The Shape of Prayer . . . The Shape of Liturgy

"Note that we began, not with moral problems and ethical dilemmas; we began with prayer. . . . We are a people whose moral lives are shaped liturgically. Our ethics is a by-product of our worship" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, 47).

Doctrine and Morals - Worship and Worldview

According to Scripture, Christian worship and Christian worldview are pop riveted together by the Holy Spirit. "But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24).

Lex orandi est lex credenda et agenda. (The rule of prayer is the rule of belief and of action.) Worldview (i.e., beliefs, morals, actions, etc.) flows from worship. Worship determines worldview. This means you cannot have Christian morals (truth) without Christian worship (Spirit-led-doctrine-and-practices). A society that attempts to separate the two is doomed.

Consider this lengthy excerpt by John Piper (quoting William Wilberforce) on the relationship between Christian doctrine (worship) and Christian morals.

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"William Wilberforce is famous for his lifelong, and finally successful, battle against the African slave trade. It stunned me, when I recently read his one major book, A Practical View of Christianity, that his diagnosis of the moral weakness of Britain was doctrinal.

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment (A Practical View of Christianity, ed. Kevin Charles Belmonte (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), p. 198).

"Even more stunning was the fact that Wilberforce made the doctrine of justification the linchpin in his plea for moral reform in the nation ...

...RESULT FROM THE MISTAKEN CONCEPTION ENTERTAINED OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme "for justifying the ungodly" [Romans 4:5], by Christ's dying for them "when yet sinners" [Romans 5:6-8], a scheme "for reconciling us to God--when enemies" [Romans 5:10]; and for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled (Ibid., p. 64. The SMALL CAPS is his emphasis.).

"... Many public people say that changing society requires changing people, but few show the depth of understanding Wilberforce does concerning how that comes about. For him the right grasp of the central doctrine of justification and its relation to sanctification--an emerging Christlikeness in private and public--were essential for the reformation of the morals of England" (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 24-26).

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Centrality of Doctrine of the Trinity

Is the doctrine of the Trinity the central part of your Christian worldview and worship?

Ralph Smith believes it should be. Commenting on the lack of emphasis of the doctrine of the Trinity in contemporary, apologetic and/or Christian worldview writings penned by Evangelicals (e.g., He is There and He is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer, The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire, Worldviews in Conflict by Ronald H. Nash, War of the Worldviews by Gary DeMar, and Lifeviews by R. C. Sproul), Smith says,

But if the fact of God's triunity is essential to our worldview, that fact needs to be demonstrated and then expounded so that Christians can see what the doctrine of the Trinity means for Christian thought and life (Paradox and Truth: Rethinking Van Til on the Trinity by Comparing Van Til, Plantinga, and Kuyper, Canon Press, 17).

 Smith echoes Rahner and Moltmann. Both commented on the displacement of the Doctrine of the Trinity in modern/contemporary theology. I remember my theology professor, Dr. Chris Bounds, at university also discussed this issue at length in Introduction to Theology. He frequently mentioned how the centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity had been eroded. For evidence he cited the fact that books dealing with Christian Theology were being published which lacked a section dedicated to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Thus, primers on Christian Theology that were not structured or outlined by the very structure of the Economic Trinity.

Trinity Evangelical Church: Family Study

On Sunday our church has a family study before the Covenant Renewal and Worship Service. I recently taught a two week course for the family study on the relationship between Worship, Worldview, and Christian Character. I leaned heavily upon the thinking of J.C. Ryle's Holiness, James K. A. Smith's Desiring the Kingdom, Jeff Meyers' The Lord's Service, and N. T. Wright's After You Believe. If you care to listen, you can find audio at http://trinity-evangelical.org/blog/.