Baptist Worship
Introduction
Mark is at Pastor’s School this week; asked me to teach what is on my heart. The past two weeks have been about the history of Christian worship. We’ve learned how Christians worshipped in the New Testament church, and also how that worship underwent some drastic changes by the time the faith was legalized in the 4th century. Today we’re going to discuss how Baptists came into being, and how Baptist worship has come to be what it is today.
This review is an attempt to “set the stage” for how Baptists came to be. It’s not the focus of today’s discussion. Instead, I am bringing you up to speed on 1,000 years of history between the legalization of Christianity and the origin of Baptists.
(write these dates and events on the marker board)
33 A.D. Jesus resurrection; birth of church
100 A.D. all of New Testament written down
313 A.D. Christianity legalized by Emperor Constantine
476 A.D. “Fall” of Roman Empire
1054 A.D. Split between Catholic and Orthodox
1517 A.D. Martin Luther begins the Protestant Reformation
1520’s A.D. Anabaptists emerge in central Europe
Anabaptists were the most “radical” of all reformers. They believed in baptism, which their critics contemptuously called “re-baptism”, hence “Anabaptists”.
1534 A.D. Henry VIII becomes head of English church
1558 A.D. Queen Elizabeth I becomes English monarch
1609 A.D. John Smyth baptizes himself
Christian worship in medieval Europe was heavily influenced by the changes we saw last week in the 4th century. Catholic worship was ted by the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, also called the Mass and Eucharist.
For the vast majority of Masses, there was no sermon. The congregation did not participate in singing, if there was any singing it was by a small choir. The entire service was a liturgy that followed a book of worship. The prayers were written down and read, not spontaneous.
There was a strong separation between the professional ministers and the lay people. Lay people did not participate in worship, although about once a year they would receive communion. During Mass lay people would watch the preparation of the elements of eucharist. They would often pray their Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s during the service, and then stop to watch the raising of the elements. A bell would be rung to signal this was about of occur.
The number of prayers that the lay people would say was determined during Confession. The priest hearing the confessions would establish a set number of prayers as a sacrifice that was offered for their sins.
Catholic Mass could take place in a cathedral, which was the bishop’s home church, or in a local sanctuary. These buildings were highly decorated with religious art and artifacts.
For over a century, this is what Christianity looked like. Europe was often referred to as “Christendom”, because the continent was nearly united in Catholicism. There were some local attempts at reform, but nothing that really challenged this status. Then in the early 1500’s, some reformers from central Europe began to make changes. Most of the reformers do not directly affect our study, but the Anabaptists deserve some mention. They began to teach baptism, and were quickly condemned by not only the Catholics, but also most other Reformers. Adult baptism had not been practiced in over a thousand years, so this was a radically new teaching. Anabaptists became martyrs, because they were heavily persecuted for their beliefs. The reason why baptism was hated was because of the underlying theory behind it: voluntary faith. Anabaptists taught that the Christian church was not made up of people born into it, but rather was a voluntary community of people who decided their faith. Individual thought was considered dangerous in this time before the Enlightenment.
In England a different kind of Reformation was occurring. In 1534 Henry VIII had decided that the monarch would be the head of the church and have all decisions in regards to appointing archbishops and matters of faith. In 1558 Elizabeth I became the Queen of England, and many Protestant reforms occurred during her reign. English worship underwent many changes. They adopted their own Book of Common Prayer, which established a set liturgy for all churches in England. The English mandated education for the priests (almost universal for all Reformers), they reformed the priestly garbs, made the church buildings less ornate, and reformed communion so that it wasn’t the only purpose of worship, but instead was one of the focus’ of worship.
By the early 1600’s, some in the English church came to believe that these reforms weren’t enough. They rejected the need for a Book of Common Prayer to establish every word of every prayer. They also believed that individual churches should be able to make their own decisions on matters of belief and worship, and not some hierarchy of bishops that was ruled by the monarch.
One such “Separatist” was John Smyth.
Smyth continually battled the Church of England until it became obvious that he could no longer stay in fellowship with this church. Separatists believed that congregationalism was the only form of church government that would lead to genuine reform. Thus, he finally broke totally from them and became a “Separatist”. This was an illegal move to form a church outside of the national Church.
In 1609, Smyth, came to believe in believer’s baptism (as opposed to infant baptism which was the norm at that time) and they came together to form the first “Baptist” church. In the beginning, Smyth was on track with the typical orthodox church position; but as time passed, as was so typical, he began changing his positions. First, Smyth insisted that true worship was from the heart and that any form of reading from a book in worship was an invention of sinful man. Prayer, singing and preaching had to be completely spontaneous. He went so far with this mentality that he would not allow the reading of the Bible during worship “since he regarded English translations of Scripture as something less than the direct word of God.” Second, Smyth introduced a twofold church leadership, that of Pastor and Deacon. This was in contrast to the Reformational trifold leadership of Pastor-Elder, Lay-Elders, and Deacons.
Third, with his newfound position on baptism, a whole new concern arose for these “Baptists”. Having been baptized as infants, they all realized that they would have to be re-baptized. Since there was no other minister to administer baptism, Smyth baptized himself and then proceeded to baptize his flock. An interesting note at this point that should be brought to bear is that the mode of baptism used was that of pouring, for immersion would not become the standard for another generation (1640’s).
Since the Baptists had no formal order of service, only a general order can be written to describe what worship looked like for these early Baptists.
Prayer
Scripture reading
Discuss Scripture passage
Prayer
Sermon (45 mins – 1 hour)
Second Sermon (45 mins – 1 hour)
Additional sermons
Prayer
Offering for the poor
Prayer
Announcements
Total time for worship service: about 4 hours
Note: no communion, no congregational singing
33 A.D. Jesus resurrection; birth of church
100 A.D. all of New Testament written down
313 A.D. Christianity legalized by Emperor Constantine
476 A.D. “Fall” of Roman Empire
1054 A.D. Split between Catholic and Orthodox
1517 A.D. Martin Luther begins the Protestant Reformation
1520’s A.D. Anabaptists emerge in central Europe
Anabaptists were the most “radical” of all reformers. They believed in baptism, which their critics contemptuously called “re-baptism”, hence “Anabaptists”.
1534 A.D. Henry VIII becomes head of English church
1558 A.D. Queen Elizabeth I becomes English monarch
1609 A.D. John Smyth baptizes himself
Baptist Worship Service (early 1600’s) |
2nd century Church
Worship Service |
|
Prayer |
Greeting |
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Scripture reading |
Scripture reading |
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Discuss Scripture passage |
Psalm – hymn |
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Prayer |
Scripture reading |
|
Sermon (45 mins – 1 hour) |
Sermon |
|
Second Sermon (45 mins – 1 hour) |
Prayer |
|
Additional Sermons |
Break (all non-baptized members leave) |
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Prayer |
Kiss of peace |
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Offering for the poor |
Offering |
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Prayer |
Prayer |
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Announcements |
Breaking of the bread |
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Communion |
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Dismissal |