{"id":5819,"date":"2009-09-18T05:45:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T05:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/09\/is-low-church-evangelicalism-p.html"},"modified":"2009-09-18T05:45:57","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T05:45:57","slug":"is-low-church-evangelicalism-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/09\/is-low-church-evangelicalism-p.html","title":{"rendered":"Is (low church) Evangelicalism Protestant?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LutherX.jpg\"<\/span>Early in September October<\/span> I sat down with Bryan Chapell’s new book, Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, and studied his chart on the order of services in the Church, what he called the “Liturgy of the Word” which is to be distinguished from a eucharist service (Liturgy of the Upper Room). He compared the ancient Roman order with Luther’s, with Calvin’s, and with Westminster’s (c. 1645). The witness to a common order was clear, and what each included – Catholic and Protestant – was a liturgy that involved the Psalms, an OT reading, a New Testament reading or two, a sermon, and some kind of ordered ending, involving either the Nicene Creed or a Psalm.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/span>The first thought that came to my mind was this: where did low church evangelicalism drop its connection to this ordered liturgy, this ordered exposure of God’s people to hearing the Word of God read, and to the connection to the Church of all ages?<\/i> <\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n

For
\na class I’m now teaching, we are reading Jaroslav Pelikan’s Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, a magnificent (if dense) book on
\nthe history and nature of the Christian creeds – its terms and its ideas and
\nits historical responsiveness and on and on Pelikan goes (as he always does).
\nThat Nicene Creed of 323 AD, updated as it was with the Constantinopolitan
\nCreed, formed the bedrock of every orthodox church from the 4th<\/sup>
\nCentury through the 17th<\/sup> Century and beyond. <\/p>\n

As I’ve been reading
\nthis book I’ve had this thought: when and
\nwhy did low church evangelicalism decide to drop the historic Creed of the
\nChurch and decide no longer to confess its faith publicly?<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span>I’ve
\nbeen wondering what it means to call oneself “Protestant.” There is lots of
\nchat these days, from a variety of angles – some narrow and some broad – about
\nwho is evangelical and what constitutes evangelicalism, but I’ve not heard all
\nthat much about what it means to call oneself “Protestant.”<\/p>\n

Recently
\nI read on someone’s Facebook page that he now calls himself a “confessing
\nevangelical.” The expression struck me as odd. Why? Because “evangelicals” do
\nnot often attach the word “confessing” to their prized word. For this person,
\n“confessing evangelical” meant “Reformed” but not Presbyterian in an official
\nsense. As I pondered this unusual expression, which I’ve seen a number of times
\nof late, I thought that this person simply wants to affirm the historic roots
\nof Protestantism and be evangelical — and it said something about low church evangelicalism. Why? Because this person’s term meant evangelicalism was not “confessing” — not confessing the great confessions of the Reformation.<\/p>\n

To
\nbe “Protestant,” so it seems to me – and perhaps I’m wrong, is to affirm the
\nCreed (Niceno-Constantinopolitan – Luther and Calvin affirmed these creeds) and
\nto have a Church order that reflects the historic order of the Church – some
\nBible reading and an orderly set of songs and hymns that usher us into the
\npresence of God and keep us there in praise and remind us of our obligations
\nbefore God. And to affirm the Creed and have order in the context of a life-shaping belief in the adequacy of Scripture, justification by faith and such things as the priesthood of believer. The Creed is for such folks an accurate affirmation of the gospel, of what the NT teaches.<\/p>\n

I’m
\nnow wondering aloud, and I ask for your thoughts, if low church evangelicalism deserves to be called Protestant<\/i>. Some
\nlow church evangelicals I know don’t care, which just proves the point. Others
\nwonder if it matters but know what I mean, which also proves the point. Others
\nknow what I’m saying and openly admit that they don’t even care, and sometimes
\neven wonder if that might not hinder what they are doing in their church. Low
\nchurch evangelicalism is too often theologically shallow, frequently chaotic in
\nits order of worship, nearly always lopsided in which parts of the Bible it
\npreaches and teaches and knows, and inexcusably ignorant when it comes to the
\nhistory of God’s people called the Church. These are marks that it has wandered from the gift of the Reformation. These are marks of groups that are not Protestant.<\/p>\n

Those who go their own way often
\nget lost. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early in September October I sat down with Bryan Chapell’s new book, Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice , and studied his chart on the order of services in the Church, what he called the “Liturgy of the Word” which is to be distinguished from a eucharist service (Liturgy of the Upper Room).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism"],"yoast_head":"\nIs (low church) Evangelicalism Protestant? - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/09\/is-low-church-evangelicalism-p.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is (low church) Evangelicalism Protestant? 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