The work of reforming and strengthening worship is never finished by adopting a document. But it can be helped by one. A good Directory will not do the work of pastors and elders for them. But it can help pastors and elders do their work better.

A constitutional Directory for Worship will not, by itself, make the PCA worship well.

That may sound like a strange argument in favor of constitutionalizing a Directory for Worship, but it is an important point to make. Sometimes (always?) we speak as though putting words into our constitutional documents automatically produces the corresponding practice in the life of the church.

But in reality, the Form of Government does not automatically make every session wise. The Rules of Discipline do not automatically make every church court patient, courageous, consistent, or just. Our doctrinal standards do not automatically make every elder a careful theologian. Constitutional ink matters greatly, but our beloved documents are not magical. They do not replace pastoral wisdom, patient instruction, local shepherding, or the slow work of forming congregations in the truth.

The same is true of a [constitutional] Directory for Worship.

If the PCA adopts a revised Directory, we should not imagine that every elder, session, and congregation will suddenly become uniform in practice. Nor should we want the Directory to function that way. A faithful Directory is not meant to press every congregation into one narrow mold. It is meant to give biblical direction to the church as she worships the living God.

I’ve been told and now I tell elders: Shepherd the people you have, not the people you wish you had. This applies to preaching, teaching, praying, visiting—all aspects of pastoral ministry. Do you know the people in your church? Then seek to love them, not an imagined “better” version of them.

Similarly, now that the PCA is squarely centered in middle-age, we should be trying to shepherd the Church we have, not the one wish we had. And that applies to both “sides” of any argument to the contrary. Do you really know the denomination you are in? Then seek to love her, not an idealistic or imagined version of her.

The PCA is not a single congregation with many satellite campuses. It is a denomination of churches in different contexts, with different histories, different sizes, different capacities, different musical resources, different pastors and elders, and different pastoral challenges. Some congregations worship in historic sanctuaries. Others meet in schools, storefronts, community centers, or temporary spaces. Some have long-established patterns of worship. Others are young congregations still learning how to order the service of God with reverence, simplicity, and joy. Some are governed by elders with different philosophies of ministry than yours or mine.

A good Directory must be strong enough to guide all of us and broad enough to serve all of us.

Read More