- Nov 26, 2019
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Having read with interest Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel Distinctives , I did not get the sense that there was anything prohibiting traditional or even liturgical worship in a Calvary Chapel, provided that the focus of the service was entirely Christocentric, and the preaching was based on exposition of the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.
So I thought I would ask you - is there anything I am missing, or would a service with traditional hymns and music focused on our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ be acceptable? And could such a service use liturgical prayer, for instance, something like the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, albeit modified to use lectio continua and to delete aspects of the services less Christologically focused?
If liturgical or other traditional worship is possible, what requirements do you think it would need to be theologically acceptable to the Calvary Chapel? For example, how would baptisms be handled? How frequently should the Lord’s Supper be served? Would it be appropriate to use fermented wine mixed with hot water, or straight wine, or unfermented musk or grape juice in the Lord’s Supper? I wasn’t clear from Chuck Smith’s book what his Eucharistic theology was. Is a cross on a simple altar acceptable? Stained glass windows or icons depicting our Lord? Can scriptures in addition to the scripture the sermon is focused on be read, or in the case of the Psalms and Evangelical Canticles, sung?
So I thought I would ask you - is there anything I am missing, or would a service with traditional hymns and music focused on our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ be acceptable? And could such a service use liturgical prayer, for instance, something like the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, albeit modified to use lectio continua and to delete aspects of the services less Christologically focused?
If liturgical or other traditional worship is possible, what requirements do you think it would need to be theologically acceptable to the Calvary Chapel? For example, how would baptisms be handled? How frequently should the Lord’s Supper be served? Would it be appropriate to use fermented wine mixed with hot water, or straight wine, or unfermented musk or grape juice in the Lord’s Supper? I wasn’t clear from Chuck Smith’s book what his Eucharistic theology was. Is a cross on a simple altar acceptable? Stained glass windows or icons depicting our Lord? Can scriptures in addition to the scripture the sermon is focused on be read, or in the case of the Psalms and Evangelical Canticles, sung?
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