This by no means is an advertisement for non-denominational (non-dom) churches or an attack against the PCA. I came to Covenant because I saw questions being asked here that I knew I needed to wrestle with that other schools didn’t confront in the same way. However, while there is something beautiful about the Reformed faith, it is not the only denomination with merit.
As someone raised in the church, I never thought I would feel like an outsider in my own faith. I’ve spent a semester attending PCA churches and I still don’t know when to stand and when to sit. Unless I am completely focused on the words of the hymnal, I mess up the stanzas. Many conversations in the Great Hall leave me speechless because I have no idea what anyone is talking about.
Much of the common jargon used in the Reformed Faith are words I’ve never heard before. Prior to Covenant, I understood “reformed” only in reference to the justice system. I had only heard of Martin Luther once in a ninth-grade history class. I had never read the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed in a church. I had never heard of the Westminster Confessions of Faith. I knew three, maybe four hymns, in total.
But I’m not the only one. This is not a failing on the part of my particular church- many non-doms leave people with similar experiences. Yet it doesn’t mean they are unbiblical or insufficient. Each denomination has its own strengths and weaknesses. But that doesn’t make them any less beautiful.
Before Covenant, I had never realized how much I expected the Christian world to look like the world I was raised in. However, since coming to Covenant, my preconception has been rattled, to say the least. From my first view of the PCA, I did not understand the beauty of how and why they did what they did, until people gently explained and allowed me to see it through their eyes. So I ask, please let me do the same.
Many criticisms I hear of non-doms are as follows: The music is loud, the lights are dimmed, and worship can often feel like a concert, with songs that have overly repetitive choruses. Those are valid analyses of many non-doms, especially mega-churches.
But to me, those are the most beautiful parts, they are the things that draw my focus most to Christ. I’ll be honest, I’m one of the worst singers you have ever heard. There is not a musical bone in my body, so loud worship allows me to sing with passion and heart and not be concerned that anyone (including myself) can hear me.
The dimmed lights focusing attention to the stage can feel showy, but it reminds me that how I worship, hands up or hands down, isn’t what everyone else will see. My actions aren’t on display. It allows people who worship with their whole bodies, without being worried that they are distracting others. It also is a simple reminder that my worship is bigger than me. My attention is turned away from myself and upwards to God, the object of my worship.
Sometimes lyrics seem too simplified and overly repeated, but, most of the time, I love it. The simplicity and repetition allows me to focus on and sit in the truth that is being sung. I love the way most non-doms do worship, because it never makes me feel like my voice is too off-key, I’m singing too loudly, I’m moving too much, or I’m missing the meaning of the song we are singing. But the most important reason is because it points my gaze back to Jesus and it gives me space to freely and wholly worship without fear.
By no means will a Bagpipe article change your entire theological perspective on denominations, and that’s not my goal; rather, I only wish for you to see beauty in a style of worship that you didn’t grow up in.