Over the previous a number of years, I’ve taught programs to seminarians and pastoral interns on the theology and follow of worship within the Reformed custom. A part of the syllabus requires college students to work together with worship providers posted on-line, evaluating the weather, coherence, and execution of the liturgy. Companies are usually not prescreened, and we choose church buildings with varied worship types across the PCA.
The task requires college students to critically interact worship providers, cultivating a aware interplay with issues that regularly fly below the radar. After reviewing a major variety of providers, a number of constant liturgical themes have surfaced that deserve remark.
Beforehand I surveyed the roles of the call to worship, confession of sin, and pastoral prayer in PCA worship providers. This essay attracts consideration to liturgical practices within the PCA surrounding the Lord’s Desk by exploring the historic and confessional roots of Presbyterian follow and reflecting on fashionable liturgical practices.
Historic and Confessional Roots of Presbyterian Liturgical Observe
Westminster Confession of Religion 29.3 supplies clear liturgical instructions for administering the Lord’s Supper:
On this ordinance the Lord Jesus has appointed his ministers to declare his phrase of establishment to the folks; to hope and consecrate the weather of bread and wine, and so set them other than a standard to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, take the cup, and provides each to the communicants, and to partake with the congregation. However they aren’t to present the weather to any who are usually not then current within the congregation.
Our Lord Jesus appoints ministers to do three issues almost about this sacrament: (1) to declare the phrases of establishment; (2) to hope and consecrate the weather, setting them other than a standard to a holy use; and (3) to distribute the weather to these current within the congregation. These three liturgical actions represent what Westminster prescribes in accord with the meeting’s interpretation of the establishment narratives of the New Testomony (Matthew 26:26-27; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Ministers are to not do extra – WCF 29.4 lists a number of prohibitions – nor are they to do much less.
It’s useful to seek the advice of The Listing for the Public Worship of God as a information to interpret the liturgical practices prescribed by the meeting within the WCF. Within the Listing, the minister begins with a brief exhortation adopted by the phrases of establishment and a prayer of thanksgiving. This longer prayer features a consecration by which the weather are set other than a standard to a holy use. Nevertheless, the consecration is located inside a broader thanksgiving that remembers and declares the gracious advantages that belong to God’s folks in Jesus Christ.
The prayer begins with a gap acknowledgement of our sinfulness and distress. The meeting’s instructions for the prayer emphasize 5 infinitives:
(1) to present due to God for all his advantages, particularly for our redemption by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for this sacrament;
(2) to profess that there isn’t a different title below heaven by which we may be saved;
(3) to ask God to grant his presence and the working of his Spirit;
(4) to ask God to sanctify these parts; and
(5) to ask God to bless his personal ordinance that we could obtain by religion the physique and blood of Jesus Christ.
This prayer is adopted by the distribution of the weather to the congregation.
After the distribution, the minister exhorts the congregation to stroll in a way worthy of the gospel and presents one other prayer of thanksgiving for God’s wealthy mercy and requests the Spirit’s assist to strengthen the congregation in God’s service. After the prayer comes a group for the poor, weaving a diaconal concern into the liturgical order.
The Listing borrows closely from John Knox’s prayer which blends wealthy theology with rhetorical energy in his liturgical prayer. After opening with the phrases of establishment and an exhortation, Knox’s prayer begins with two causes that we’re to worship God: (1) we’re his workmanship created in his personal picture; and (2) mainly, due to our redemption in Jesus Christ.
Knox proceeds to emphasise the technique of our redemption by means of the incarnation, dying, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t merely emphasize the redemptive advantages sinners obtain by means of religion in Christ, however offers prolonged consideration to the historical past of redemption.
Knox turns to admit our lack of ability to grasp the breadth, size, top, and depth of God’s love that moved him to indicate mercy. That is adopted by a rhetorical flourish wherein Knox declares and professes that by Christ alone we now have obtained life and liberty, are acknowledged as youngsters of the dwelling God, achieve entrance to the throne of grace, and have possession in a religious kingdom to eat and drink at his desk.
Knox celebrates that we commune with the ascended Lord who will return to boost our our bodies from the mud. A fourfold emphasis on the phrases “by him alone” type a strong rhetorical gadget wherein the advantages of understanding Jesus Christ—previous, current, and future—are enumerated to the world.
After the prayer the weather are distributed. Following the distribution, Knox presents a prayer of dedication that thanks God for the reward of being obtained into the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ and requests God’s assist that we not neglect his advantages however develop day by day in true religion. The congregation then sings Psalm 103 in unison earlier than listening to the benediction.
Although there are notable similarities between the Listing and Knox’s prayer, there are three distinct variations.
First, Knox, following an historic Christian custom, bases his thanksgiving to the Father on God’s creation of humanity in his personal picture and God’s redemption of sinners by means of Jesus Christ.1 The Listing, regrettably, doesn’t embrace God’s reward of humanity’s creation in his personal picture and God’s redemption of sinners by means of Jesus Christ as the premise for its thanksgiving.
Second, Knox focuses on the redemptive occasions, not merely the advantages of redemption, by reflecting on the incarnation, dying, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Listing’s prayer emphasizes the redemptive advantages of God’s grace regardless of the redemptive historical past by which that grace was procured. In step with Scripture, thanksgiving ought to recall the saving acts of God, not merely the advantages of these actions.2
Lastly, Knox doesn’t incorporate a consecration into his thanksgiving. As Hughes Oliphant Outdated factors out, Knox omits the consecration as a result of he believes that our Lord’s blessing of the weather in Matthew 26:26 is solely a thanksgiving over the weather for God’s wondrous acts in creation and redemption.3
Although Knox follows Reformed precedent by not together with a consecration in his prayer of thanksgiving, the Listing explicitly requires a prayer that sanctifies the weather from a standard to a holy use. Each Knox and the Westminster Meeting share a Calvinistic account of the Lord’s Supper. Nevertheless, they differ over what it means to “bless” the weather.
Trendy Liturgical Practices Across the Lord’s Desk
Lately PCA church buildings have demonstrated a renewed curiosity within the Lord’s Supper, growing how regularly they take part within the sacrament. The Listing says nothing about frequency past that ministers and elders of every congregation ought to decide what’s most handy for the edification of these below their care.4 No church or minister needs to be held in suspicion for his or her follow concerning frequency of participation.
However this renewed curiosity in observing the Lord Supper has not been accompanied by a renewed curiosity within the Reformed liturgical practices linked with the Lord’s Desk.
There are three dominant developments to notice.
First, many ministers announce the phrases of establishment and distribute the weather with solely a short prayer of thanksgiving, or with none prayer in any respect. In WCF 29.3, ministers are instructed to declare the phrases of establishment, pray and consecrate the weather, and distribute them.
The weather are to be sanctified by the Phrase and prayer.5 To hope and never consecrate the weather, or to omit a prayer altogether, violates the Westminster Requirements and likewise displays a exceptional diploma of ignorance concerning the thanksgiving and prayer of consecration in our custom. It’s unhappy to watch these practices, particularly by ministers pushing for extra frequent observance of the Lord’s Supper.
If a minister rigorously objects to the educating of WCF 29.3, this constitutes a theological exception to the Westminster requirements that requires the approval of a minister’s presbytery. There are exegetical arguments and Reformed liturgies that don’t affirm Westminster’s notion of consecration. Nevertheless, WCF 29.3 requires a thanksgiving and prayer of consecration that, together with the phrases of establishment, units aside the weather from a standard to a holy use.
After consecration, the bread and wine serve a holy function in that they’re devices employed by God for believers to commune with Jesus Christ. Consecration doesn’t rework the weather into the physique and blood of Jesus Christ. Consecration sanctifies the weather as holy devices by means of which we commune with the risen Christ by religion. Consecrated parts are effectual when rightly used.
Second, different ministers announce the phrases of establishment and supply a short thanksgiving with a prayer of consecration earlier than distributing the weather. Whereas this follow doesn’t represent an express violation of WCF 29.3, it shows a scarcity of familiarity with our custom’s method to providing due to God in prayer on the desk. In Scripture, prayers of thanksgiving recall the saving acts of God in a festive celebration with an expectation of ultimate deliverance.
In step with the Psalms, Christian thanksgiving ought to spotlight the mighty deeds of God within the incarnation, dying, resurrection, and exaltation of our Lord Jesus, and enumerate all that’s ours in union with Christ—previous, current, and future. Knox’s thanksgiving serves as a beautiful instance from which we will study the artwork of crafting a thanksgiving prayer. To have a good time communion with out strong thanksgiving strikes on the vitals of the Lord’s Supper.
Lastly, most ministers fail to have a good time the Lord’s Supper with applicable affections. Some method the desk with the solemnity of a funeral, others with the informality of a picnic. Within the Listing, ministers are instructed to carry out the liturgy with affections appropriate to such a holy motion, and to encourage the identical within the congregation. These affections are usually not spelled out, however plainly many affections are suited to the event, particularly reverence, pleasure, and hope.
Conclusion
In relation to the liturgical practices of PCA church buildings surrounding the Lord’s Desk, many church buildings appear unaware of the Westminster requirements and the liturgical practices of the Reformed custom. Revived curiosity amongst PCA church buildings within the observance of the Lord’s Supper must be accompanied by a renewed curiosity within the theological convictions and liturgical practices of the Reformed custom. With out this partnership, the revival is not going to bear the specified fruit.
When a renewed sacramental curiosity is wed to the knowledge of the custom’s liturgical practices together with our strong Calvinistic doctrine of Christ’s presence, we provide a considerable technique of grace that helps and sustains the religion of our congregations.
Chuck Colson serves as senior pastor of Christ Church Presbyterian in Jacksonville, Florida, and likewise serves as visitor lecturer at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.
1Hughes Oliphant Outdated, Holy Communion within the Piety of the Reformed Church (Eugene: Wipf and Inventory, 2020), 251.
2Psalm 78; 105; 136.
3Hughes Oliphant Outdated, Holy Communion, 258.
4The Listing for the Public Worship of God (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 2001, reprint), 384.
5Listing, 385.
