One of the best books on worship by Don Hustad, Jubilate!: Church Music in the Evangelical Tradition, says that basically, there is a Pentecostal/Charismatic understanding of worship – which I think is more and more true for Evangelical worship at large -- which is that people by having more of an experience in worship, that that is when God becomes present. In their experience, when they reach a certain threshold, then God is present. So that is why in so many praise and worship settings you have this half hour of song which is supposed to work everybody up to get them to an emotional pitch where God is present, which is totally different from Reformed worship where at the very beginning we invoke the presence of God and at that point, we’re there-- we’ve been raised up to Glory with the Saints and angels and God is there whether we know it or not. So there’s this objective element to Reformed worship that something is going on there whether or not you’re experiencing it.
- D G Hart, in an interview w/ Mark Dever at IX Marks
[photo: Twin Cities Masters Chorale]
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