Southern Baptist Theology in the Late Twentieth Century
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 54, No. 2 – Spring 2012
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Bryan Chapell. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009. 320 pages. Hardcover, $24.99.
The important subject of congregational worship has received a great deal of attention in recent years from many distinct perspectives; in Christ-Centered Worship, Bryan Chapell (Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon [Baker Books, 1994]; president of Covenant Theological Seminary) offers a conservative Presbyterian viewpoint, arguing that every church that truly understands and rightly holds the gospel of Jesus Christ will naturally gravitate to the particular pattern of worship he describes, concluding that “if our worship structures are to tell [the gospel] story consistently, then there must be certain aspects of our worship that remain consistent” (85), namely the individual’s gospel experience.
In the first part of the book, Chapell seeks to prove that key historic liturgies and biblical passages describe an essentially uniform approach to worship. The historic liturgies he chooses are those of the Roman Catholic Church (preTrent), Martin Luther, John Calvin, Westminster, and founding Covenant President Robert Rayburn. The key side-thesis in this section is the proposed deficiency in Westminster’s focus on right thought above right experience and Rayburn’s desire to reincorporate revivalist elements of authentic worship therein. With respect to the biblical data, he focuses on gospel worship (Isa 6), Sinai worship (Deut 5), Temple worship (2 Chron 5–7), spiritual worship (Rom 11–15), and eschatological worship (Rev 4–21). From these examples, he determines a common progression of adoration, confession, assurance, thanksgiving, petition, instruction, communion, charge, and blessing (118), which just happens to be the same elements of the individual’s gospel experience (99). He argues that the gospel is a superior organizing principle to worship than other well-meaning concepts such as “Trinity, sacrifice, covenant loyalty, community, kingdom, synagogue, worship, ecclesial catholicity, early church continuity” (142). The second part of the book is a more detailed description of the components (or resources) of gospel worship consisting primarily of defenses and examples of his proposed elements.
There is much to commend Christ-Centered Worship to a general readership. Writing with the warm and comfortable tone of authors such as Robert Webber and Harold Best, it is easily accessible to almost anyone, and its basic premise is very meaningful. Christian churches should be intentional about the way they presume to approach God in worship, and it is very hard to find fault with a unifying principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Churches should be as intentional about their confession of sin, personal and corporate repentance, and thanksgiving for forgiveness as they are about adoration and preaching (if indeed they are “intentional” about those times in the first place). They should heed well Chapell’s sections on the recovery of carefully prepared Scripture readings as well as redemptive expository preaching.
The primary concerns with Christ-Centered Worship have to do with its basic argument and organization, which unfortunately muddies its overall conclusions. In short, Chapell starts with the historic liturgies and works backwards to the Bible. Unfortunately, his choice of historic liturgies includes a pre-Trent liturgy of his own creation, a largely unsuccessful Westminster liturgy, and a heretofore invisible Rayburn liturgy, and completely ignores a vast range of others. Also, his biblical analysis (which does not address 1 Corinthians 14 at all) is laced with frequent hedges such as, “I do not mean to imply that Scripture intends” (103). Such selectivity strongly indicates an agenda. This is even more evident in the gap between his proposed “aspects” and “components” of Christian worship identified in the first part and the elements he actually defines in the second part.
In short, Christ-Centered Worship is a helpful resource for a church leader who wants a fresh look at the structure of congregational worship. But it is neither a thorough overview of historic worship practices, nor a careful study of the Bible, but only a presentation of one man’s opinions. It is a better alternative to no reflection on the practice of worship, to be sure, but not an ultimate reference.
