Presbyterianism may be said to rest on a three-legged stool (thank you to T. David Gordon for this analogy). One leg is our doctrine. Another leg is our form of government. The third is our worship. Our worship is an expression of our doctrine. It arises out of our doctrine. We worship as we do because of the theology that we affirm. Our worship also expresses our theology. How we worship communicates what we believe about God, the human condition, Christ and His work, the way of salvation, and the means of grace. Our worship is Reformed, not Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox, not Pentecostal, etc., because our theology is Reformed.

The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) at its 2025 General Assembly approved the formation of a study committee to consider the adoption of a “Directory for Public Worship” (DPW) with full constitutional authority. The PCA has a DPW. However, it has the status only as an “approved guide.” While it “should be taken seriously as the mind of the church agreeable to the (Westminster) Standards,” the current preface to the Directory maintains, “it does not have the force of law and is not to be considered obligatory in all its parts” (excepting chapters BCO 56-58 dealing with baptism, the reception of new members, and the Lord’s Supper).

For over 50 years the PCA has been in the odd position of being a Presbyterian denomination without an authoritative DPW. It is beyond odd – it is unprecedented. The first item of business undertaken by the Westminster Divines was the production and approval of a DPW. Before they gave their attention to a confession of faith or catechisms, they settled the worship issues. They could live with the Thirty-Nine articles, the doctrinal standards of Anglicanism. What they couldn’t abide was neither the suffocating uniformity required by the Book of Common Prayer nor the liturgical chaos of the anabaptists, Quakers, and Independents.

In other words, Presbyterians have taken the middle ground between what on the one hand would be a comprehensive liturgy requiring word for word uniform compliance and what on the other hand would be an absolute freedom for each minister and church to do whatever they think the Spirit is leading them to do. It is telling that the Congregationalists in 1658 and the Baptists in 1689 both adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith with revisions touching church government by the former, and touching church government and baptism by the latter. Yet neither adopted the DPW. In their system each congregation must be autonomous, free to establish its own forms of worship.

Presbyterianism may be said to rest on a three-legged stool (thank you to T. David Gordon for this analogy). One leg is our doctrine. Another leg is our form of government. The third is our worship. Our worship is an expression of our doctrine. It arises out of our doctrine. We worship as we do because of the theology that we affirm. Our worship also expresses our theology. How we worship communicates what we believe about God, the human condition, Christ and His work, the way of salvation, and the means of grace. Our worship is Reformed, not Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox, not Pentecostal, etc., because our theology is Reformed.

Since the approval of the DPW by the Westminster Assembly and its adoption by the Church of Scotland in 1645, Presbyterians always and everywhere have guarded their worship by use of a Directory with constitutional authority. The PCA is the outlier. Hopefully this anomaly will soon be corrected.

Year in and year out, the General Assembly worship services illustrate the need in the PCA for liturgical norms. This year the opening communion service featured three metrical psalms: Psalms 100, 121, and 130! Quality hymns were sung, a full diet of biblical prayer was offered, substantial portions of Scripture were read and then preached, and communion was properly administered (the table was fenced, not a sure thing at General Assembly).

However, the format Tuesday night at General Assembly lends itself to worship as a production bordering entertainment: a huge choir, orchestra, and other musicians, all needing an important role to play. The volume was overwhelming. Again this year, we couldn’t hear ourselves sing. It also is not helpful to have the cameras focus on the singers and musicians, projecting their grimaces of earnestness on the big screen. We managed to do away with that form of distraction for a few years, but it was back this year. Nevertheless, the service was otherwise refreshing in its God-centeredness, reverence, emotional balance, and biblical content.

Wednesday night’s service also was solid: weighty hymns, substantial Scripture reading, exposition of Isaiah 6, and a full diet of biblical prayer. So far, so good. Yet we ask again, is it helpful to feature a “praise team,” up front, on stage, with camera close-ups if our aim is what the apostle Paul calls “undistracted” or “undivided devotion” (1 Cor 7:35)? I think not. But this is what we do. At the end of the service, we sang a gospel song, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” accompanied by a light show! A Presbyterian light show. One can only wonder.

We may ask: are those of us who are not leading from the platform worshippers or spectators? Are we participants in prayer or an audience watching performers? If we are not the latter, why are we being invited to watch bigger-than-life projections of the “worship leaders’” images on giant screens? The forms we use communicate a message whatever our words might be. The cameras, the screen, the stage, the band, the lights all scream that this is sacred entertainment, denials notwithstanding.

My point: we need a DPW. We need clarifications, definitions, priorities, guidelines, and limitations. We need some measure of uniformity that aligns with the regulative principle. We need to stop arguing like Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists, and heaven forbid, Pentecostals about local autonomy. We need to think as Presbyterians have always thought about worship. We need a DPW to reign in the excesses in the PCA and promote greater unity in the hour of worship. May the day soon come when we “may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:6).

Terry Johnson is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Senior Pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Ga/