms of religious music and resulted in increased membership, particularly in Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches. In some respects, they continued the eighteenth-century trends both of ecumenical interaction and cooperation and of the blurring of distinctions between various American Protestant denominations, particularly in worship.... The hymnody of Watts and Wesley, as well as the spirituals and choruses generated by the camp meetings, became for many the common "musical language" of American Protestantism.^vi

Once again, the new music and the methods caused a new round of worship wars. And once again, this eventually caused another denominational split in 1837, between the New School and the Old School.

During the 18th century there was not a great deal of change and there continued to be a great deal of diversity among the congregations. The main elements of the service continued to be the saying of prayers, the reading of Scripture, the sermon, and the singing of psalms or hymns. The biggest change came in the area of music. New hymns were continually introduced. In the continued effort to move people toward greater devotion and commitment the use of organs and choirs gradually increased. Among those congregations, the use of organ and choirs was seen to be the most effective means to draw people to worship.

During the second half of the nineteenth century there was a renewed interest in the liturgical elements of worship. This was born of a desire to achieve greater balance between between the preaching of the word and the the celebration of the sacraments. This movement did not really take hold until the 20th century. For the early 20th century was marked by a cooperation between denominations for the sake of mission. This cooperation led to a desire to seek unity in theology and worship as well. Presbyterians began to look at their worship in a broader context and some began to claim practices from other traditions. This led to more liturgical worship in Presbyterians churches.

Conclusions

What can we learn from this history about Presbyterian Worship? Several things:

1. There is no one, single answer. The has always been a healthy diversity in the music and order of worship, historically and geographically. Orders of worship have ranged from highly liturgical to very simple with only music, prayers and a sermon.
2. Worship should be Scripture-centric. From the greater emphasis on the sermon, to the singing of psalms, to the simplification of the order, the motivation has been to keep people focused on Scripture as the fountain of faith. Anything that distracted from Scripture was suspect.
3. Worship should foster faith. The removal of the organ in Geneva and the increase of use of the organ in the 18th century America were both done in an effort to connect with their contemporaries. In other words, music was always a means to an end, never an end in itself.
4. Music has provided common ground between churches and denominations.
   The introduction of music is difficult as some cling to the status quo while others push the new music. These struggles have even been cataclysmic, producing denominational splits twice.

Presbyterians, to be true to their heritage, should always be open to new music if it helps connect with the people and bring them closer to God. This is more significant than the inclusion on any particular elements or styles.

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ⁱRobert M. Kingdom, "The Genevan Revolution in Public Worship," The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, Volume XX, No. 3, New Series 1999, pp. 264-280. This essay is the second of his five Stone Lectures, delivered at Princeton Seminary in February 1999, 277.

ⁱⁱIbid., 272.

ⁱⁱⁱ"Reformed Worship in the United States of America" by Marsha M. Wilfong in Christian Worship in Reformed Churches Past and Present (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series), edited by Lukas Vischer. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003), 108.

^ivIbid., 109.

^vIbid., 114.

^viIbid., 118-19.