In previous blog posts I have expressed my pleasure in finding (as a Reformed Baptist) familiar ground in A Weed in the Church. One of the places where I found this is in the articulation of the regulative principle of worship in its pages. (81-84) Scott Brown quotes the fine statement of Mark Dever in this matter: Everything we do in a corporate worship gathering, must be clearly warranted by Scripture. Clear warrant can either take the form of an explicit biblical command, or a good and necessary implication of a biblical text. The regulative principle is, in fact, seen as one of the main bulwarks of a family-integrated view of the church. A Weed in the Church simply asks where is there such warrant in Scripture for age-segregated Sunday School, youth ministries, or nurseries. Finding no such warrant for these things, it straightforwardly concludes that they are wrong and unbiblical. I find a measure of confusion in such arguments. To put this in other words, there are two things which make such argumentation simplistic.
The first problem I have relates to something clearly stated in the definition of the regulative principle cited from Mark Dever. The regulative principle of worship relates specifically to a corporate worship gathering. Whether they are good or bad in themselves, I certainly agree with Brown that age-segregated Sunday Schools and youth ministries ought never to replace or become part of a corporate worship gathering of the church. With him I reject the notion that children who can understand should be segregated from the church during worship. (Nurseries during church for children who cannot understand are a different issue with which I will deal later.)
[Children’s church is triply wrong. In the first place, whatever such meetings are, they are not the church and ought not to be given that name. In the second place, it seems clear to me (and here I agree with the family-integrated folks) that children were in the meetings of the church in the Bible (Neh. 8:2; Eph. 6:1; Col. 3:20). In the third place, there is a special presence promised to the corporate gatherings of the church into which we should certainly desire to take our children (Matt. 18:20).]
But having said this, the question remains whether the elders of the church may call meetings especially for youth at other times. I think they may (pursuant to the calling of the church and the Great Commission to promote the gospel of Christ wherever and whenever it can.) I even think Scott Brown has so qualified himself (as I showed last time) that he must agree with this. Such meetings are not corporate gatherings of the church and are not governed by the regulative principle in the same way that such corporate gatherings are. Hence, the regulative principle is not violated by them. We may object to them on other grounds. We may think that they are distracting for the family or often unprofitably conducted, but this is not the same as saying they are violations of the regulative principle.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
