Donald McLeod makes astute observations about the real danger of the so-called New Calvinism: it is clueless about worship. McLeod writes (thanks to our southern correspondent):
. . . just as the grey squirrel threatens our native reds with extinction, so this brash New Calvinism threatens our historic Scottish Calvinism. It will eat us up, just as American signal-crayfish eat up our native species.
The biggest threat is to our native from of worship, the key-note of which has been a sense of awe in the presence of the infinite and the holy; and linked to this, in turn, an insistence on order. This was something that the Reformers inherited from the early church fathers and from the mediaeval Catholic Church and, Reformation or no Reformation, they refused to let it go. This is why many of us today would feel far more at home in a High Church service than in a modern Evangelical one; and this is why every Reformed church, including the Church of Scotland, had its Book of Common Order, reflecting the conviction that public worship was far too important to be left to the whim of the individual minister. They could preach and pray as the Spirit moved them, but they would have to sing from an authorised psalm-book, follow a common order for Baptism and Communion, and incorporate the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed into their weekly services.
Beside this lay another fundamental principle: it was God’s prerogative to tell us how he wished to be worshipped. Hence the much-derided ‘simplicity’ of Calvinist worship: no vestments, no incense, no altar, no images of the saints, no pictures of the Virgin, no kneeling at Communion, all excluded because we had no reason to believe that God ‘enjoyed’ them. That was the only relevant consideration.
With the New Calvinism, the dynamics change and Calvin becomes but a dim shadow. Instead, there is a curious mixture of the Five Points, 16th century Anabaptism, 18th century revivalism, 20th century Pentecostalism, sophisticated marketing, the latest technology, and high-decibel music.
McLeod is right. The test for Calvinism is worship.
Old Life 
Five centuries of worth its weight in gold.
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Depends on whether one worships only by means expressly allowed or only avoiding what is forbidden
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A hearty (inflamed?), unison, congregational “AMEN!”
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“Preach it,” he said, without raising his voice, hands or a charismatic ruckus.
Nice to find this post tonight after another ordinary day in the study. At 4:00pm today a young mother drives up and enters the church, baby in tow. Her family of four has just moved into the neighborhood, within walking distance of the ordinary means of grace. She is earnest and sweet and very much a novice in the things that concern her. She proceeds to explain she is looking for a church for her family. She rehearses the concerns she had with her previous conservative Lutheran church. All concerns that will not abate should she settle here. She likes small churches but her husband has eyes for one of the mega-shows nearby. She asks me to explain what the mega-shows are up to and why they are so mega. I do my best having been part of one 20 years ago. But over against my attempts at sabotage she realizes that what I am describing is more to her liking than what I showed her in our worship bulletin. “We like that new age Christianity [she knows not what she speaks]. The bands. The upbeat music. And my husband just wants to go somewhere and not be noticed.”
Realizing I may never see her I again, I draw my best card: “It really comes down to these questions: Do we worship God as God wants us to or do we worship God as we want to?”
“That’s easy,” she says, “we worship as God wants us to.”
“Go home then and ask your husband, Where do you find out how God wants you to worship?”
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The New Calvinism: Bringing Babdist aesthetics to a Reformed church near you.
Thanks guys.
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Megachurch worship: Entering into an intimate, emotional experience with 2,000 people you don’t know and probably won’t get to know.
Religious porn, in other words.
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“This is why many of us today would feel far more at home in a High Church service than in a modern Evangelical one;”
“Hence the much-derided ‘simplicity’ of Calvinist worship: no vestments, no incense, no altar, no images of the saints, no pictures of the Virgin, no kneeling at Communion, all excluded because we had no reason to believe that God ‘enjoyed’ them.”
These seem to be, at least to some degree, mutually exclusive.
At least when one sees Lutheran and Anglican worship and realizes that it is High Church, and has at least vestments, an altar, kneeling at Communion and sometimes images as well.
And here I thought Reformed worship was considered “Low Church.”
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Roy,
There is at least a liturgy.
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Thanks, John H.
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Macleod has hit it right on the head. Along with prayer for a ‘modern reformation’, it will take courage to stand on the principles of the Old Side/Old School against the ‘New Calvinist’ mixer-blender concoction, even if the New Calvinists are well-known leaders/authors/businessmen in the ministry, or should I say, ministers in the businesstry.
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While we ought to appreciate our Scottish roots, we ought not identify them exactly with our biblical roots. There might be a flexibility allowed by Scripture — the manual of worship — that is not allowed by our Scottish fathers and those who continue to worship in a Scottish fashion.
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On the European side
Couldn’t care less about the Scottish views
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For what it’s worth, I think my 3 year old fares better in a worship service with a simple, formal liturgy than the alternative. I’ve been teaching him to memorize the Apostle’s Creed, Doxology, Lord’s Prayer etc., which, when they are recited or sung by the congregation, actually draws him into the worship service. Not so much for the latest and greatest tune from Nashville or Hillsong, which are hardly written for congregational participation. Maddening.
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Yes, yes and yes! That is a very helpful critical reflection on the NC trend, and hits the nail right in the middle. Thanks for posting this.
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Still Macleod and the Regulative Principle – through the Ages –
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[Yawn]… shouldn’t we rather be talking about neo-calvinism, and how that was and always is the beginning of the end for the Regulative Principle?
That’ll be more ‘engaging’. Just sayin’.
Check this:
Calvinism “…is a whole world-view, embracing not only religion, but art, science, education, economics, politics and much more.”
Lol!
What’s to stop people from introducing praise bands, drama, yoga et al during a worship service if our religion is so all-encompassing?
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Wrote an article this morning.
http://josephfranks.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/unthinkable-aloofness/
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So, Joseph, is your point that RPW = Pharisaism?
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mboss, my 2-year old was at a PCA Christmas Eve service with immediate and extended family last year. There was plenty of time in the service for 2 “special music” numbers but not so much congregational singing.
Afterward, my 2-year old spontaneously asked me in the parking lot, “Daddy, how come we didn’t sing praise God from whom all blessings flow?” You see, children understand this. It’s not complicated. Structure worship so that it plays not to preferences but to what includes the whole family of God in serving Him: simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
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Joseph,
Like Chortles I too am trying to find the sequitur.
Perhaps it is but the sound of one hand clapping. Presbyterian mysticism.
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David, but what also comes through in your example is regularity–how would this have been on her radar if not because it’s something regularly done here but not there? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. How is it that the one tradition with something like the RPW doesn’t have doxology has the fourth mark?
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Z, because men hate conflict and nothing is more controversial and (in many contexts) harder to implement and maintain than regulated worship. Israel’s biggest problem wasn’t gender roles, adultery, theft, or social justice: it was idolatrous worship. We moderns have not outgrown the problem.
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RPW is beautiful, very biblical, and it can be legalistic when it demands more than Scripture.
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CW – “Israel’s biggest problem wasn’t gender roles, adultery, theft, or social justice: it was idolatrous worship.”
Paint this on the wall in ever church in America.
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Some may balk at the emphasis on worship, but it requires faith to worship an unseen God according to the simple dictates of scripture. Worship doesn’t replace faith — it is part of the exercise of faith.
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Worship not prescribed/regulated by scripture is legalistic.
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Entertainment = “new” Calvinism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HThWC5dDUoY
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Joseph,
I spent several years worshipping in ways similar to your church’s and I now know only so well how man-centered and unbiblical it is – no one will ever change my mind.
Usually, non-regulative principle worship, small group discipleship concentration camps, overemphasis on sanctification, diminishment of justification, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Jonathan Edwards, Federal Vision, and Nouthetic Counseling all go together like peanut butter and jam.
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Great to see this piece republished at The Aquila Report. Although short, the article packs a powerful punch and resonates with those of us who see worship not only as a matter of form but equally overall attitude with regards much of thought and theology.
There needs to be a constant and watchful push back against the pernicious movement giving an appearance of being Reformed and Protestant and yet betrays a love instead for much of the contemporary New Calvinism which rocks to a worship which rarely reflects the psalms which are the given model of Biblical worship.
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Is this post meant to be ironic? Quoting the guy who was one of the main proponents of scrapping the RPW in worship and bringing jazz bands into worship? (Admittedly, he walked out of those services- twice- thinking it would be hymns and organ not jazz. Which suggests he’s not very bright since all he had to do was look around to see waft modern worship looks like.)
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I did note in my research, Winsome Alexander, that Macleod was on board with bringing in hymns and instruments — disappointing. Sow the wind…
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That’s in the Free Church I’m talking about
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Worship not prescribed/regulated by scripture is legalistic.
That’s called a category fail, John.
The Regulative Principle of Worship or RPW is no more than the good and necessary consequences of the Second Commandment.
Legalism is man’s law in place of God’s law.
But you don’t agree with the RPW?
Fine, then you’re not confessional or reformed.
IOW this is not a fundamentalist or evangelical site and the burden of proof is your’s.
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Alex, I am not surprised, this is the greatest pitfall of all forms of neo-calvinism: a lopsided focus on ‘redeeming the culture’ and much ambivalence about the Church’s identity, ministry and focus.
They don’t always intend it, but their results almost always destroy the church.
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Alexander actually (!) makes a good point: Macleod was part of the majority that recently allowed instruments and non-psalms into the musical repertoire of the Free Church. Granted this just puts the Wee Free where most of us ‘Mericans have been for a century or two, but it has opened wide the door for contemporarities of all sorts. It’s not hard to imagine what their worship will be like in a decade. Actually it is hard to contemplate. Purists will have to resort to Alexander and his brethren.
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Reformers like Professor Donald Macleod from Edinburgh welcome the church’s potential loosening of its musical rules: “Those of us in favour of change argue, first of all, that it is no small thing to be out of step with the rest of Christendom. Is it we alone who have the Holy Spirit? We argue, secondly, that the New Testament requires us to sing, not only psalms, but “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”. And we argue, above all, that, magnificent though the psalms are, they belong to the Old Testament, and we are now living in the age of the New.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2010/may/10/wee-free-psalms-scotland
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DG Hart, I have to give a hearty Amen this post! We’ve had some back and forth with regard to conceptions of “New Calvinism” and such. But with regard to this post, I had to swing by (saw this on Aquila) and applaud MacLeod, and your post here.
This is the fourth piece that I’ve read from MacLeod of late, having not read much of him before. I have to admit that I’m intrigued and will look forward to more of his gleanings in the future.
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