Drama in college chapel

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doonziticus

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This morning at chapel a few profs and students did a drama in lieu of having someone preaching. Does the regulative principle apply here? I'm fairly certain that it does, since chapels are still the public worship of God. I guess my question boils down to this, is drama ever appropriate in the public worship of God?

I'm just a bit confused...
 
I've been meaning to ask you guys about rules of worship and the question above pertains to that.

I understand the need for order in a corporate worship service and gathering on the Lord's day. That is something I came to realize through attending BIG churches and then home churches and "churches without walls" or bodies of believers who refuse to be called a church.

Without accountability and some rules of order whoever is most charming will rule and whoever decides "God has a word for the body" will take over and interrupt BUT I don't understand when in life you would NOT be worshipping God.

I even think I am understandings rules about what kind of music is sung on Sunday morning but couldn't other music that is biblical be sung in a Christian coffee house or couldn't drama's been done at school chapels? Or couldn't you listen to and discuss a Dylan song's lyrics in a Bible study group? Is all of that considered wrong?
 
Drama is never appropriate in public worship of the church. The regulative principle prohibits it. And it is foolish.
 
Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia
Can a school chapel be considered a Church? I don't see how it can.

The confession reads like this:

"The light of nature sheweth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture." - WCF 21.1

So it appears to me that that applies in any situation where we worship God, not just in church, and of course, we worship God in a college chapel, so I think it applies.
 
Originally posted by Richard King
I've been meaning to ask you guys about rules of worship and the question above pertains to that.

I understand the need for order in a corporate worship service and gathering on the Lord's day. That is something I came to realize through attending BIG churches and then home churches and "churches without walls" or bodies of believers who refuse to be called a church.

Without accountability and some rules of order whoever is most charming will rule and whoever decides "God has a word for the body" will take over and interrupt BUT I don't understand when in life you would NOT be worshipping God.

I even think I am understandings rules about what kind of music is sung on Sunday morning but couldn't other music that is biblical be sung in a Christian coffee house or couldn't drama's been done at school chapels? Or couldn't you listen to and discuss a Dylan song's lyrics in a Bible study group? Is all of that considered wrong?

I think there is a place for drama by Christian writers from Christian perspectives, provided it isn't trite and cheesy, but, as others have said, it isn't in a worship service. But then, if "chapel services" didn't pretend to be worship services, I don't think it would be a problem.
 
Evie is right. The real problem is when people start "Now let us worship the Lord through this drama, The Milkman and the Bottle . . . " AS Evie put it, the pretense of worship (ie. a chapel service) is just as bad.
 
Brandon:

I sent this to someone I am discussing the issue of drama with and thought I would pass it along here.

In determing whether drama is ok, I think it would be helpful to first ask another question. Say the leaders of your church decide to institute a new form of worship, ritual handwashing. Do we have the moral freedom to do this? Nothing in the Bible prohibits handwashing. There is nothing inherently immoral about it. It is a good thing hygienically and it could symbolize purity before God.

Jesus faced this specific issue in Matthew 15. The Jews were engaging in ritual handwashing as worship. Nothing in the Bible prohibited handwashing. Yet Christ condemned it. He cited these grounds: "œThey worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." This is an important principle that we can use to judge novel forms of worship. So, when someone performs drama as worship, I think we need to ask whether this worship is vain or not. And one way we tell is by asking whether it is from the Bible or whether it is a rule taught by men. Nothing in the Bible presents drama as worship.

Scott
 
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