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Showing posts from January 11, 2009

Vernacular

It is one of the oldest and longest running issues in the church. How shall we worship? For those earliest Jewish followers of Jesus, it must have come as some surprise that Gentile believers didn’t worship the way they did. The Apostles decided at the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) what things were and were not essential. Much later, we see the battle shift focus from cultural laws to spoken language. In what language shall we worship? Again history repeats itself and it was decided that each people group could worship in their own language. Even the churches that historically resisted have now come to the same conclusion. Today the battle has shifted from language vernacular back to cultural vernacular and we are faced with the question, "How shall we worship?" We could easily fall into the mindset that pervades history, and declare that worship should look for everyone like it looks for us. But that mindset is not a biblical one. Scripture dictates the content of our worsh