Ask any conservative Protestant evangelical minister if they believe in the sufficiency of Scripture and they will almost certainly answer “yes.” Affirming the sufficiency of Scripture for conservative Protestant evangelicals is almost akin to affirming the inerrancy of the Bible. But I have noticed with friends and colleagues in recent years that we are seemingly talking past one another when we discuss the sufficiency of Scripture in relation to things like ecclesiology and gathered worship. We all affirm the doctrine, but our gathered worship looks different, and the reason for the difference is not typically related to our cultural setting. In other words, our worship does not look different because of contextualization. Our worship looks different because we hold differing views on the sufficiency of Scripture, all the while claiming to affirm the doctrine with equal vigor.
The question I want to consider in this short piece is: Do some forms of gathered worship and some ecclesiologies more faithfully place Scripture at the center than others? I believe how we answer this question is the real source of most disagreement on the matter.
What do we mean by “the sufficiency of Scripture”?
We should begin by addressing what we mean by the sufficiency of Scripture. By “sufficiency” we do not mean “just enough,” “barely enough,” or “satisfactory.” We mean something more like “all that we need.” By saying that we affirm the sufficiency of Scripture in matters of ecclesiology and gathered worship, we mean that the teachings of Scripture, and the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit, are all that we need to gather, nurture, and grow the local church. Again, it is hard to imagine that any conservative Protestant would deny this claim. Even so, do our actual practices affirm the sufficiency of Scripture, or do we merely believe in the sufficiency of Scripture in principle but not in practice?
Three Ways We Demonstrate our Belief in the Sufficiency of Scripture
Church Government
First, by affirming the sufficiency of Scripture, we mean that the structure of our churches—our ecclesiology—is governed by the Bible’s teachings on church leadership, membership, discipline and other ecclesiological matters. Many fellow Bible-believing friends and pastors might disagree with our views on congregational church government, believing instead that the Bible teaches something more like a Presbyterian or Episcopal form of government, but we are all attempting to model our ecclesiology after Scripture.
Whatever our differences, we do not believe that the Bible says nothing about church structure or government and opt for more efficient models from the business world (as some unfortunately do). We believe that the Bible says something about ecclesiology, and we attempt to model the structure of our churches after Scripture. We believe that what God has given us in Scripture is sufficient for our ecclesiology.
The Forms of Worship
Second, in relation to worship, we believe that Scripture lays out clear, essential elements of worship that ought to be present in our gathered worship services. For example, we physically gather for worship (Heb. 10:24–25), we carefully preach the word (Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 4:2), we confess our sins (Js. 5:16; 1 Jn. 1:9), we publicly read Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13), we give of our finances (Gal. 6:6; 2 Tim. 2:6), we partake of the ordinances (Mt. 28:18–20; Lk. 22:19; Jn. 13:1–18), we pray (Acts 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:8), and we sings songs, hymns, and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16). We do all of these things because we believe that Scripture teaches that they should comprise a part of our worship. We might say, in sum, that we attempt to worship God on God’s terms as He has prescribed in the Bible, which is our best attempt at demonstrating the sufficiency of Scripture in the structure of our worship (Heb. 12:28–29).
The Content of Worship
Third, we attempt to convey the sufficiency of Scripture in the content of our worship. I love the way that Ligon Duncan expresses this: “Read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray that Bible, sing the Bible, and [through the ordinances] see the Bible.”[1] Not only is the structure of our worship informed by the Bible, but the content of our worship is as well. This practice demonstrates a firm belief in the sufficiency of Scripture for our worship.
Undermining the Sufficiency of Scripture
Church Leadership, Membership, and Discipline
However, we can undermine our affirmation of the sufficiency of Scripture in our ecclesiology and in our worship. Let us think first about ecclesiology and church structure. This tendency could occur in many ways. One way would be allowing someone to serve as the pastor of a church who has charisma or is a gifted teacher but does not meet the biblical qualifications for an elder as laid out in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Titus 1:5–9. Permitting someone to serve as a pastor who does not meet biblical qualifications for the office on the basis of their other gifts undermines any affirmation of the sufficiency of Scripture, because it implies that the ability to entertain or increase our weekly attendance is what is truly important.
We could add instances to this example such as when we neglect the biblical injunction to practice church membership and discipline (Mt. 18:15–18; 1 Cor. 5). We might be tempted to neglect these practices because they seem too exclusive or outdated, not conducive to numerical growth, or, frankly, too difficult and awkward. The Bible clearly teaches these practices. Yet our lack of faith in the sufficiency of Scripture leads us to think that they would harm the local church rather than sustain it. When we take this route, we undermine our affirmation of the sufficiency of Scripture.
Worship
We can also undermine our affirmation of the sufficiency of Scripture through the structure and elements of our worship. We convey our belief in the sufficiency of Scripture in the structure of our worship by ensuring that Scripture regularly appears in our worship. We should not reserve Scripture solely for preaching. Scripture should appear in our public reading of God’s Word, it should be woven into our prayers, it should be present in our songs, and it should be the foundation for our sermons. Should sermons be “practical” in the sense that our hearers know what to do with what they have heard? Absolutely. Should our sermons and sermon series be very loosely connected to a given text of Scripture and primarily focused on a felt need? Probably not.
Something quite similar could be said about the music we sing when the body of Christ meets each week. The songs we select for our gathered worship should not merely convey some general truth about God but should be deeply informed by the teachings of Scripture. This principle could extend even into how a given song is sung. It might be that a song is filled with rich, biblical teaching but that a poorly played massive pipe organ or a loud band is drowning out its theology. Our preaching and our singing, as well as the rest of our gathered worship, should convey the rich theology of the Bible.
When the elements of our worship are rooted in and founded upon not only the teachings of Scripture but also the very words of Scripture, we affirm that Scripture is sufficient for gathering, nurturing, and growing the local church. We are saying that we are not dependent upon our ability to create the perfect environment for worship borrowed from entertainment culture or feel the need to adopt modern business management practices in lieu of Scripture’s teachings on church leadership to sustain Christ’s church. Instead, we affirm that the Bible informs the structure of our church, the elements in our worship, and the content of our preaching, praying, and singing.
Conclusion
When we talk about the sufficiency of Scripture in relation to ecclesiology and gathered worship, we need to be more holistic in how we understand and apply the doctrine. I have attempted to give just a few examples of how we can practice this important doctrine. There are ways of organizing churches that are more faithful to Scripture and demonstrate our reliance upon the Bible for church governance instead of the business world. There are ways of structuring our gathered worship that highlight Scripture and our belief in its sufficiency, with the Spirit’s accompanying power, to save unbelievers and bring about spiritual maturity. There are songs that more adequately convey the truths of Scripture, and even specific texts, than others, which, in turn, allows the Word of Christ to dwell richly within us (Col. 3:16). Everything we do should demonstrate that we really do believe that God’s Word is more than enough for the church. Like Peter, we confess in our worship that we can turn nowhere but to the One Who has the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68).
[1]J. Ligon Duncan, “Foundations for Biblically Directed Worship,” Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, ed. P. G. Ryken, D. W. H. Thomas, and J. L. Duncan III (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2003), 65.
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