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A review by jacobyoung
Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice by Bryan Chapell
5.0
This review was written for a class project, which shaped my approach to the content:
Chapell's book is primarily concerned with the type of storytelling we do with our worship services. “Liturgy tells a story. We tell the gospel by the way we worship” (p. 19). What do our worship patterns communicate? It is not a matter of if, but what (p. 18). Thus the first part of Chapell's work is concerned with detailing not merely how the church has told the gospel story throughout church history, but then what types of stories they have thereby told through their various liturgies.
This work is aimed at equipping church leaders for building and stewarding Christ-centered worship within their communities: “Those who build churches have been forced to consider how their understanding of the gospel gets communicated by the structures in which it is presented” (v. 17). While Chapell gives significant space to outlining the major liturgies of the Western church, this are not presented as ironclad traditions to be implemented without change or accommodation. He notes:
“We may not agree with the way all of those liturgies frame the truths of the gospel, but it's hard to fault the missional impulse behind those designs. Our goal, therefore, should not be to mimic the liturgies that follow but to learn how the church was used worship to fulfill the gospel purposes through the ages so that we can intelligently design worship services that will fulfill gospel purposes today” (p. 21).
Thus within this framework, the liturgies of Rome, Luther, Calvin, Westminster, Rayburn are discussed, analyzing their various elements of worship and their theological rationales for their liturgical emphases. I will not repeat all the removing parts or developments here. I will note two key features in his work from the transition to Pre-Trent worship to Reformation worship liturgies. Given the context of the other works called out for reading in this class, it is surprising that it is Chapell alone who notes the significant element of worship that was added (or reclaimed) during the Reformation: congregational singing. Chapell notes (p. 28) the effect of the Council of Laodicea (363-364 AD), which declared in Canon 15, “No others shall sing in the Church, save only the canonical singers, who go up into the ambo and sing from a book.” The impact on this was over 1,000 years of liturgies without congregational worship. It's staggering to realize that one of the primary ways the Reformation shaped the church was simply through reclaiming congregational singing - something we take for granted in every Christian worship context today. Along these lines, Chapell notes that another effect of the Reformation was a shift in focus: “Instead of the service requiring a priest to offer Christ again in sacrifice, Luther understood worship as God's gift to the people. Through the liturgy, God's people could praise him for grace already completed in Christ's finished work of salvation” (p. 35). While the nature and practice of the Lord's Supper continued to be a key feature in Reformation debates, it was displaced as the central focus in the nature of what it's function was intended to communicate: Rather than being the primary gift of grace within corporate worship, the corporate worship context itself was God's gift to his people to draw near to him.
While discussing these various approaches to worship is fascinating, given the context of this paper's audience and class, it would be slightly redundant to recapitulate the various aspects of Rome, Luther, Calvin, Westminster, and Rayburn's liturgies. What follows after these sections is a broader discussion about the story of Christ in the Gospel story, and how the “worship of the church honors the gospel” (100). The function of worship, while it is primarily God's gift to us and our glad response to Him, is didactically training us in the Gospel itself. Chapell's fundamental applications are liberating in his tone and approach, because, as he states, “The Bible mercifully denies us the worship detail we may desire, keeping our worship focused on heavenly themes rather than earthly priorities” (107). This approach neuters the “worship wars” that are so tedious and soul-numbing to wade through, and keeps us focused on receiving more of Christ through Biblically informed and Gospel shaped worship. As Chapell notes:
“Worship that is Christ-centered leads the heart down the path it must follow to appreciate Christ's ministry. This gospel-formed path always puts us in contact with God's glory, our sin, his provision, our response, and his peace. By walking a worship path in step with this redemptive rhythm we simultaneously discover the pattern of our liturgy and grace of our Savior” (115).
The chapters that follow approach this reality through contextualizing our worship so that our liturgies intelligible encounters with the Living Christ both to believers and non-believers. While being contextual is important, Chapell couches this within the observation that this should “express a pattern of Christian worship, but should not encourage elimination of the Gospel pattern of our worship” (122).
Helpfully within this context, Chapell speaks to the missional values that shape our worship. Here Chapell makes cultural observations that may inform our biases positively or negatively in how we seek to express Christ-centered worship. These preferences are best situated when we are self-aware of them within the framework of the Biblical data and priorities of the Gospel. They cannot be avoided, nor should they be ignored. In fact, it is within this self-awareness about our own biases that worship can be situated to be more missionally engaging to our non-Christian neighbors. We should expect them to be a part of God's worship, not because we have excelled at marketing campaigns, our artisanal coffee selection, our musical performances, or dynamite child care, but because God is always working through his community's corporate witness to draw people to himself. As Chapell notes, “Healthy worship is one of the church's most effective evangelism tools” (133).
Chapell ends section one by summarizing the various major themes and various aspects that are tools for constructing our Christ-centered liturgies. Restating them here would be unnecessary at this moment.
With all of this material presented in brief, I turn to give a few thoughts about how the author's work has shaped my ministry. I do not say the following to curry favor with the author and professor of our class, but in short, this book has been the foundational text that has shaped how we have built our worship services in our church plant work. There are ways we have deviated from it at times (to be discussed in my worship service paper), but those are beside the point. We read this work as a leadership team at the beginning of our church planting work in 2015, and it revitalized our conception and practice of corporate worship in ways that continue to shape us today. We have, in effect, taken a simplified version of Calvin's worship service as captured in this book and implemented it with small adjustments here or there. It has helped me to appreciate that the nature of Christ-centered worship is: God calls us into his grace, and we respond by his grace. This call and response element has helped me to explain numerous times over the years to our congregation what our liturgy does and why we value it. For the non-Christians who are regularly among us, I will explain briefly why we are making certain moves within our worship service along these lines of God's call and our response. This work has shaped our corporate liturgy to be self-consciously Christ-centered from top to bottom, for which I am deeply grateful.
Chapell's book is primarily concerned with the type of storytelling we do with our worship services. “Liturgy tells a story. We tell the gospel by the way we worship” (p. 19). What do our worship patterns communicate? It is not a matter of if, but what (p. 18). Thus the first part of Chapell's work is concerned with detailing not merely how the church has told the gospel story throughout church history, but then what types of stories they have thereby told through their various liturgies.
This work is aimed at equipping church leaders for building and stewarding Christ-centered worship within their communities: “Those who build churches have been forced to consider how their understanding of the gospel gets communicated by the structures in which it is presented” (v. 17). While Chapell gives significant space to outlining the major liturgies of the Western church, this are not presented as ironclad traditions to be implemented without change or accommodation. He notes:
“We may not agree with the way all of those liturgies frame the truths of the gospel, but it's hard to fault the missional impulse behind those designs. Our goal, therefore, should not be to mimic the liturgies that follow but to learn how the church was used worship to fulfill the gospel purposes through the ages so that we can intelligently design worship services that will fulfill gospel purposes today” (p. 21).
Thus within this framework, the liturgies of Rome, Luther, Calvin, Westminster, Rayburn are discussed, analyzing their various elements of worship and their theological rationales for their liturgical emphases. I will not repeat all the removing parts or developments here. I will note two key features in his work from the transition to Pre-Trent worship to Reformation worship liturgies. Given the context of the other works called out for reading in this class, it is surprising that it is Chapell alone who notes the significant element of worship that was added (or reclaimed) during the Reformation: congregational singing. Chapell notes (p. 28) the effect of the Council of Laodicea (363-364 AD), which declared in Canon 15, “No others shall sing in the Church, save only the canonical singers, who go up into the ambo and sing from a book.” The impact on this was over 1,000 years of liturgies without congregational worship. It's staggering to realize that one of the primary ways the Reformation shaped the church was simply through reclaiming congregational singing - something we take for granted in every Christian worship context today. Along these lines, Chapell notes that another effect of the Reformation was a shift in focus: “Instead of the service requiring a priest to offer Christ again in sacrifice, Luther understood worship as God's gift to the people. Through the liturgy, God's people could praise him for grace already completed in Christ's finished work of salvation” (p. 35). While the nature and practice of the Lord's Supper continued to be a key feature in Reformation debates, it was displaced as the central focus in the nature of what it's function was intended to communicate: Rather than being the primary gift of grace within corporate worship, the corporate worship context itself was God's gift to his people to draw near to him.
While discussing these various approaches to worship is fascinating, given the context of this paper's audience and class, it would be slightly redundant to recapitulate the various aspects of Rome, Luther, Calvin, Westminster, and Rayburn's liturgies. What follows after these sections is a broader discussion about the story of Christ in the Gospel story, and how the “worship of the church honors the gospel” (100). The function of worship, while it is primarily God's gift to us and our glad response to Him, is didactically training us in the Gospel itself. Chapell's fundamental applications are liberating in his tone and approach, because, as he states, “The Bible mercifully denies us the worship detail we may desire, keeping our worship focused on heavenly themes rather than earthly priorities” (107). This approach neuters the “worship wars” that are so tedious and soul-numbing to wade through, and keeps us focused on receiving more of Christ through Biblically informed and Gospel shaped worship. As Chapell notes:
“Worship that is Christ-centered leads the heart down the path it must follow to appreciate Christ's ministry. This gospel-formed path always puts us in contact with God's glory, our sin, his provision, our response, and his peace. By walking a worship path in step with this redemptive rhythm we simultaneously discover the pattern of our liturgy and grace of our Savior” (115).
The chapters that follow approach this reality through contextualizing our worship so that our liturgies intelligible encounters with the Living Christ both to believers and non-believers. While being contextual is important, Chapell couches this within the observation that this should “express a pattern of Christian worship, but should not encourage elimination of the Gospel pattern of our worship” (122).
Helpfully within this context, Chapell speaks to the missional values that shape our worship. Here Chapell makes cultural observations that may inform our biases positively or negatively in how we seek to express Christ-centered worship. These preferences are best situated when we are self-aware of them within the framework of the Biblical data and priorities of the Gospel. They cannot be avoided, nor should they be ignored. In fact, it is within this self-awareness about our own biases that worship can be situated to be more missionally engaging to our non-Christian neighbors. We should expect them to be a part of God's worship, not because we have excelled at marketing campaigns, our artisanal coffee selection, our musical performances, or dynamite child care, but because God is always working through his community's corporate witness to draw people to himself. As Chapell notes, “Healthy worship is one of the church's most effective evangelism tools” (133).
Chapell ends section one by summarizing the various major themes and various aspects that are tools for constructing our Christ-centered liturgies. Restating them here would be unnecessary at this moment.
With all of this material presented in brief, I turn to give a few thoughts about how the author's work has shaped my ministry. I do not say the following to curry favor with the author and professor of our class, but in short, this book has been the foundational text that has shaped how we have built our worship services in our church plant work. There are ways we have deviated from it at times (to be discussed in my worship service paper), but those are beside the point. We read this work as a leadership team at the beginning of our church planting work in 2015, and it revitalized our conception and practice of corporate worship in ways that continue to shape us today. We have, in effect, taken a simplified version of Calvin's worship service as captured in this book and implemented it with small adjustments here or there. It has helped me to appreciate that the nature of Christ-centered worship is: God calls us into his grace, and we respond by his grace. This call and response element has helped me to explain numerous times over the years to our congregation what our liturgy does and why we value it. For the non-Christians who are regularly among us, I will explain briefly why we are making certain moves within our worship service along these lines of God's call and our response. This work has shaped our corporate liturgy to be self-consciously Christ-centered from top to bottom, for which I am deeply grateful.