How does God want to be worshipped?
Documentary
2019 / 87 minutes
RATING: 8/10
How should we worship God? It’s one of the most important questions a Christian can ask. We often think that the Reformation was about important doctrines like justification by faith alone. It certainly was, but it wasn’t just about that. In fact, one of the most central issues of the Reformation was the manner in which God should be worshipped.
Some believed that if God did not forbid something, then it was permissible. Others argued that the church had the authority to formulate Christian worship as it saw fit. The Reformed churches, however, applied sola Scriptura (the Bible alone) to worship – only God, through his Word, can decided how God is to be worshipped. This fundamental principle came to expression in Lord’s Day 35 of the Heidelberg Catechism and its explanation of the second commandment: “We are not to make an image of God in any way, nor to worship him in any other manner than he has commanded in his Word.”
That idea is known as the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW). This documentary, by Les Lanphere, is about the Regulative Principle of Worship and Reformed worship. It’s about how this principle is biblical, how it’s needed for our day, what it looks like in practice, and why it matters supremely.
Great content, with packaging to match
Documentaries can sometimes be as inspiring as a grammar handbook. Les Lanphere’s are decidedly not. If you’ve seen his 2017 Calvinist, you know he has a gift for making films that grab you by the collar and pull you right in. While it starts off a bit slow, Spirit & Truth rises to that same standard. I loved it, not only for the content, but also for the production qualities.
The film features interviews with numerous pastors and theologians. Some of the more familiar faces would be Tim Challies, W. Robert Godfrey (URCNA), John Bouwers (URCNA), and Kevin DeYoung. These interviews put meat on the bones of what Reformed worship is all about.
Three facets
There are several facets to Spirit & Truth that I really appreciate.
The film is not only about the outward externals of worshipping God properly. It also speaks of the heart – the “spirit” of “worship in spirit and truth.” One can go through the motions of worshipping God to the letter, but without heart-engagement it’s all meaningless.
While Spirit and Truth is a faithful explanation of Reformed worship in general, it carefully treads around some of the finer details about which some Reformed and Presbyterian believers may disagree. For example, there are some Presbyterians (and Reformed too) who are convinced that we ought only to sing Psalms. Spirit and Truth leaves that issue alone. However, it does emphasize the thing we all agree on: at the very least, Scripture does command us to sing Psalms. That’s something often neglected in contemporary Christian worship.
Finally, there’s sometimes a perception that Reformed worship (as we know it) is merely a white, western, Euro-centric practice. If that’s true, that has implications for worship in cross-cultural contexts, both in our own country and abroad. However, Spirit & Truth includes interviews with non-western or non-caucasian Christians in various contexts to illustrate that Reformed worship, following the RPW, transcends cultures. It does so because it’s biblical and God’s Word transcends cultures.
Conclusion
I sometimes wonder whether we hold on to our Reformed worship practices just because they’re our practices or because they’re traditional. Spirit & Truth persuasively argues that we ought to hold on to Reformed worship because it’s biblical. And because it’s biblical, it honors God, it puts Christ and the gospel in the center, and it will serve for our blessing.
There are a lot of pressures to modify worship in our churches to make it more like what we see in the broader ecclesiastical context. But if Spirit & Truth can help convince us that we have to hold on to distinctively Reformed worship for the right reasons, those pressures will be easily resisted. This one is highly recommended for Bible or catechism classes, Bible study groups, and office bearer retreats.
You can watch the trailer below, and find Spirit & Truth available for streaming rental here.
Dr. Wes Bredenhof is the author of “Aiming to Please: A Guide to Reformed Worship.”
