Worship and the Regulative Principle

You are very welcome to join us. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD" (Psalm 122:1). Here is what a Lord's Day (Sunday) service with us is like.

• When. We meet twice each Lord's Day, at 10 am and 3:30 pm, and for prayer on Wednesdays at 7:30 pm.
• Before worship. A quiet time of preparation is encouraged, though a quiet word to someone is fine. A bulletin is generally available in the foyer before the service begins.
• The service. Worship opens with a call to worship, a short announcement or a verse of the Bible. Then come the simple parts of worship God has given: singing Psalms, prayer, Bible reading and preaching (Westminster Confession 21.5). During a typical service we sing three or four Psalms, have times of prayer, hear a reading from each Testament, and then the sermon. The benediction, a blessing from God's Word, closes the service.
• Singing and the Bible. We sing the Psalms from the 1650 Metrical Psalm Book, without instruments. A precentor (the man who leads the singing) hums the first few bars of the tune, and everyone joins in. Sing along as you can, or simply listen. We read and preach from the Authorized (King James) Version.
• Head covering and dress. Following 1 Corinthians 11, men worship with their heads uncovered and women with their heads covered. Any covering will do: a scarf, beret or hat. Scripture teaches modesty in dress. Let your clothing honour God, and remember that you come into the presence of the Lord.

We come to "serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28). If you have questions, before or after the service, please speak with an elder or use our contact form.

Listen: Principles & Parts of Worship (Sermon Series), Rev. G. Beers.

God decides how He is to be worshipped. What He commands in His Word, we do and what He has not commanded, we do not add. It is called the regulative principle because God's Word regulates and rules our worship. Only a holy God knows how a holy God must be worshipped.

The Confession says that God "may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men ... or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture" (Westminster Confession 21.1). God told Israel, "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 12:32). Jesus warned of those who worship God "in vain" by "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).

So our worship is made up of the parts God has given (Westminster Confession 21.5). Because we hold to the Confession, we look for a Bible warrant for every one of them. We read the Word (Acts 13:15) and we preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2). We pray in Christ’s name (John 14:14). We sing the Psalms, the word of Christ, without instruments (Colossians 3:16). We do this on the only holy day of the New Testament, the Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7). The two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are parts of worship too. That is what you will find here on a Lord’s Day: Psalms sung, prayer, Scripture read, a sermon and the blessing.

This does not mean every detail needs a Bible verse. The hour we meet, or the building we meet in, are "circumstances" of worship, "common to human actions and societies". These are ordered "by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word" (Westminster Confession 1.6).

This principle also protects you. No church may bind your conscience to worship God in ways He has not commanded (Westminster Confession 20.2). Worship is for God, so we are content to bring Him only what He has asked for.

Listen: Spirituality, Simplicity and Worship, Romesh Prakashpalan (from 12:15); Twenty Reasons to Sing Only Psalms, William MacLeod (from 1:18). Read: The Scriptural Regulative Principle of Worship, G. I. Williamson; The Puritan Principle of Worship, William Young; Hear Ye Him, Sherman Isbell.

In worship we sing the Psalms of the Bible. We believe God has told us what to sing.

Our starting point is that God decides how He is to be worshipped. The Confession says that "the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will" (Westminster Confession 21.1). We may not add anything to worship, or take anything away (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024). The Confession names "singing of psalms with grace in the heart" as part of the ordinary worship of God (Westminster Confession 21.5). The Directory says the same: "It is the duty of Christians to praise God publickly, by singing of psalms together in the congregation" (Directory for Public Worship).

God has given His church a whole book of songs, written by His Spirit. The Psalms teach, comfort, confess sin and give praise, and they speak of Christ. Jesus said that all things must be fulfilled "which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). Paul tells the church to sing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19). We understand these words as names for the songs God Himself supplied in the Book of Psalms; the reading below explains why. Calvin put it simply, echoing Augustine: no one can sing words worthy of God unless he has received them from God (our Presbytery, Identity: Psalms in Worship). Since God has given the songs, we are content to sing what He has given.

We hold this gladly, not to look down on other Christians, but because we want our praise to be what God has asked for.

Listen: Twenty Reasons to Sing Only Psalms, William MacLeod (from 0:01). Read: Sing the Lord’s Song! Biblical Psalms in Worship, John W. Keddie; Song in the Public Worship of God, John Murray; The Psalms: Their History, Teachings, and Use, William Binnie; Q&A with Rev R. McCurley (April 7, 2024), R. McCurley.

We sing without musical instruments because we find no command for them in the worship of the New Testament church. The starting point is the same as for the Psalms: God decides how He is to be worshipped (Westminster Confession 21.1). What He commands, we do. What He has not commanded, we do not add: "thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 12:32).

Didn't Israel use instruments? Yes. In the temple they were used by God's command, given through David and the prophets: "for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets" (2 Chronicles 29:25). They went with the sacrifices: "when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets" (2 Chronicles 29:27). Psalm 150 and other psalms that name instruments belong to that temple worship.

Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever" (Hebrews 10:12), and the temple service came to an end. We believe the instruments belonged to that service, with its priests, altar and incense, and ended with it (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024).

The New Testament puts the music in the heart. We are to sing "with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16), and to offer "the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips" (Hebrews 13:15). The harps in the book of Revelation stand beside incense and an altar. They are pictures of heavenly praise, not a pattern for our worship.

So our praise is simple: the voices of God's people singing the words God has given. Other passages, such as Miriam's timbrel at the Red Sea, are taken up in the reading below.

Listen: Principles & Parts of Worship (Sermon Series), Rev. G. Beers. Read: Instrumental Music in Worship: Commanded or Not Commanded?, G. I. Williamson; Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church, John L. Girardeau; Q&A with Rev R. McCurley (April 7, 2024), R. McCurley.

A precentor is the man who leads the singing in worship. We sing without instruments, so someone must give the tune and set the pitch. The precentor hums the first few bars of the melody, and then everyone joins in. The tunes are not fixed for each Psalm, but chosen beforehand. He is there to lead, and his task is to help the whole congregation sing as one voice. Our singing is praise offered to God, not music performed for people.

The Directory for Public Worship, which guides our worship, gives these directions saying that "the minister, or some other fit person appointed by him and the other ruling officers, do read the psalm, line by line, before the singing thereof" (Directory for Public Worship). The "ruling officers" are the elders. Today the precentor's main task is to lead the tune.

Scripture asks that "all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). A leader helps a congregation to sing in good order. The Directory asks that the voice be "tunably and gravely ordered", that is, in tune and reverent. But it adds that "the chief care must be to sing with understanding, and with grace in the heart, making melody unto the Lord" (Directory for Public Worship). A precentor serves that goal.

Read: Sing the Lord’s Song! Biblical Psalms in Worship, John W. Keddie; Instrumental Music in Worship: Commanded or Not Commanded?, G. I. Williamson.

Scripture commands no particular pronoun. God hears every true prayer, whatever English words are used. What matters is the heart, and the way we come to God.

The Confession says prayer is to be made "with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance" (Westminster Confession 21.3). We are to pray "with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God" (Larger Catechism 185). "Awful" here means "full of awe." Yet we also "draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father" (Shorter Catechism 100). Scripture holds both together. "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:2). And, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16).

Why do many of us pray with "Thee" and "Thou"? In older English these were the words for "you" when speaking to one person. The King James Version uses them to distinguish between the singular person versus plurality of people, including God who is One: "Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee" (Psalm 102:1). In our services we read from the Authorised (King James) Version and sing from the 1650 Psalter. So you will hear "Thee" and "Thou" in the readings and the Psalms. Many Christians keep these words in prayer because they are the language of the Bible they read and the Psalms they sing.

If you are used to praying with "you," you are not doing wrong, and you are welcome among us. Whatever words we use, let us come to God with reverence, and with confidence in Christ.

Read: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, vol. 3 (on prayer), Thomas Boston; A Method for Prayer, Matthew Henry.

In our worship services, women cover their heads and men do not. Any covering will do: a scarf, a beret or a hat. We do this because of 1 Corinthians 11: "every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head" (1 Corinthians 11:5).

Paul does not rest this on fashion but on the order God set at creation: "the head of the woman is the man" (1 Corinthians 11:3). He also appeals to what is fitting: "Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?" (1 Corinthians 11:13). (The word "comely" means fitting.)

Two verses often raise questions:

• Verse 15 says a woman's long hair "is a glory to her" and is given her "for a covering". We take this as nature teaching the same lesson, not as making hair the covering Paul asks for. In verse 6 he says a woman who will not be covered might as well "be shorn" (have her hair cut off). That would make no sense if her hair were already the covering. Her hair is her glory, and in God's worship all glory but His is covered (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024).
• Verse 16 says, "we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." We take this to mean that no church of God had the custom of women praying uncovered, and that Paul would not have it turned into a quarrel.

Is it for all the time? No. The whole passage is about the church gathered for worship, and so is our practice (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024). If you have questions, please speak with an elder or use our contact form.

We know that faithful Christians read this passage differently. If you are visiting, you are welcome to worship with us.

Read: Head Coverings and Decorum in Worship: A Letter, John Murray; Headship and Worship: Notes on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Sherman Isbell; Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 6 (1 Corinthians 11), Matthew Henry.

We do not use pictures of Jesus in our worship or teaching, and we encourage families to avoid them in children's books too. The reason lies in how God has told us He is to be known and worshipped.

The second commandment says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath" (Exodus 20:4). When God spoke to Israel from the fire, "ye saw no manner of similitude" (Deuteronomy 4:15), so that they would make no image of Him. The Larger Catechism applies this to each person of the Trinity. It forbids "the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons ... outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever" (Larger Catechism 109).

"But Jesus became a real man. Why not picture Him?" He did, and He remains "God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever" (Shorter Catechism 21). We cannot picture His humanity apart from His divine person, so a picture of Him is a picture of a divine person (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024). And Scripture never tells us what He looked like. Every picture is an artist's guess, and children may carry that guess in their minds when they think of their Saviour.

God has chosen to make Christ known through His Word. Paul says that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Timothy was made "wise unto salvation" by the Scriptures he knew from a child (2 Timothy 3:15). So we tell children the Bible's own story, and teach them to love a Saviour they have not seen: "Whom having not seen, ye love" (1 Peter 1:8).

Listen: Spirituality, Simplicity and Worship, Romesh Prakashpalan (from 13:43). Read: Images of Jesus, Andrew Webb; Pictures of Christ, John Murray; The Second Commandment, William Young.

The Lord's Day is a gift. Jesus said, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). God calls us to "call the sabbath a delight" (Isaiah 58:13). Keeping it holy means setting the whole day apart for God. It is a day of worship, rest in God, and good to others, rather than a day of doing nothing (our Presbytery, Identity: Observance of the Sabbath). For us it looks like this:

• Preparing beforehand. We try to finish our ordinary work before the day comes, and to prepare our hearts by prayer (Westminster Confession 21.8).
• Resting. We rest from our daily work, and even from "such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days" (Shorter Catechism 60). Those belong to the other six days.
• Worshipping together. We hold two services, at 10 am and 3:30 pm, and aim to be there from the start to the blessing.
• Filling the day with good things. The rest of the day goes to "reading, meditation, repetition of sermons" (going over the sermon again), teaching our children, prayer, psalms, "visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy" (Directory for Public Worship).
• Necessity and mercy. Caring for the sick, helping a neighbour, and work that cannot wait belong to the day: "it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days" (Matthew 12:12).

God commanded, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). Since Christ's resurrection the first day of the week "is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath" (Westminster Confession 21.7). Each one points us to heaven: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9).

Read: The Sanctification of the Sabbath, Thomas Boston; The Fourth Commandment According to the Westminster Standards, John Murray; The Lord's Day, Archibald Alexander.

No. We do not hold special services for Christmas, Easter or other yearly church festivals. This is not because we think little of Christ's birth, death or resurrection. We rejoice in them, and we preach them all year round.

God alone decides which days are holy. Under the gospel He has given His church one holy day, the Lord's Day. The Directory for Public Worship, which guides our worship, says: "There is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath", and "Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued" (Directory for Public Worship). ("Vulgarly" here simply means "commonly.")

God appointed yearly feasts for Israel, but He has appointed none for the New Testament church. To make our own holy days would be to add to His worship (Deuteronomy 12:32). Paul was troubled when a church began to "observe days, and months, and times, and years" (Galatians 4:10).

God has already given us ways to remember Christ. We remember His death at the Lord's Supper, and His resurrection every Lord's Day, the day He rose (Q&A with Rev. R. McCurley, 2024). As a visiting minister put it here, we have one holy day, and it comes fifty-two times a year.

The Bible does allow occasional days of fasting or thanksgiving when God's providence, His ordering of events, calls for them: "solemn fastings, and thanksgivings upon special occasions" (Westminster Confession 21.5). These are not fixed yearly festivals.

If you have always kept Christmas and Easter, this may feel strange at first. We are glad to talk it through with you.

Read: The Scriptural Regulative Principle of Worship, G. I. Williamson; Why are Ecclesiastical Feast Days in our Church Order?, R. D. Anderson; Q&A with Rev R. McCurley (April 7, 2024), R. McCurley; The Church of Christ, vol. 1 (Ecclesiastical Holidays), James Bannerman.

The Lord's Supper is for those who have professed faith in Christ and are members in good standing of a church. It is not only for members of our own congregation, a visitor who is a communicant member of another church may come to the Lord's Table provided they meet with our Session first and receive approval. Usually this means a word or a letter from the visitor's own minister or elders. If you hope to take communion with us, please speak with an elder or use our contact form well before the Lord's Day.

Why take this care? It is not a judgment on you. The Lord’s Supper is a holy meal. Christ has given His church the duty of watching over it (Larger Catechism 173). The elders cannot speak for someone they do not yet know, so they ask. Scripture also asks each one who comes to "examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28).

In our churches the Supper is kept with preaching and self-examination around it. Communicants come forward and sit at a table (our Presbytery, Identity: The Communion Season). Before the Supper the minister warns those who live in known sin not to come. He also invites to the Lord's table "all that labour under the sense of the burden of their sins, and fear of wrath" (Directory for Public Worship).

If you cannot take communion, you are still most welcome to worship with us. You will hear the Lord's death proclaimed in the Word.

Read: Preparation for the Lord’s Supper, John W. Keddie; This Do In Remembrance of Me, Robert Murray M’Cheyne.