My PCA Brethren,

In my congregation's order of worship we read the Ten Commandments each week in preparation for our prayer of confession. We also read Christ's summary of the Law (love God, love neighbor as self)

I was told last night that this is an oddity in PCA churches, and that someone who has been in a lot of PCA churches has never been in one that did this.

Can I poll the audience and find out how many PCA churches read the Moral Law of God in the worship service?

Thanks,
TE Brian Carpenter

__________________
TE Brian Carpenter
Pastor, Foothills PCA Sturgis, SD
www.thehappytr.blogspot.com www.afiresidechat.blogspot.com
"In vain th' unlighted pipe you blow;
Your pains in inward means are so,
'Till heav'nly fire thy heart inspire.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco."

Brian,
Never heard of such a thing.

__________________
Alan
Seminarian, RTS Jackson, MS
OPC

Sounds like a good idea, as long as you also read a passage that encapsulates the Gospel.

I know the OT Gospel is somewhat encapsulated in the preface to the 10C, but the redemption from Egypt is not quite the same as the Gospel Gospel.

Do you have the standard reading of any other passages?

__________________
Richard
communicant member, FCoS
Perth, Scotland UK

His Name forever shall endure;
last like the sun it shall:
Men shall be blessed in Him,
and blessed all nations shall Him call (Ps. 72:17)

We read the law in worship, but not every week. We do it more often on a communion Sunday (once a month).

I am in a PCA church and we read the 10 commandments each week also prior to our time of private and corporate confession.

__________________
Mike
PCA
Edmond, OK

"Tomorrow may be our dying day; let this be our repenting day."

-Thomas Watson

We've done this for the past couple of years. I find it an important measuring rod each week. No matter how much I shrug something off as OK during the week, hearing that law reminds me of God's perfect standard and my need for His grace.

__________________
JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

My church, Trinity Presbyterian Church of Aledo, Illinois (PCA), does this every-so-often, but not every week, but it is done approximately once a month.


home

__________________
Nathan Riese
Under Care, PCA
Trinity Presbyterian Church, Aledo, Illinois
Current student at MBBC
Future student of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
www.gpts.edu

We do it on occasion, generally in connection with the Lord's Supper, but not every week.

__________________
Edward
Deacon
PCA
Texas

I wish I could say we do it every week, but I don't think we've ever done this.

__________________
Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"I fear not to hold with Junius, de Politia Mosis cap. 6, that he who was punishable by death under that Judicial law, is punishable by death still; and he who was not punished by death then, is not to be punished by death now."

The reading of the Law before a prayer of confession is common in OP churches. I suspect this practice comes from continental Reformed influence, which has always been present in the OPC.

Such was not prescribed in the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God, and doesn’t seem to be part of historic Scottish-Irish Presbyterian practice.

This is not the practice at SRPC because it takes time from the consecutive reading of Old and New Testament and from preaching. Commonly, we incorporate the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5) in the call to worship, which underscores the most important commandment to love God. The confession of sin is incorporated into the first prayer, followed by words of assurance of forgiveness. Then, we have a consecutive reading from both testaments, interspersed with the singing of Psalm selections (Psalm, OT Reading, Psalm, NT Reading). This is followed by the pastoral prayer for congregational concerns; then, the sermon.

If the Commandments were read week after week, from either Exodus or Deuteronomy, this would become repetitious and eat into the time for reading other scripture passages or preaching. As our service already runs toward an hour and fifteen minutes, this doesn’t seem the best use of available time.

Obviously, the reading and preaching of the law, which brings conviction of sin and leads to God’s provision of grace needs to happen; but such emphasis is possible in prayers, scripture readings, psalms, and sermon, without a formal reliance on a repetitious reading.

At the same time, this is not intended as a condemnation of the practice.

__________________
Glenn Ferrell
Pastor, Sovereign Redeemer Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Boise, Idaho

http://sovereignredeemer.org

http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_de...formationidaho


Nec Tamen Consumebatur


The duty of magistrates...extends to both tables of the law, ... those laws are absurd which disregard the rights of God, and consult only for men. - Calvin, Institutes, IV:20:9

I must say we have never done this as long as I have been going there, about 10 months.

__________________
Michael P Doyle
Waukesha WI
Member of http://www.cornerstone-pca.com/
Attending http://www.lampseminary.org/

I've been in some (PCA and Reformed) that do it as a regular practice, typically a law reading and later a gospel reading. It seems it used to be more common in Reformed churches when I was young, and the law reading typically was always the Ten Commandments. My dad, then a Reformed pastor, would guest preach in such churches and choose to read the Commandments from Deuteronomy instead of Exodus just to freshen things up. Sometimes he'd run into complaints from traditional elders who weren't sure that was acceptable!

Those churches I've seen more recently that do it effectively will vary what passages they read each week, not merely the Commandments time after time.

__________________
Jack K.
PCA, worshiping with some fine Baptists in Colorado

We have a call to confession prior to the confession of sin. The words of assurance come after. The call to confession is a scripture verse, but not usually the Ten Commandments. Calvin had his congregation sing the Ten Commandments after the confession of sin.

__________________
Donnie MacLeod
Crossroads Presbyterian Fellowship (PCA), Maplewood, MO
MDiv Student Covenant Theological Seminary

You filled my heart with greater joy
than others may have found
As they rejoiced at harvest time,
when grain and wine abound.Ps 4:7, Sing Psalms 2003

The use of the Decalogue elsewhere in the broader Reformed tradition:
In the State Kirche in Wuerttemberg [a mixed Church, Lutheran and Reformed] either the Decalogue or the Summary of the Law is recited in the liturgy of Holy Communion. Besides the way the service of Holy Communion is conducted, the other way to know if a Wuerttemberg congregation is Lutheran or Reformed is to see if they read the Law or just the summary of the Law. The Reformed read the Decalogue, the Lutherans tend to read the Summary of the Law in its place.
In Anglican Churches the Law is usually read at least seven times a year. [The rubric in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer requires that it be read at least once a month.] It tends to be recited more frequently in Low Church Congregations then in High Church Congregations. On occasions when the Decalogue is not read, the summary of the Law from Matthew 22 is read.
When the Decalogue is read the response, "Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this Law" is sung after the first nine commandments. At the conclusion of the Decalogue the response is "Lord have mercy upon us, and write all these laws in our hearts, we beseech thee."

__________________
Thomas Yeutter,
Mason, MI
Member St. Patrick's Anglican Church, Comstock, MI

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach its statues in Isreal.

It is common practice in the liturgy of the reformed churches...

__________________
Bert Mulder
Elder of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Edmonton
Edmonton Alberta Canada

I'm kind of new to this whole Reformed thing, but here's my

The PCA church I attended for several weeks didn't formally read the law, but in the pastoral prayer would acknowledge our sinfulness and need for Christ.

Lately, I have been attending an OPC church and the law is read each week. Not specifically the 10C, but some section that details our duty to be holy before God. This is followed by a prayer of public confession of our sins and then a reading from Scripture that pronounces God's pardon of our sin. Personally, I like this! It's a weekly reminder of our failure to keep God's commands and a weekly reminder of God's pardon of our sins in Christ!

As I understand things, this is part of the dialogical nature of the OPC liturgy.

__________________
Carl Gobelman
Long Grove Community Church (Evangelical)
Vernon Hills, IL
Blog: http://newcreationperson.wordpress.com

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

This is what my OPC does every Lord's Day. Presently we are reciting portions of the Heidleberg Catechism where it expounds the 10Cs.

__________________
Jon Peters
Member, Reformation Fellowship (OPC) (Roseville, CA)
Folsom, CA

When I ministered at Trinity Reformed Chapel we would have a reading of the law followed by a confession of sin, and then a reading of the gospel and followed by an assurance of pardon. The law and gospel scripture readings were passages that reflected such respectively, and were not strictly a repetition of the Decalogue and one gospel verse. I have been in congregations where the Decalogue was read weekly, and it does tend to lose its edge through over familiarity.

__________________
Adam J. Myer
Slated for the Jan. 10th Chaplains Basic Officer Leadership Course
Estacada Christian Church
Sandy, Oregon

Soli Deo Gloria

I mentioned it to my Pastor and he's interested in reading the Law before the Lord's Supper but not familiar with how it's done.

__________________
Conscience may lash us, but it cannot replenish a languishing life. Conscience may be God's word and minister to you, telling you of your faults and your follies and your destitution. It may point out, but it will never supply you. Christ must give you new life. Hart has well expressed it: "He to the feeble and the faint, His mighty aid makes known; and when their languid life is spent, supplies it with His own." - J. K. Popham

My PCA church is not currently practicing this. However, we do participate in the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day.

__________________
James G. Oliver "J.G."
RE, Midway Presbyterian, PCA
Jonesborough, TN

Currently planning on attending seminary for MDiv.

My Facebook Page
My Blog