One of my ministerial colleagues, Jonathan Landry Cruse, of Community Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Kalamazoo, Michigan has written a nice article on worship. It was published in the latest edition of Tabletalk, the monthly devotional guide published by Ligonier Ministries. The authors poses these questions about the worship service: He concludes with this summary: “What can we do to move our worship…
A Congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
A Congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Posts by Dave Sarafolean (Page 2)
Perhaps you, like many, consider regular church attendance to be optional if not all that important. After all, we have the internet and we can get all we need when we need it only with a few clicks. If that describes you, please read the following article by Adriel Sanchez over at Core Christianity. At one point his Christian experience was quite…
One of the trends in the evangelical church during the last decade or so has been the elastic use of the word “reformed.” What I mean is that the word identified a particular stream of the Protestant Reformation that produced creeds and confessions to articulate its beliefs: The Westminster Standards, The Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and the Canons…
In the last few days I came across two additional articles describing worship in the evangelical church. The first was published way back in 1995 by my friend, Darryl Hart. Talk about being ahead of the times! It was published by another friend, Scott Clark. Hart: “Contemporary Worship” Is The Triumph Of Summer Youth Camp The second article was written by Roger…
This summer I have been preaching a series of sermons on the Canons of Dort, in recognition of the 400th anniversary of their publication. Yesterday I preached a sermon entitled Corruption and Conversion, I. I spent quite a bit of time exploring the nature of the human will from the perspective of Adam before The Fall, Adam after the Fall, The Experience…
Some argue that worship is not authentic unless it springs from the heart, is spontaneous, and energetic. If you know anything about Pietism, then you know the source of that teaching. In contrast, the Reformed tradition is clear that worship is to be organized according to the word of God. This approach takes into consideration the consciences of those who are in…
Over at The Federalist, this article appeared the other day. The author makes many good points about what is valuable about a hymnal and what is deficient about singing music projected upon a screen. For me, this is not a new position. Twenty years ago I recall reading in Marva Dawn’s book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, the necessity of going slow…
Each Sunday I observe what does on around me. On my way to the church I notice how few cars are on the road. While at church I see people out for a walk and cars on the road heading to the grocery store or to a restaurant for breakfast. In church I see those who are not paying attention, and on…
Many skip church on a regular basis to do other things – sleep in, eat out, shop, golf, kid’s sports, hunt, fish, and more. For some it is their day to catch up on laundry, groceries, cleaning, etc. No one begrudges those who stay home because they are sick or because something out of the ordinary makes it difficult to attend. But…
Now that is a provocative title, but it isn’t original to me. It is the perspective of someone who has led contemporary worship for nearly thirty years. What is the issue? The evangelical church has made worship all about having a “religious experience.” The lighting, the use of images on a screen, the use of smoke machines (or not), the songs themselves,…