Ritual & Orthodoxy
As a follow-up to my Piper quotation, here’s something Jeff Meyers wrote:
I am convinced that we have not even begun to think about the massive influence of ritual(s) (especially those that we unthinkingly adopt in our typical evangelical worship services) in Reformed theological circles. We continue to do seminary without professors of Reformed Liturgy. This is amazing. It is ecclesiastical insanity. Our Reformed seminaries graduate men with little or no liturgical competence. We actively teach silly, sentimental pop worship, not realizing that one day we will, because of our pop worship (lex orandi, lex credendi), abandon the orthodox faith (The Lord’s Service, p. 81).
I’m grateful that at Mid-America Reformed Seminary I wasn’t taught silly pop worship. Still, I wish I’d had more training and done more thinking about liturgy in seminary.