Worship traditions

In Challies' "I Feel At Home in Your Church" he argues that denominational diversity is a strength rather than an indictment of Protestantism. "I choose to see each tradition as highlighting different aspects of God’s purpose for the local church. As a prism refracts the light and separates it into its component colors, the differing traditions refract the Bible’s varying commands and emphases." He is referring primarily to differences in worship practice.

• I feel at home in a Brethren church. I feel at home because of its commitment to simplicity in worship and to the necessity of celebrating the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis. ....
• I feel at home in an Anglican church. It feels familiar because its worship is so thoroughly steeped in Word and prayer. ....
• I feel at home in a Presbyterian church because of its commitment to sound doctrine and expositional preaching. ....
• I feel at home also in those Presbyterian churches that hold to a strict interpretation of the regulative principle. Such churches will only worship in ways the Bible explicitly commands. ....
• I feel at home in a Dutch Reformed church because it values simple, formal worship followed by warm and charitable hospitality. ....
• I feel at home in many non-denominational churches as well, though most fit at least one of the descriptions above or below. ....
• I feel at home in a Baptist church, for I myself am Baptist. As I search the Scriptures for its instructions on what a local church ought to be and how it ought to worship, I see it describing something very much like a church structured around the London Baptist Confession. ....

And while I am confidently and convictionally Baptist, I do love to experience other churches and consider it a blessing to worship among other traditions that teach the same Scriptures and preach the same gospel. .... (more)

Tim Challies, "I Feel At Home in Your Church," Challies, January 10, 2024