Ben Ratliff@_BenRatliff
A Directory with a Smile: Why the PCA Should Welcome the Revised Directory for Worship
For more than fifty years, the Presbyterian Church in America has lived with a curious arrangement. We have a Book of Church Order made up of three parts: the Form of Government, the Rules of Discipline, and the Directory for Worship. Yet the Directory for Worship has largely remained in a secondary constitutional status. It has been “an approved guide” and “the mind of the Church agreeable to the Standards,” but not binding in all its parts. Several chapters have been granted full constitutional authority, but the whole Directory has not.
That means that the central activity of the Church has not had the same constitutional clarity as our doctrine, order, and discipline. The Ad Interim Committee on Revisions to the Directory for Worship is bringing forward a proposal that seeks to address that long-standing gap. Their report describes the revised Directory as “a carefully framed proposal,” shaped through “study, discovery, discussion and principled compromise,” and unanimously submitted with the hope that it “will honor our Triune God and edify this church.”
I want to convince you that we should match their spirit and approve their revisions as our new Directory for Worship.
On a recent episode of @PolityMatters, we had the opportunity to interview three members of the committee: Nate Shurden @nateshurden, Joel St. Clair @joel_stclair, and Chad Van Dixhoorn. (Subscribe, so you don’t miss it.)
What came through in the conversation was not merely that the committee had produced a constitutional proposal, but that they had labored to give the PCA something warm, biblical, useful, and pastoral.
Committee Chairman Nate Shurden explained that a directory, in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, is not a prayer book. It does not give fixed liturgical forms or prescribe every word of a service. But neither is it a vague appeal to spontaneity. “A directory traditionally within the Reformed and Presbyterian world,” he said, “seeks to lay out biblical principles and foundations… identifying ordinary elements for worship, giving pastoral directions for how worship should be practiced and conducted so that worship is governed by the Word of God.” He went on to say that a directory “literally gives direction” and “helps to give wisdom, theologically and biblically and practically, so that our worship will be ordered and edifying.”
That is a helpful way to think about this proposal. The revised Directory is not an attempt to make every PCA congregation look identical. It is not an effort to flatten the breadth of our denomination. The committee explicitly says that the chapters were written to be “readable” and to “reflect the breadth of our denomination’s practice.” It aims to provide constitutional guidance without unnecessary over-prescription.
Chad Van Dixhoorn used a memorable image in the interview. A prayer book, he suggested, can be like walking into a furniture store and saying, “I’ll take one of those living rooms.” Everything is already arranged. A directory, by contrast, is more like “Home Depot” or “IKEA”—the pieces are there, but they must be assembled wisely. His point was not to make worship casual or improvised, but to emphasize the genius of the Presbyterian directory tradition: it gives real direction without binding consciences to fixed forms.
That balance is one of the great strengths of the proposed revision.
The report itself says the committee sought to avoid both “an overbearing prescription of particular forms” and “an unhelpful abandonment of Reformed principles.” In other words, the Directory aims to give the guidance ministers, elders, and members need while also recognizing “the large measure of liberty granted by Christ to His church.”
This may be one of the most pastorally important features of the whole proposal. The PCA is not a small, culturally uniform denomination. We have church plants, historic congregations, urban churches, rural churches, campus churches, large churches, small churches, churches with very simple services, and churches with more developed liturgical patterns. A good directory must be able to speak faithfully to all of them. It must be clear enough to guide us and broad enough to serve us.
Joel St. Clair made another important point in the interview. We should not imagine that the Directory is a dusty document for rare use. The Form of Government may come into view most obviously at session meetings, congregational meetings, or presbytery. The Rules of Discipline, though essential, are used in particular circumstances. But worship is every week. Joel said, “When you think about the elements that are in the directory, that’s every week. That’s also during the week in family worship. There are things that cover the whole of life.” His hope was that the Directory would help every member of the church say, “This is Reformed worship. This is what this looks like.”
That is exactly right. A good Directory for Worship should not merely settle debates; it should teach the church how to delight in the worship of God.
And this is where the revised Directory is especially encouraging. The committee did not simply revise for technical precision. They sought to make the Directory devotional and explicitly theological. The report says that the current Directory sometimes gives instruction “with a frown” where the revised Directory seeks to communicate “with a smile.” It seeks to set biblical indicatives beneath biblical imperatives, highlighting the truths about God and His gospel that inform our worship.
That positive tone appears immediately in the proposed Chapter 47: “Worship of the divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the highest privilege of a Christian.” Corporate worship is described as the triune God summoning His church to meet with Him and be blessed by Him. Worship is not treated first as a burden, a performance, or a battleground, but as the great privilege of the redeemed.
This is not softening Reformed worship. It is strengthening it. The regulative principle is not less beautiful because it is stated with warmth. Biblical order is not less biblical because it is presented as gift. Constitutional clarity is not less useful because it is devotional.
Nate Shurden acknowledged that the proposed Directory is not perfect and that some may wish particular sections were tighter. But he offered a helpful image: the committee is trying “to build a fence around… a playground that hasn’t had one before.” The fence may not answer every future question. It may be refined over time. But, he said, “having a fence is better than the one that we don’t have right now.”
That is a wise way to think about this moment. The question before the PCA is not whether every commissioner would have written every sentence exactly this way. The question is whether this proposal represents a faithful, useful, constitutional step forward for the church.
The committee’s answer is yes. Nate said the members of the committee believe this Directory will have “a formatively positive impact upon the life and health and peace and purity of the PCA.” He described the committee’s work as marked by prayer, joy, disagreement, and brotherly unity, and expressed the hope that “the Spirit of the Living God would take that same spirit and spread it amongst us in the PCA.”
Joel St. Clair closed with a similar hope. He said that some may be anxious that the Directory is either too open or too restrictive. But his encouragement was simple: read it. “Open up and read not only the introductory remarks but read through the actual Directory for Worship. I hope you’re ministered to. That was the result for all of us on the committee.” He then expressed the hope that the Assembly would “take a step forward and complete what’s been 50 years in the making.”
A constitutional Directory for Worship will not solve every worship question in our denomination. It will not remove the need for wisdom, charity, or pastoral judgment. It will not make every congregation identical. But it can give us a common, biblical, confessional, and pastoral framework for the worship of the Triune God.
The revised Directory gives the PCA an opportunity to say that the worship of our Triune God is not an afterthought. It is not merely local custom. It is not merely inherited habit. Worship is the highest privilege of the Christian and the church’s glad response to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
For that reason, we should receive this proposal with gratitude, read it carefully, discuss it charitably, and pray that the Lord will use it to honor His name and edify His church.
pulpitmatters.com/p/a-directory-…
