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Introduction: Gregorian Chants

Named thus due to reform brought about by Pope Gregory the Great (Bishop of Rome, 590-604)

Example of influence in our Baptist Hymnal (1991): “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” 80

I. Two Different Questions to Answer the Central Question

A. Central Question: “How Should We Worship God?”

B. First Question to Answer: “What Does the Scripture Say?”

C. Second Question, Asked in Wisdom and Humility: “What have Christians throughout the ages

understood the Bible to say about how we worship God?”

D. Danger: Pride in the “Bible Only” Approach

1. Job’s facetious statement to his friends

Job 12:1-2 Then Job replied: "Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!

2. Pride’s boast: “Just the Bible and me”

3. What pride forgets: The Spirit at work for CENTURIES in Christians all over the world

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

4. Humility takes Bildad’s approach

Job 8:8-10 "Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned, 9 for we were born only

yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. 10

Will they not instruct you

and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?

E. Opposite Danger: Traditionalism

"Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead

faith of the living" Jaroslav Pelikan

Mark 7:6-9 [Christ] replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

"'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in

vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' 8 You have let go of the commands of God and

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are holding on to the traditions of men." 9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting

aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

II. Early Patterns from the Church Fathers

A. Justin Martyr’s Apologia (c. A.D. 150)

1. Base rumors and scandalous accusations: (“love feast”; calling ea. Other “brother”/”sister”)

even worse was misunderstanding of Lord’s Supper… that it was cannibalistic

Justin Martyr wrote to dispel these foul rumors: What follows is his description of early Christian worship:

Key elements: 1) Reading and teaching from Scripture; 2) corporate prayer; 3) celebration of

the Lord’s Supper [celebrated weekly]

C. Early Christian Liturgy

2nd

/3rd

Century Worship (Patristic Age)

Part 1: Service of the Word

1. Opening greeting and response

2. OT reading

3. Psalm or hymn

4. NT reading (non-gospels)

5. Psalm or hymn

6. NT reading (gospel)

7. Sermon

8. Dismissal of all but baptized believers

Part 2: Eucharist

1. Prayers (lengthy): Leader announces topic. Congregation prays silently. Leader

sums up the congregations petitions on that topic. Repeated.

2. Holy Communion

a. greeting (women kissed women; men kissed men)

b. offertory (each member brought a small loaf and a flask of wine)

c. dialogue/prayer

d. broke loaves

e. distribution of elements (something was said as the food was received)

3. Benediction (something like “Depart in peace” was said by a deacon)

D. Early music

1. Justin Martyr: Note that he does not mention music or singing of any kind

2. However: musical worship was widespread as of the second century

3. Responsive singing: “cantor” leading, church responding (like Psalm 136, “His love

endures forever”)

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4. Much of the singing was from psalms, but also some from New Testament “hymns”

5. Non-canonical hymns: Not until the early fourth century

A Hymn of Ambrose of Milan (A.D. 339-397)

Maker of all things, God most high Great ruler of the starry sky Who, robbing day with beauteous light Hast clothed in soft repose the night

That sleep may wearied limbs restore And fit for toil and use once more, May gently soothe the careworn breast, And lull our anxious griefs to rest

We thank thee for the day that’s gone We pray thee for the night come on; O help us sinners as we raise

To thee our votive hymn of praise

From every carnal passion free O may our hearts repose in thee! Nor envious fiend with harmful snare Our rest with sinful terrors share

Christ with the Father ever one, Spirit! The Father and the Son, God over all, the mighty sway, Shield us, great Trinity, we pray.

[trans. John D. Chambers; Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity, p. 139]

6. No musical instruments

a. seen to be Jewish or pagan in nature, or even called “childish”

“Simple singing is not childish. What is childish is singing with lifeless organs, dancing, cymbals, etc.

Therefore we Christians put aside the use of such instruments and other things fit for children, and we retain

only simple singing.” (attr. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, 5th

c., in Give Praise to God, 475)

b. no instruments ever mentioned in New Testament worship, except harps in heaven

III. Developments After Constantine

A. The “Legal Religion”

1. Centuries of persecution gave way to wide acceptance

2. Constantine’s edict on weekly Sunday rest made church services bigger occasions

B. Increased Rituals and Ceremonies

1. Roman court practices imported to worship as well

use of incense

carrying of candles as a mark of honor

curtains around the altar used at time of eucharist

vestments and robes used for priests

2. Imported pagan practices infiltrated as well

3. Christian (originally pagan) festivals began to multiply

4. So also did pilgrimages to holy sites (especially Jerusalem)

C. Church Buildings

3. Constantine had a lavish basilica built in Constantinople

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4. Full flowering of this was the massive Cathedrals of Europe built during the Middle Ages

D. Church Calendar

E. The Cult of Relics and Veneration of Saints

F. Icons

G. Transubstantiation, Real Presence

IV. Liturgy

English definition: “A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship.”

Negative connotations: ritualistic

What are we talking about here? The form and order of worship.

The content of our worship is inevitably reflected in and shaped by the form of our worship!

Worship Across the Ages II: Reformation and Post-Reformation I. Reformation and Post-Reformation: Streams and Themes

A. Martin Luther: Reformation in Worship as Well as Word

Summary: Characteristics of Lutheran worship:

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1. Christians fellowshipped in and with the living Word… preaching was CENTRAL to worship

2. Lord’s Supper was vital, and celebrated daily

3. real presence of Christ in the elements (consubstantiation)

4. the mass is not a repetition of the death of Christ, but Christians enter into the sacrifice, offering up

themselves together with Christ

5. vernacular was used in the mass (first celebrated without the vestment at Wittenberg in 1521)

6. congregation given more participation

7. greater use of hymns

8. liturgical uniformity was not the ideal; many variations and much creativity were seen (Luther

proposed that whatever is not forbidden by the Scriptures is allowed if, in the judgment of the church,

the practice is thought helpful)

. Luther and Music

a. essentially created the modern Christian hymn… purpose: to bring message of the

word to the masses

b. Luther an ardent lover of music… played lute & flute; sang with a tenor voice

c. Luther composed melodies and some harmonizations for these German translations

of the Mass… he sarcastically called the early harmonizations as mechanical, “as

though done by apes”

d. began to compose new hymn texts, providing about half with melodies; worked

with skilled professional musician, Johann Walter, who harmonized his melodies;

he also urged his friends to compose new hymns

e. 1524: published first congregational hymnbook, “Geystliche Gesangkbuchlein”;

composed in four-part harmony, Luther said, "in order to give the young men

something in place of their drinking and fleshly songs".

Luther’s most famous hymn, Ein' Feste Burg ist unser Gott, (A Mighty Fortress is Our God) was based on

Gregorian melodies, a meditation on Psalm 46.

f. set the pattern for music being of vital importance for pastors; congregations were

to participate actively in church services; pastors not accepted for church ministry

until they could demonstrate musical competence

g. set the stage for amazing flowering of church music under Johann Sebastian Bach

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Johann Sebastian Bach Tracker Organ Lutheran Church Musician

Luther on Music:

“I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father

and from our Lord Jesus Christ! I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift

of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God. The riches of music are so

excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them.... In summary,

next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts,

minds, hearts, and spirits... A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous

creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be

permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.” Forward to Georg Rhau's

Symphoniae iucundae, published in 1538, (a collection of 52 chorale motets and Latin motets of old masters, likely intended for amateur singers)

B. Zwinglian Worship: Ultra-stripped-down; extreme reaction to Roman Catholic excesses

1. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531); Roman Catholic priest in Zurich

4. Memorial view of the Lord’s Supper… Lord’s Supper only four times a year

5. No music at all

a. organs removed

b. even singing banned from worship

c. substituted antiphonal recitation of Psalms and canticles

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d. service of the Lord’s Supper in total silence

C. John Calvin and Reformed Worship

1. Definitions: Regulative Principle and Normative Principle

a. Briefly stated, the regulative principle teaches that God has set forth in Scripture the

only acceptable ways of worshiping Him and that it is a sin to attempt to worship Him in

any other way.

b. The opposite view, the normative principle, teaches that we may worship in

whatever way we wish as long as it is not forbidden in Scripture.

2. Lingering Questions

a. may we use instruments in worship?

b. should we sing in harmony as opposed to unison?

c. should we sing hymns in addition to psalms in corporate worship?

3. Calvin’s Liturgy

a. Calvin thought Lord’s Supper should be every Lord’s Day and should be well

attended; but rather than introduce radical change, he suggested to celebrate it monthly

b. mediating position between Luther and Zwingli on the Lord’s Supper… Christ was

said to be spiritually present, and this was related to the receptivity of the believer

c. congregational singing of the Psalms

d. Calvin was responsible for having the Psalms versified and having composers write

suitable tunes for them (Genevan Psalter).

D. Radical Worship: Free from Forms and Traditions

1. These Radical Reformers were called: Anabaptists, Puritans, Independents,

Nonconformists, Separatists, Dissenters. They were uninhibited by the political and social

commitments that limited Luther and Zwingli and Calvin, so they tossed aside many medieval

practices in favor of an unstructured approach to Christianity.

2. Characteristics of Radical Reformed or Free Church Worship

a. free from traditional rites and ceremonies

b. advocated a simpler approach to worship, emphasizing the spirit rather than the form

c. Anabaptists – rejected infant baptism, and thus emphasized the absolute necessity of

personal commitment to Christ, which influenced the practice of Free Church worship

d. sought to return to primitive Christianity

e. preaching of the Word was central

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f. emphasis on congregational participation

g. clergy and laity practically indistinguishable

h. emphasis on hymn singing

i. adopted confessions of faith rather than creeds

j. only two ordinances of the church: baptism and Lord’s Supper, thus rejecting the

sacraments of the Roman Church

k. some sat about a round table in an attempt to return to the NT practice of the close

fellowship of believers

l. Latin abolished; vernacular was used

E. Anglicans: Protestant Liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer

1. English “reformation” really no reformation at all under Henry VIII; BUT later forces did

reform church of England

2. Characteristics of Anglican Worship

a. essentially Catholic at the start (vestments; liturgy; sacrament)

b. Thomas Cranmer and the Book of Common Prayer (two editions, 1549, 1552)

Cranmer sought to put all the services in the hands of everyone by translating,

condensing, and revising them (and then publishing them)

recovered daily services of public prayer

theologically Zwinglian; did not accept as high view of Lord’s Supper as Bucer

and Calvin

c. variegated history, with pendulum swings (e.g. communion during Elizabeth I’s reign

was only three times a year; but by the 19th

c. weekly communion was brought back)

3. The Revolt of the Puritans

a. Puritans took over the Church of England from 1644 to 1660 and wanted to fully purify

the church of what they saw as the malignant influence of Roman Catholic tradition

b. Puritan Worship

committed to a common principle: worship must be ordered according to the

Word of God alone; “sola scriptura” seen as the only source and guide in both

worship and daily life; extended portions of Scripture read aloud at each

service, interspersed with illuminating commentary from a deacon; lengthy

sermons during which it was expected that congregants take copious notes (the

head of the household frequently quizzed his children and servants to ascertain

their attentiveness to the sermon—their spiritual well-being was his

responsibility)

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rejection of popish and human traditions; the drab garb of the minister was

preferred over the ornate vestments used in Anglican practice

metrical psalms sung by the congregation replaced the chanting

characterized by covenant theology; baptism and Lord’s Supper are “seals” of

the Lord’s covenant, marks by which God identifies with his people through

visible, tangible means; no divine grace is mediated in the sacraments

practiced infant baptism, trusting that God has predestined these infants to

eternal election; however, evidence of election would have to be demonstrated

as he/she matured in order to become a fully participating member of the

community

emphasized prayer; often lengthy (even for hours), with the congregation

standing

worship should be reflected in the entire life of the believer as his manner of

glorifying God

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I. Reformation and Post-Reformation: Streams and Themes

A. Martin Luther: Reformation in Worship as Well as Word

B. Zwinglian Worship

C. John Calvin and Reformed Worship

D. Radical Worship: Free from Forms and Traditions

E. Anglicans: Protestant Liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer

II. American Puritan Worship

“… [T]he pioneering type of worship the Puritans developed in both England and New England, with its

rigorously biblical basis, its extemporaneous prayers, its covenantal tie to God and each other, its expression of

the priesthood of all believers, and its encouragement of a lay, uncloistered piety, while of historical interest, is

also of current relevance. It is the parent of the Free Church tradition in worship, which has become the

dominant mode in the Baptist, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and

Reformed churches…” Horton Davies, The Worship of the American Puritans, ix-x.

A. Basic Descriptions: The “Market Day for the Soul”

1. Met on each Lord’s Day (Sunday)

2. Two services each Sunday… one at 9:00, one at 2:00

3. Order of service, non-Lord’s supper day

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Opening Prayer of Intercession and Thanksgiving

Reading and Exposition of a chapter of the Bible

Psalm singing

Sermon

Psalm Singing

Prayer

Blessing

Afternoon services would add baptisms and collections (offertory) led by the deacons

4. Lord’s Supper was monthly or bi-monthly

5. Lengthy Prayers, Lengthy services

Longer prayer after the sermon: usually an hour, sometimes as much as two hours!!!

[This prayer usually lasted as long as the sermon itself]

Total, including exposition of the lesson, psalm-singing, offertory, final blessing and

the sermon: 3-3½ hours, but sometimes longer

6. Singing of Psalms with no instruments

a. regulative principle intensified

b. not only what is taught in Scripture BUT ALSO re-established in New Testament

C. The Centrality of the Preached Word

“The sermon was the climax of Puritan worship, as the exposition of the Word of God in both condemnation

and consolation, expressing the divine anger and the divine mercy. Puritan ministers believed that every faithful

preacher had to be a Boanerges, or son of thunder, before he became a Barnabas, or son of consolation.”

Horton Davies, The Worship of the American Puritans, 79.

III. Revivalism and

American Frontier

Religion: The

“Democratization”

of Worship

A. Great Awakening

1. Dramatic preaching

of George Whitefield,

Gilbert Tennant,

Jonathan Edwards et.

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al.: The Essential Need of the “New Birth”… Whitefield’s field preaching brought

church to the common laborer

2. Whitefield Preached “On the Dangers of an Unconverted Clergy”…

3. New small congregations of Baptists and Methodists started springing up

B. After American Revolution: No State Church

1. Continued focus on individual salvation

2. Explosive growth of Baptists and Methodists… Methodist “circuit riders” very effective

3. Because there are no state protection or patronage of the church, each denomination and

local church survived and thrived on its ability to attract and keep people

4. Explosive growth of Methodists and Baptists

C. Camp Meetings and the Great Revivals (1800-1805)

D. Focus on “The Sovereign Audience”

1. Religious movements survived and thrived on successful appeal to audience

2. Populist preachers arose who knew how to move the crowds (Lorenzo Dow)

3. Orders of service and hymnals arose catering to mass popularity

E. Second Great Awakening and Finney’s “New Measures”

inquiry room for counseling seekers

the anxious or mourners' bench for those responding to the public invitation to

Christ

preaching for an immediate decision

emotional prayers which addressed God in a very familiar, informal language

organized choirs and music

advertising and advanced preparation for the revival meeting

5. Long history of revival and revivalism after Finney

D.L. Moody Billy Sunday Billy Graham

Common pattern: Song service, followed by preaching for conversion, followed by some use of Finney’s

measures: “The invitation system”

E. Many modern evangelical churches: worship little more than a “stationary revival” (Mark Dever)

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“Megachurch revivalist worship offers no more of a full mature worship experience than ordinary revivalism.

While, like the crusade, it may (or may not) be successful in evangelism, as worship for longtime believers it

tends to be at best a reminder of their own initial step of faith and an opportunity for recommitment to Christ,

and at worst an experience of pre-evangelism entertainment, followed by an evangelistic sermon directed to

somebody else.” Donald Hustad, Jubilate II: Church Music in Worship and Renewal

IV. Pentecostalism

A. The Azusa Street Revival

B. Pentecostal Worship

1. Total freedom of expression “as the Spirit leads”

2. Constant use of the “sign gifts” speaking in tongues and prophecy, as well as healings

3. Aversion to set forms of liturgy and structure as instruments of “quenching the Spirit”

4. Revivalist preaching with active audience participation

5. Strong use of music and popular hymns and choruses… music used even during sermon to

support message

6. Strong emphasis on the “atmosphere” of worship and a sense of the presence of the Holy

Spirit

7. Physical expressions of joy in the Lord are expected: lifting of hands, falling down,

weeping, shouting aloud