How Should We Reform Our Worship – Seminar Resources
How Should We Reform Our Worship
Commission for Theological Integrity Seminar | NAFWB, Kansas City, MO | Jul 21, 2025
Handout
A Baptist Perspective on Retrieval and the Reform of Worship
Kevin L. Hester
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008.
Free Will Baptist Hymnbook. Nashville: NAFWB, 1964.
Rejoice: The Free Will Baptist Hymn Book. Nashville: NAFWB, 1988.
A (Very) Brief History of Worship Reform
- Christian worship was based on synagogue worship as found in first-century Judaism
- Constantinian Settlement (313 AD), Greco-Roman elements incorporated: architecture, choirs, vestments, processions, etc.
- Protestant Reformation (sixteenth century). sola Scriptura
- Regulative Principle: defined in the Westminster Confession, “the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.” (21.1).
- Normative Principle: (Lutheran and Anglican postion), the church may do in worship whatever is not forbidden
- First and Second Great Awakening. Revivalism, with its focus on the individual’s response in faith, would come to define the individual’s experience of the gathered liturgy as worship. This would be reinforced by modern fundamentalism’s evangelistic methods and focus. This focus on the individual in worship sets the stage for a modern reform that seeks a return not to the tradition of a church but to the Great Tradition of the Church. This reform is driven by retrieval.
Evangelical Retrieval and Reform
D. H. Williams, Retrieving the Tradition & Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
The Great Tradition: “The heritage of Christian thinking, believing, and confessing across time”
Timothy George on retrieval: “To go back to the Bible first of all, as it has been refracted through the ministry and history of the church, expressed in the early classical creeds, and resurfaced in a new and fresh way in the confessions of the Reformation and the early Baptist movement.”
Gavin Ortlund on retrieval, “recovering historic Christian traditions to enrich modern worship—not rejecting contemporary forms like CCM but deepening them. Retrieval theology calls for the church to look backward in order to move forward, reclaiming lost practices and distinctives that historically shaped Christian worship and discipleship.”
Conclusion
While much of the focus or retrieval as reform is to be applauded, there are real dangers. We risk embracing forms without understanding the theological content of these forms. We risk adopting foreign cultural components that are attractive because of their novelty and not because they are biblical. Difference for difference’s sake is rarely a good choice. When we consider changes to our worship we must always focus on Scripture first. Scripture, as Calvin says, is the “rule” for worship and provides its basic content.
The Way Forward
Rodney Holloman
To recap, we are discussing a vital conversation happening across evangelicalism, particularly within our Free Will Baptist tradition: the call for worship reform. This isn’t just a trend; it’s a deep re-evaluation, partly inspired by figures like Robert E. Webber, who encouraged us to look to the past – to “ancient-future worship.” What’s fascinating is how this resonates with younger generations, like Gen Z, who are sometimes looking for more traditional, historically rich forms of worship.
Our own Free Will Baptist history reveals a progression. From early ‘low-church’ roots with elements like responsive readings, we saw significant shifts in the 80s and 90s with the rise of contemporary Christian music and ‘seeker-sensitive’ approaches. This often led to a divide between traditional and contemporary styles. But the current conversation seeks to move past these ‘worship wars’ and find common ground based on foundational biblical principles. We also hope to encourage you to avoid the trite “old is good, new is bad” fallacy.
A key concept in this reform is “retrieval” – not just for novelty, but to recover the ‘Great Tradition’ of Christian faith throughout history. This means learning from early church fathers and the broader Reformed tradition to enrich our worship and discipleship. But a crucial guardrail here is sola scriptura – Scripture alone. We must ensure that any retrieved practice is truly biblical, adhering to the regulative principle: only what God’s Word commands should be in our worship. Calvin famously called Scripture the “rule” for worship, guiding both what we do and how we do it.
At the very heart of biblical worship is the faithful preaching of God’s Word. When God’s Word is proclaimed clearly and truthfully, something profound occurs. This isn’t just an intellectual exercise; it’s a “transcendent meeting with the living God.” The Reformers understood this deeply, placing preaching at the center of worship because it is the primary means by which Christ’s voice is heard, and His glory revealed to us.
8 Practical Action Items
1. Regularly Audit Current Worship Practices:
Evaluate your services against Scripture’s directives. Identify gaps or practices driven more by culture than Scripture.
Preach, Pray, Read, Sing, and Show the Word (Webster):
- Preach the Word – Gospel-centered, doctrinally rich proclamation.
- Pray the Word – Corporate prayers of confession, thanksgiving, intercession.
- Read the Word – Public reading of Scripture in varied forms.
- Sing the Word – Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs reflecting biblical truth.
- Show the Word – Ordinances (baptism, Lord’s Table, foot washing), fellowship, offerings.
2. Increase Scriptural Saturation:
Incorporate more public reading of Scripture, responsive readings, and Psalms into weekly services to form hearts and minds around God’s Word. Always make sure your songs are saturated with scriptural teaching.
3. Teach the Theology of Worship:
Preach and teach on why we worship, grounding it in the regulative principle (We do not have too much problem with the normative principle) and apostolic practice to guard against dead formalism or novelty.
4. Center Worship on Preaching:
Elevate the faithful preaching of God’s Word as the central means by which God reveals Himself in gathered worship.
5. Foster Unity and Respect:
Let’s work together, praying for one another, and respecting diverse perspectives as we collectively strive for a deeper, more biblical expression of worship.
6. Recover Historic Practices Wisely:
Reintroduce rich, biblical elements from our church heritage (doxology, corporate prayers, confessions) in ways that engage the congregation meaningfully.
7. Form Leaders to Prioritize Biblical Authority (Sola Scriptura):
Train pastors and worship leaders to balance retrieval with discernment, avoiding extremes of trendiness or empty traditionalism, while modeling reverence and joy.
8. Renew through Retrieval:
Recover the Great Tradition of Christian worship without abandoning Baptist distinctives. Retrieval is not nostalgia; it is reform rooted in Scripture, shaped by the wisdom of the past, and lived in the present.
Reforming worship is not about chasing trends or rejecting everything contemporary. It’s about anchoring in Scripture, valuing reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28–29), and cultivating discipleship through worship. The future of worship in Free Will Baptist church life depends on biblical depth, not cultural imitation or an emotional preference for past traditions.
Suggested Reading
Referenced Books and Articles
D. H. Williams, Retrieving the Tradition & Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
Gavin Ortlund, Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019).
Jonathan Gibson and Mark Earngey, eds. Reformation Worship: Liturgies from the Past for the Present. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2019.
Lester Ruth and Lim Swee-Hong. A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship: Understanding the Ideas That Reshaped the Protestant Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021.
Luke Simon, “The Gen Z Worship War.” Christianity Today. May 29, 2025. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/05/gen-z-worship-war-men-women-ccm-liturgy-tradition/.
Pew Research Center’s 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/.
J. Matthew Pinson, ed., Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2011) Amazon https://amzn.to/4lCfckB Logos https://www.logos.com/product/7689/perspectives-on-christian-worship-five-views
Springtide Research Institute’s 2020 study, “The State of Religious and Young People 2020.” https://springtideresearch.org/research/the-state-of-religion-young-people;.
Timothy George. “Timothy George on Evangelicals, the Great Tradition, and Christian Higher Education.” Church Grammar (podcast). https://secundumscripturas.com/2022/08/08/timothy-george-on-evangelicals-the-great-tradition-and-christian-higher-education-repost/
Helpful Websites and Articles
Practical Tips for a Quality Small Church Music Ministry – Daniel Webster
Why Does God Want Us to Make Music as Worship? – Daniel Webster
Why Does the Spirit Want the Church to Sing? – Daniel Webster
Leading Your Volunteer Musicians (Kevin Justice)
Ready-to-Go Worship Sets From the “Rejoice” Hymn Book (Doug Little)
Selecting Songs Your Church Can Actually Sing (Josh Owens)
Worship Leader Is My Title, But What Is My Job? (Tony Cooper)
The Heart of Worship (Daniel Webster)
Music – “traditional” www.scottaniol.com (Religious Affections is retired, but resources are still searchable: religiousaffections.org)
Music – “theologically deep contemporary” www.gettymusic.com
Daniel Webster’s worship resources. Here are several articles on church music like this one and this one and a free ebook with Scripture Readings in KJV and ESV.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqRJBTJfznCJN6Q-95vZkA
9Marks Worship Resources, https://www.9marks.org/?s=worship&post-type=all
9Marks, “Ten Questions to Ask of Song Lyrics,” https://www.9marks.org/article/ten-questions-to-ask-of-a-songs-lyrics/
Kevin DeYoung, “Ten Principles for Church Song,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/ten-principles-for-church-song-part-1/
Donald Whitney, “Ten Ways to Improve Your Church’s Worship Service,” https://biblicalspirituality.org/article/ten-ways-to-improve-your-churchs-worship-service/
