I’ve been Baptist all my life and have observed that the preaching of the Word is the focus of our public worship services, as in most other Protestant churches. The pulpit takes center stage. In sacramental assemblies, like Catholicism and much of Anglicanism, the focus of public worship is the Eucharist. The altar takes center stage. Though this difference may sometimes be taken for granted by Protestants today, the prophetic position on worship wasn’t a given in the 17th Century, the age of the Puritans. The Puritans were the evangelical wing of the Church of England. They came into being because of a desire to rid the Church of the unscriptural vestiges of Catholicism, to complete the English Reformation.
Through their voluminous writings the Puritans developed a doctrine of preaching the Word of God. They also developed a doctrine of hearing the Word of God. Together these aspects of a church service form the Puritan conception of public worship. In his book The Genius of Puritanism Peter Lewis states that
the tension between the Anglican and Puritan modes and ideals of worship arose largely from the difference between the Anglican conception of public worship as fundamentally a priestly act, and the Puritan idea of it as fundamentally a prophetic one. To the Puritan mind the priestly element in worship rested on the two great truths of Christ’s perpetual High Priesthood and the consequent priesthood of all believers. Thus, any mediation of grace through the minister was not through any supposed priestly act of his, but through the Word of Christ spoken by him in the Spirit of Christ to the people of Christ. In public worship, therefore, the Puritan conceived of the prophetic element as the grand climactic and dominating factor.
Peter Lewis, The Genius of Puritanism (Carey Publications Limited, 1979), p. 53.
I found it interesting that the Puritans had to hammer out this conception of worship that I frequently take for granted, as though this position had always been the norm in churches. It had to be fought for. Today it seems that some professing evangelicals are flirting with sacramentalism and focusing less on the preached Word. Could it be partly because some preachers have seemingly lost the conception of the momentous event that is taking place when a man of God stands before a congregation and opens the Word of God?
Just like it was in the Puritans’ day, our society will be most impacted by ministers and listeners who view the sermon as “the climax of public worship…the principal mediating instrument of the power of God unto salvation and sanctification” (Lewis, p. 53).
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Recommended reading:
Peter Lewis, The Genius of Puritanism (paperback, 144 pages - reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria)
Using abundant quotes from the Puritans, Lewis provides a valuable introduction, emphasizing “the preaching and pastoral activities of those remarkable men of the 17th Century” (from the Foreword by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, p. 5). Available from Reformation Heritage Books ($11.00) and Amazon ($11.00).
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan, hardback, 325 pages)
This is not a book on homiletics; it is essentially a theology of preaching and should be required reading for every ministerial student. Very helpful.
