Baptist

Space for Worship: A Baptist View

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In addition to concerns raised in earlier articles, Baptist churches are designed in order to facilitate communication among worshipers and to serve as settings for evangelistic services.

It can be generally said that most Baptist churches are characterized by certain building features that are determined by Baptist theological emphases:

  • An emphasis on the centrality of the Bible means that the pulpit is usually centrally located.
  • The emphasis on believer’s baptism and a regenerate church calls for the baptistry to occupy a prominent place in the building.
  • The importance of the public invitation, or the altar call, means that the congregation should be close to the minister and the pulpit; the evangelistic emphasis also means it should be easy for people to move forward to make decisions. The emphasis on intimacy and immediacy is also causing some younger ministers to use pulpits that are slender stands.
  • Allowance for the choir to help in the evangelistic invitation means it is usually behind the pulpit. A recent movement toward a semicircular style of auditorium has seen some churches moving the choir to the side.
  • The Lord’s Table is usually in front of the pulpit.

For economic reasons and in order to encourage fellowship, many churches have smaller auditoriums and are holding multiple services. High steps are avoided in order to make it easier for people to come into the building.

Since they major in outreach, Baptists are especially interested in better ways to communicate. Provision is being made for visuals with rear projection screens. Consoles for special lighting effects are being installed. Development of sound systems that can encompass the entire congregation is characteristic of some of the new churches. Architectural provision is also being made for large youth choirs and for musicals and drama in the worship center. Larger foyers are provided in certain urban centers to encourage fellowship both before and after services. In many pioneer fields, multipurpose buildings are used.

One problem Baptists confront is how to gain a sense of transcendence without building high ceilings. Problems related to building costs and heating and cooling have raised serious questions about the wisdom of constructing buildings with high ceilings. A theological teaching brought to bear on this problem says the biblical emphasis is more on a journey-and-return motif after the redemptive pattern of the Prodigal Son, rather than that of an upward-and-downward motif. The context is one of man revolting against God, God’s redemptive love plan, and man’s response and return. While some architectural means of emphasizing transcendence should be utilized, the dominant biblical emphasis is on journey and return. That means evangelism and missions. The architectural emphases mentioned above are thus of primary importance.

African-American Hymnology

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There are considerable resources for black songs among African-American denominations and churches that are now widely available for churches in every tradition. This article is especially helpful in describing the different types of songs that have developed from the black worship tradition.

Black Methodists, Baptists, Holiness, and Pentecostals, as well as black Episcopalians and Catholics, have each produced their own hymnists and hymnody. Among nineteenth-century black clergy who were also hymnists are Bishop Daniel A. Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Rev. Benjamin Franklin Wheeler of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Among early twentieth-century hymnists were Charles Albert Tindley of the Methodist church, Rev. F. M. Hamilton of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, William Rosborough of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and Charles Price Jones of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA.

The Episcopal church has to its credit such contemporary black hymnists as David Hurd and William Farley Smith. In addition to singing the hymns of the traditional black churches, black Episcopalians have at their disposal complete musical settings of the Communion service by black hymnists. Smith’s setting in the black Episcopalian hymnbook, Lift Every Voice and Sing (New York: Church Hymnal Corp., 1981), is entitled “Communion Music for the Protestant Episcopal Church.” Its eight parts include the Introit, Gloria in Excelsis, the hymns “Hungry and Thirsty” and “Lord, We Come,” Doxology, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, The Lord’s Prayer, and Benediction.

African-American Catholics have at their disposal a distinctive body of hymnody composed by black Catholic hymnists. Included in the hymnal entitled Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal (1987) are not only the standard favorites of the traditional black church but also Edward V. Bonnemere’s jazz-styled “Christ Is Coming: Prepare the Way’ ” (complete with guitar chords) and Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers’s “Mass Dedicated to the Brotherhood of Man” (1970). Other black Catholic composers represented in this hymnal are Edmund Broussard, Marjorie Gabriel-Borrow, Avon Gillespie, Rawn Harbor, Leon C. Roberts, Grayson Warren Brown, and Edward V. Bonnemere.

Black Methodists, Baptists, Holiness, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, and Catholics also share a body of hymnody that is hardly differentiated doctrinally or denominationally, namely the spirituals and gospel music. The antebellum spirituals may still constitute the largest body of black sacred music in this consortium of black Christians known as the black church. Among the several thousand spirituals handed down to the present generation of black worshipers, spirituals often found in black denominational hymnbooks, are songs reminiscent of the wide range of sentiments felt by the enslaved. There are songs of joy such as “Every Time I Feel the Spirit,” songs of thanksgiving such as “Free at Last,” and songs of praise such as “Ride On, King Jesus.” The spirituals also expressed with unyielding faith the belief that God would repeat on behalf of the Africans enslaved in America the liberating act performed for the biblical Hebrews subjugated in Egypt. Spirituals of this mood include “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” “Freedom Train A-Comin’,” “Go Down, Moses,” and “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho.”

Also among the spirituals are the “sorrow songs.” These songs, which seem to be individual rather than communal expressions, include “I Been in the Storm So Long,” “Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen,” and “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” Many of the sorrow songs, illustrating the unyielding faith of the enslaved, commence on a low note of dejection but conclude on a high pitch of praise. Two of the very few exceptions to this characteristic are “Were You There” and “He Never Said a Mumbling Word,” both of which show no glimmer of hope. Today, spirituals have been arranged in hymnic, anthemic, and soloistic forms to be sung by the congregation, choir, and trained soloist, respectively. Among the musical arrangers are such historic figures as H. T. Burleigh, R. Nathaniel Dett, and John Wesley Work, Jr., and such contemporary musicians as Verolga Nix and Roland Carter. In whatever form spirituals are arranged—as hymns, anthems, or solo songs—they can be used to complement every phase of the church year.

Complementing the spirituals in the folk, hymnic, and anthemic repertoires of the black church are the songs of racial pride and liberation. The most important song of racial pride is the “Black National Anthem,” J. Rosamond Johnson’s setting of his brother James Weldon Johnson’s poem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The principal song of liberation, made popular during the civil rights movement, is “We Shall Overcome.” Like numerous civil rights songs, this historic piece is a synthesis and adaptation of extant hymnody. Combining the tune of the old Baptist hymn, “I’ll Be Alright,” and the text of the Methodist gospel hymn, “I’ll Overcome Someday,” the anthem of the civil rights movement is emblematic of how the black oral tradition adapts extant hymns to meet new social and religious needs.

The composer of “I’ll Overcome Someday” is the great Charles Albert Tindley, the creator of such well-known gospel hymns as “We’ll Understand It All By and By.” Many black hymnologists have considered Tindley, a Methodist minister from Philadelphia, to be the most important, if not prolific, hymn writer in the history of the black church. Actually, the most prolific, and certainly one of the most significant, is Charles Price Jones, the founding bishop of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA. While Tindley composed approximately forty gospel hymns, Jones composed over one thousand hymns (including anthems). Among his hymns is the resplendent “I Will Make the Darkness Light.”

Following the Tindley and Jones era of the gospel hymn (1900–1930) arose what has been called the “golden age of gospel” (1930–1969). This period is represented by the “gospel songs” of such black composers and arrangers as Doris Akers, J. Herbert Brewster, Lucie E. Campbell, James Cleveland, Thomas A. Dorsey, Theodore Frye, Roberta Martin, Kenneth Morris, and Clara Ward. Two of the most famous gospel songs of this period are Campbell’s “He Will Understand and Say ‘Well Done’ ” and Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” Together, the musicians of this era transformed the congregational gospel hymn of the Tindley and Jones era into the solo, quartet, and choral gospel song of the “golden” period.

Succeeding the golden age of gospel is the modern gospel era. This has been, from its inception in 1969, dominated by black Pentecostal artists of the Church of God in Christ. Among these artists are Walter Hawkins, Edwin Hawkins, Andrae Crouch, Sandra Crouch, and Elbernita Clark (of the Clark Sisters). Among the popular pieces of this period that have been sung by young adult “inspirational choirs” in the black church are Walter Hawkins’s “Be Grateful” and “He’s That Kind of Friend,” Andrae Crouch’s “Through It All,” and Sandra Crouch’s “Come, Lord Jesus.” Some of their songs have appeared in the black denominational hymnals published since 1980.

Christian hip-hop is the newest form of gospel music. Similar to modern gospel, Christian hip-hop (orginated c. 1989) began as concert rather than liturgical music; it too will likely find its way into the black churches that are seeking to speak to today’s youth. Among hip-hop gospel singers are PID (Preachers in Disguise), ETW (End Time Warriors), SFC (Soldiers for Christ), DC Talk, Witness, D-Boy Rodriguez, Helen Baylor, Michael Peace, and Fresh Fish. These groups often have a message that is experientially oriented. For instance, PID addresses such issues as homelessness, sexually transmitted disease, and racism, and does so in a language that today’s inner-city youths speak and relate to.

The music that falls into the gospel hymn, gospel song, and modern gospel eras still coexists in the black church, and it is unlikely that even the rise of gospel hip-hop would ever change this inclusive nature of the black church music ministry. These three kinds of gospel that continue to co-exist in the black church generally fulfill the three principal liturgical functions in black churches—testimony, worship, and praise. The testimony hymns are used by worshipers to commence their “testifying” during the testimony service, a ritual practiced especially in black Holiness and Pentecostal churches. In testifying, a worshiper stands, sings a verse or two (or the chorus) of a favorite hymn, and then gives her or his spoken testimony. Using the theme and language of the song, the speaker tells the story of how God has worked positively in their lives during the past week. The fact that testimony typically begins with and is thematically built upon a hymn illustrates that these songs have been an essential source of theology for black worshipers over the years of social, political, and economic struggle. One of the favorite testimony hymns of the black church is “Jesus, I’ll Never Forget What You’ve Done for Me.”

The worship and praise songs have a close kinship. The worship hymns do not focus on individual experiences like the testimony hymns, but specifically on the worship of Jesus Christ. Familiar examples of worship songs are “We Have Come Into This House” by Bruce Ballinger and “Bless His Holy Name” by Andrae Crouch. The kindred praise songs are cheerful declarations of exaltation to God, which welcome God’s presence in the life of the believer. Among the best-known songs of praise are “Yes, Lord” and “My Soul Says, ‘Yes.’ ” Both of these were composed by Charles Harrison Mason, the founder of the Church of God in Christ, and are published in that denomination’s first and only hymnal, Yes Lord! (1984). Either during or following the singing of worship and praise songs, Holiness and Pentecostal worshipers may engage in giving the Lord a “wave offering” by means of the “lifting of hands,” or by giving “hand praise” (applause in gratitude for the Lord’s blessings).

Much of the music that is sacred to the tradition of black worship can be found in hymnals compiled by black denominations. Among the most recent and historically important are the American Methodist Episcopal Church Bicentennial Hymnal (1984); The New National Baptist Hymnal (1977) of the National Baptist Convention; His Fullness Songs (1977) of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA; and Yes. Lord!: The Church of God in Christ Hymnal (1982). Among the important hymnbooks published by the black constituencies of predominantly white denominations are Songs of Zion (1981) from the United Methodist Church; Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Collection of Afro-American Spirituals and Other Songs (1981), from the Episcopal church; and Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal (1987) of the Roman Catholic church.

A Baptist Theology of Worship

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Although Baptists seek to develop a worship rooted in Scripture, they are more inclined to rely on general principles for guiding worship rather than on literalist models of worship based on Scripture texts alone.

All Baptist theology begins with a consideration of Scripture; this is no less true for a theology of worship. In developing their theology and practice of worship, Baptists have considered numerous Scripture passages related to worship, including Moses’ encounter with God in Sinai (Exod. 33–34); Isaiah’s call (Isa. 6); Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30); Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman (John 4:19–24); the various accounts of the Last Supper (especially 1 Cor. 11:23–26); numerous references to worship in the early church; and even heavenly worship (Rev. 4–5).

Consideration of Scripture has also led Baptists to recognize that true worship involves service in all of life. Whether individual or corporate, correct liturgical practice of any kind cannot substitute for a faith relationship with God through Christ or for right Christian living. Rather, worship is integrally related to both theology and ethics. In general, Baptists have sought to follow instead the basic principles regarding worship that they discerned in Scripture. They have done so for both individual and corporate worship, but here we will focus our consideration on the corporate dimension.

Corporate worship means congregational worship. With a concept of the gathered church and an emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, Baptists have stressed that there is no division between clergy and laity. Thus in worship what the congregation does is as important as what the minister does.

Their stress on preaching and the lack of any fixed liturgy have at times undermined congregational participation, but Baptists have tried to compensate in various ways. They have called on laypersons to pray and to lead parts of the service. They have emphasized congregational singing and used responsive reading of Scripture. More recently they have sought to recover the importance of the offering of their gifts and have printed congregational responses and unison prayers in their orders of worship for Sunday morning. The “invitation” to make a profession of faith, which grew out of nineteenth-century revivalism, is often used to call the entire congregation to commitment. Baptists are also increasing congregational participation through their recovery of the importance of Communion.

For Baptists, Christian worship is an encounter with God. It is dialogue—revelation and response. God engages in self-disclosure to human beings and we respond to that revelation. The revelation can be conveyed through Scripture reading, preaching, hymns, baptism, and Communion. An important aspect of the response is praise and thanksgiving, for in worship we gather to celebrate the mighty acts of God in creation and redemption. The response can be expressed through hymns, offering of gifts, prayers, congregational readings and responses, and time of commitment. Thus worship is always directed toward God. It is an end in and of itself; it is never a means to an end, no matter how worthy that end might be.

Such worship of God must always allow freedom for the movement of God’s Spirit. Although worship must be done “decently and in order” and liturgical elements may be freely used, there can be no fixed liturgy. The Spirit must be free to move in the midst of the congregation. This also means that worship should be relatively simple. There should be no complexity that stands between the laity and God, no liturgical obscurity that makes it difficult to experience God’s presence. This mysterious sense of God’s presence is not under the control of liturgy. God’s Spirit moves where it will, whether liturgical elements are freely used or not used. The mystery simply happens when the congregation is genuinely engaged in the worship of God.

Not only is worship directed toward God and open to the movement of the Spirit, but it is also Christocentric. Christ is the focus of worship because Christ is the central expression of God’s creative and redemptive action. Thus a major aspect of worship is proclaiming the Good News of God’s action in Jesus Christ. Preaching is such an important element in worship because of this emphasis on proclaiming the Good News. The Good News in Christ provides the Christian hope for the future and the assurance of God’s grace and presence for every need in the present.

Communion also focuses on the Good News in Jesus Christ. In response to the revivalistic emphasis in the nineteenth century, for a period of time Baptist placed little emphasis on Communion. But through much of their history, it has had an important place, and many churches are restoring its important role in worship. Communion proclaims God’s action in Christ in the past. It proclaims the future hope of Christ’s return. It proclaims Christ’s presence in the hearts and minds of the gathered community in the present. It is a clear expression of Christian faith, hope, and love.

In conclusion, corporate worship is the congregation’s communal encounter with God in which the people respond together to God’s creative and redemptive action most fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Through this encounter, God mysteriously makes available to the gathered community the reality of his salvation. The Baptist congregation worships, then, to hear of God’s action on their behalf and to respond out of the depths of their own being, they worship to sense the mystery of God’s presence in the midst of his people, and they worship to experience the power of God’s grace and to be made whole.

A Post-Reformation Model of Worship: Baptist Worship

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Baptists emerged from a variety of Separatist congregations in seventeenth-century England. While Baptists disagreed theologically on the issue of predestination, they eventually came to share the same form of worship. Like the Congregationalists, Baptists looked to the Bible for their liturgical guidance. At the same time, early Baptists strongly emphasized the leading of the Spirit in worship and avoided a strict structuring of the Sunday service. As the texts below make clear, Baptist liturgical patterns began to solidify on both sides of the Atlantic by the eighteenth century.

Introduction

As Baptists developed in England in the seventeenth century, they worshiped in a variety of ways (see Origins of Baptist Worship), but by the end of the century a prevalent pattern had formed. The “Churchbook” of the congregation at Paul’s Alley, Barbicon (London), illustrates that pattern.

Seventeenth-Century Baptists

Text:

A MODEL OF BAPTIST WORSHIP, 1695

ORDER OF SERVICE
Psalm
Prayer
Scripture
Sermon(s)
Prayer
[LORD’S SUPPER
Homily and Exhortation
Blessing the Bread
Words of Institution
Receiving the Bread
Blessing the Wine
Words of Institution
Receiving the Wine]
Psalm (hymn)
Benediction

A layman selected by the congregation began the service by reading a psalm. In some congregations he read it. In others he “read” it by “lining it out” for the congregation to sing after him to a known psalm tune.

A time of prayer followed. The layman prayed, and others could follow him in a general time of prayer. The layman then read a portion of Scripture.

After reading his text, the minister preached, the sermon lasting as long as an hour. The minister concluded with prayer directed toward the application of the sermon.

Then a psalm was read or sung (as at the beginning of the service), although in some churches a hymn was sung. An intense controversy over whether hymns could be sung arose during this period. Eventually, however, following the leadership of the London Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach, almost all Baptist congregations adopted the singing of hymns, and hymns became a significant part of Baptist worship. The minister pronounced a benediction to conclude the service.

Usually one Sunday each month, often in an afternoon or evening service, the congregation celebrated the Lord’s Supper after the minister’s sermon and prayer. The minister took his place behind the table at the front of the congregation and began with a brief homily on the meaning of the Supper and exhorted the members to receive it properly. He gave thanks for the bread; then taking it in his hands and saying the words of institution, he broke it as he said the words, “This is my body, broken for you.” He partook of the bread, gave to the deacons for them to partake, and the deacons distributed the bread to the members, who remained in their seats, while the minister said appropriate words of distribution. They repeated the same pattern for the wine. This pattern would remain virtually unchanged during the first three centuries of Baptist life, although in many congregations the frequency decreased to once each quarter during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Eighteenth-Century Baptists

Text:

Regular Baptists. The Baptists who came to America from England brought the aforementioned pattern of worship with them and modified it according to their own experience. These Baptists who followed this somewhat more structured pattern came to be called Regular Baptists, distinguishing them from Baptists who had developed later with a less-structured style of worship.

An example of the Regular Baptists was Morgan Edwards, a product of the Baptist college at Bristol, England. Edwards was pastor of the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia. With history as an avocation, Edwards visited Baptists up and down the east coast collecting statistics on congregations and materials regarding their theology and practices. His Customs of Primitive Churches, 1768, provides evidence for reconstructing Regular Baptist worship in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

MODEL OF REGULAR BAPTIST WORSHIP, 1768

ORDER OF SERVICE
Call to Worship
Prayer
Scripture
Prayer
Singing
Preaching
Prayer
Singing
[Lord’s Supper]
Offering
Benediction

The call to worship could be a brief word spoken by the minister or the singing of a hymn by the congregation. The minister followed it with a brief prayer of invocation.

The minister then read a portion of Scripture, which provided the larger context from which his sermon text would be taken. The main prayer in the worship service followed. In this lengthy prayer, the minister addressed all the needs of the congregation.

The Lord’s Supper normally was celebrated once each month either before or after the offering. It followed the pattern of the English Baptists cited earlier.

Separate Baptists. Although the Regular Baptists began Baptist work in America, during the eighteenth century another Baptist group evolved out of the revivals of the Great Awakening. Known as Separate Baptists because of their origins out of Separate Congregationalism during and following the revivals, these Baptists’ roots were clearly evident. Whereas the Regulars were more prominent in the cities and towns of the East and relatively more formal and structured in worship, the Separates were more prevalent in frontier regions, especially in the West, and more informal and openly evangelistic in tone.

Because of their informality, lack of structure, and disinterest in chronicling their worship, no materials have been preserved to guide in reconstructing a definitive Separate Baptist worship. However, by piecing together information from Separate Baptist writings and journals, the following speculative model emerges.

MODEL OF SEPARATE BAPTIST WORSHIP, c. 1770

ORDER OF SERVICE
Hymn(s)
Prayer
Sermon(s)
Prayer
Exhortation(s)
Hymn(s)
[Lord’s Supper]

Separate Baptists began their worship with singing. Sometimes they sang one hymn, at other times several hymns or choruses.

The minister led a time of prayer which followed, but the pattern of prayer varied. Sometimes only the minister prayed; at other times several joined in. The Separates were criticized because of the emotional nature of many of the prayers and because women often prayed during this part of the service.

The Separates used a unique preaching style which was characterized as emotional and noisy, and which evoked an emotional response in the hearers. People cried out, expressed their emotions physically, or exhorted others around them.

After a prayer at the close of the sermon, the minister came down from the pulpit and walked among the congregation exhorting persons to prayer and repentance. He then joined with persons who knelt to pray for the state of their souls. Sometimes others joined in the exhorting as well.

Separate Baptists concluded the service with singing. On occasion the exhorting continued while people sang. It is not surprising that critics often called their services disorderly and chaotic.

With their entire concept of worship focused upon conversion of sinners, the Lord’s Supper did not hold an important place for the Separates, but they observed it because Christ commanded it. When they did observe it, they placed it at the end of the service after everything else was finished. The Lord’s Supper was held infrequently, most commonly on a quarterly basis—the same pattern used by other American Baptists.

Nineteenth-Century Baptists

Text: During the nineteenth century the Regular Baptist and Separate Baptist patterns merged, with the resulting Baptist worship patterns exhibiting clear marks of both strands. In 1870 John A. Broadus set forth a clear example of this merger in his renowned text on preaching, On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. Although the work is obviously about preaching, Broadus devotes the last chapter to elements the preacher must consider in worship, saying that preaching is an act of worship and must take place within the overall context of worship.

Because he was a native of Virginia and a long-time professor of preaching at the Southern Baptist Seminary, Broadus was clearly aligned with the more structured worship of the Regular Baptists. Yet, his delineation of elements of Baptist worship practice showed the influence of the Separate Baptists. Thus Broadus’ chapter on worship was one of the clearest indications that these two strands which formed the foundation for modern Baptist worship had finally merged. Although Broadus provided no order of service, by reading his descriptions of the liturgical elements and piecing the parts together, the reader can clearly discern Broadus’ vision of Baptist worship.

The worship model and the commentary are based on the work of Broadus. It is supplementary with other works of the period which address the various elements of worship.

MODEL OF BAPTIST WORSHIP, 1870

ORDER OF SERVICE
Choral Call to Worship
Invocation
Hymn of Worship
Devotional Scripture Reading
Hymn of Devotion
Principal Prayer
Hymn of Preparation
Sermon
Prayer
Final Hymn
Offering
[Lord’s Supper]
Benediction

The service began with a call to worship. As choirs developed in Baptist congregations, either the choir sang an anthem or the congregation sang a suitable hymn.The prayer following the call to worship invoked God’s presence in the worship service. It was usually short but could be longer on occasion.

After the invocation a hymn of worship was sung which might relate closely to the sermon and the service as a whole. It could be a hymn of praise or rejoicing, or thanksgiving; the essential element was that it promote a sense of worship. The lines of the hymns were usually read to the congregation just prior to their singing them. In some instances this was done due to a lack of hymnals, but it also made the congregation reflect more thoughtfully on the words of the hymn. In more informal services, the worship leader might say a few words about the origin of the hymn, its tune, or its meaning for the congregation.

The devotional reading of Scripture followed the first hymn. This Scripture passage was not necessarily connected with the sermon, but was devotional in tone drawing the listener to God. Passages from the Psalms were particularly favored, but any selection could be used. On occasion the worship leader might preface the reading with some well-chosen remarks to explain the reading, to awaken interest, or to promote a devotional context.

The next hymn was a hymn of devotion. Sometimes it was left out so that the prayer followed the Scripture reading, but if used, it would carry the devotional tone from the reading to the prayer.

The prayer at this point was the major prayer for the worship service. It was often quite long; in fact, Broadus warns about its being too long. It began with invocation, adoration of God, and thanksgiving. It then moved to confession and prayer for forgiveness. After petition for renewed dedication and for help for current needs, the prayer concluded with intercessions, both general and specific.

Immediately preceding the sermon, a hymn was sung to help prepare the congregation. It could be sung by the congregation or by the choir. Broadus felt it was better for the choir and congregation to sing somewhat familiar hymns rather than for the choir to sing anthems which would be unfamiliar. He clearly believed that the primary function of a choir was to lead the congregation in singing.

The sermon normally was twenty-five to thirty-five minutes in length, although occasionally it was as short as fifteen or as long as forty-five minutes. The text was often read prior to beginning the sermon, but it could be read at a later point. Broadus stressed that the length of the sermon should be coordinated with the elements of the service so that the worship service did not often go beyond the normal time for ending.

The prayer following the sermon was usually short and focused on the main objective of the sermon, yet it could be extended on occasion if the situation seemed to merit it.

The final hymn applied the sermon and formed a conclusion for the service. Broadus, however, pointed out that for many churches following the revival tradition, to always make this an “invitation” hymn, inviting persons to come to the front to make a public profession of faith in Christ or to become members of the church.

The offering was often the last item in the service prior to the benediction. It was sometimes called a “collection for the poor” or a “collection for the necessities of the saints.”

The benediction was sometimes preceded by a few sentences of prayer appropriate to the theme of the worship service. The minister then concluded with a benediction.

In some churches the Lord’s Supper continued to be celebrated once each month, but many churches changed to a quarterly observance. It either preceded or followed the offering, using the same pattern Baptists had used since the seventeenth century.

Bibliography

There are no secondary works providing models of Baptist worship; therefore, material must be gleaned directly from primary sources. Since Baptists did not use service books, one must consult material in churchbooks, journals, and historical accounts. However, there are a few works that give some attention to elements and patterns of Baptist worship. For the seventeenth century, the best description and rationale for some elements of Baptist worship is found in Thomas Grantham, Hear the Church (1688). The best eighteenth-century resource is Morgan Edwards, Customs of Primitive Churches (1768). Although Edwards was a Regular Baptist, he visited Separate Baptist churches and gave some account of their worship in his Materials Toward a History of Baptists. Although many nineteenth-century resources provide pieces of information, the best single resource is Broadus’ On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (1870).

Baptist Worship in the Post-Reformation Period

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Baptists, like the Puritans, desired pure scriptural worship. Early Baptist worship sought to maintain radically biblical worship that the Spirit was free to direct. Later, however, in response to what they considered to be excesses in other movements, Baptists came to place more emphasis on worship according to biblical form and order.

As Baptists developed out of the Puritan movement in seventeenth-century England, they were of two types: General Baptists and Particular Baptists. The General Baptists, who arose earlier, were given their name because of their belief that Christ’s atonement was “general,” sufficient for all persons. The Particular Baptists espoused the view that Christ’s atonement was “particular,” for God’s elect only. Both groups, however, exhibited some of the Puritan concerns for purifying worship. They sought to eliminate the human forms of the established church and to base worship purely on the simple patterns provided by Scripture. But they also sought to involve the congregation in worship and to provide openness for the movement of God’s Spirit.

The first Baptist congregation was composed of a group of Puritans who moved to Amsterdam to escape persecution. In 1609 John Smyth, their pastor, led them to the position that the church should be composed only of regenerate persons and that to attain a regenerate church, baptism should be for believers only. Smyth, who had been schooled at Cambridge but had rejected his former Anglican views, then led the congregation in developing the earliest Baptist patterns of worship. True worship had to be scriptural and involve no books which would inhibit the movement of the Spirit. Not only did these earliest Baptists reject The Book of Common Prayer, but even the Bible also had to be laid aside after the text had been read.

The minister began the worship with an extemporaneous prayer and then preached on the text which he had already read. Then as many as three or four laypeople preached or exhorted on the same text, as long as time permitted. Finally, the minister prayed, an offering was taken for the poor, and a benediction concluded the morning service. A similar service followed in the afternoon, and on occasion, it was concluded with the Lord’s Supper. Any singing in these services was done extemporaneously by an individual; no fixed liturgical psalms or hymns were allowed to impede the movement of the Spirit. The General Baptists, who eventually moved back to England, followed the worship practices initiated by Smyth, including the use of more than one preacher. However, they did read the Bible more freely during worship.

Later, in the 1630s, the Particular Baptist movement emerged. These Baptists followed the same principles in worship as the General Baptists. They stressed the necessity of following Scripture in worship, and they rejected all prepared elements or forms because these tended to take the place of the Holy Spirit. Yet, many of them gave a greater role to the congregation by singing psalms in worship, and they often had only one preacher. Still, the loss of preachers did not inhibit the movement of the Spirit; anyone called forth by God and approved by the church could preach or administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Events during the mid-seventeenth century, however, caused both Baptist groups to change their emphases. During this time the Quakers and other more radical Protestant groups arose. Some of these placed greater stress on the Spirit than on Scripture. In the eyes of Baptists, their worship was often chaotic, with little order or form. Not wishing to be associated with these groups, but rather desiring to align themselves more closely with the more respectable Congregationalist and Presbyterian dissenters, Baptists began to place less emphasis on the movement of the Spirit in worship and more on following Scripture. They also stressed that only those officially set apart as ministers by the church could lead in worship.

Although it varied, worship during the rest of the seventeenth century tended to follow a similar pattern among both General and Particular Baptists. The morning worship began with an appointed layman reading a psalm and leading in a time of prayer. Then he read additional Scripture until it was time for the sermon. The minister entered the elevated pulpit in the plain meeting house and preached, concluding the sermon with prayer. The service was concluded with the singing of a psalm, sometimes preceded by an offering. The afternoon service followed the same pattern; once a month, however, the Lord’s Supper was observed before singing the closing psalm.

The Lord’s Supper was celebrated in a manner that became quite common among Baptists. After the sermon and prayer, the minister went to the table (in front of the pulpit) where bread and wine had been placed. He spoke of the deep meaning of the supper and encouraged the members to receive it properly. Then, taking the bread in his hands, he gave thanks and broke it, repeating the words of Christ, “This is my body, which is broken for you”(1 Cor. 11:24, KJV). After partaking of the loaf, he gave it to the deacons to partake and to distribute to the seated congregation. He urged the people to receive the bread as an expression of their feeding on Christ the true bread. In the same manner, he took the wine, gave thanks, and poured it into the cup, repeating the words of Christ, “This cup is the new testament in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25, KJV). He then partook, gave it to the deacons to distribute, and invited the people to partake. Finally, after a brief meditation on the great blessing Christians have in Christ, the service was concluded with the singing of a psalm.

Baptists had begun with a desire to purify the worship of the church by basing it on what they saw as the simple patterns of Scripture. They also emphasized the role of the congregation and the spontaneous movement of the Spirit in worship. But as Baptists moved through the seventeenth century they had to locate these liturgical emphases between the two poles of the formless worship of the radicals on the one hand and the formal worship of the established church on the other. In the process, they set the course for Baptist worship for future generations.