However, it’s not wise to introduce dancing into a worship service in my setting for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that dancing in American culture is pretty much restricted to either sensual bumping and grinding or dancing exhibitions like ballroom or choreographed pieces. In an African setting, I would be much more open to including elements of corporate physical response, like dance.

At a practical level, I would appeal to the Regulative Principle as much more useful as an articulation of how we, as ministers, should guard our hearts in worship and especially in preaching. Is it wrong to be humorous? Of course not, but it’s wrong to be humorous in the pulpit for the purpose of having others like you and think that you’re clever. Is it wrong to be a skilled orator? Of course not, but it’s wrong to use oratorical skills to build an audience for yourself at the expense of the clearly preached Word of God.

I appreciate the Regulative Principle and believe it to be important in the worship of God. However, I refuse to use my interpretation of it as a weapon to determine who is faithful and who is unfaithful to Biblical worship. If we had pledged allegiance to the American flag at GA, I would have been the first one to object.

Andrew,

You’re going to have to do better than grouse that those whom you disagree with in the application of the regulative principle have “forsaken” worship that is “according to Scripture, ‘Simple’ and ‘Biblical’.”

Does ‘order’ and ‘reverence’ look the same in every setting? Does it manifest itself the same way in Nairobi and Phoenix?

I am familiar with the Directory for Public Worship, as well as the recent commentary on it by Rowland S. Ward. I find much of it to be very helpful, especially the sections on the preached Word of God.

You state the following:

“There was a tremendous breadth of music in the assembly, but that breadth was representative of the different congregations within the assembly and within the presbytery.”

I would agree with that statement.

“If commissioners were uncomfortable with the mostly contemporary instrumentation, that’s more of a reflection on the age and tastes of the commissioners than a reflection of the denomination as a whole.”

Personally, it is not my preference to have ‘contemporary instrumentation’. That is my preference, but ‘contemporary instrumentation’ is not what makes worship at GA ‘schizophrenic’.

As a reflection of age, I am not old. So that does not apply. What the denomination does as a whole does not mean that what they do is correct or according to the Word of God. (Not implying anything, just stating that this is a bad argument).

“We have a wide array of styles and expressions of worship and a wide array of musical genres and instruments utilized within the denomination. That’s a great thing. In fact, it’s one of the areas of diversity within our denomination that we can point to and say, “Yes! We do things in different ways but we worship the same Lord!” A General Assembly that reflects that is a good thing.”"

And those who have preceded us would not agree with this statement. In fact, part of our constitution is the Westminster Standards of which the Divines themselves longed to have uniformity in divine worship. Now that is found in the Preface to the Directory of Publick Worship, which is not part of our constitution. But nonetheless, it should be a goal we have as well. So celebrating diversity is not the way to go. We should long to worship in a uniform way our great God who longs to be worshipped HIS way.

Apart from this we have Scripture which was clearly broken in the worship of the General Assembly. God commands that our worship be ‘orderly’ and ‘reverent’ of which what took place at GA could not in any manner be considered ‘orderly’ and ‘reverent’. In the PCA we believe in the Regulative Principle of Worship, but not at General Assembly.

Does that mean worship must be traditional, no. I’d rather just chuck that term in the trash. It should be according to Scripture, ‘Simple’ and ‘Biblical’. Of which our GA has forsaken.