Over the past years and months, I have become an adherent to the regulative principle of worship (i.e., what we do when we gather as the church). I hear a lot of people talking about the regulative principle, but many no longer adhere to the historical understanding of it. The regulative principle is that what we do in worship must be regulated by the word of God; therefore, only what is prescribed in the word of God may be practiced in worship.
Alternatively, the normative principle, which most churches now hold to, says that as long as any practice or activity is not forbidden in Scripture, it may be done in worship as long as it measures up to a denomination's, or local congregation's, criteria. This opens the churches up to whatever practices and activities are approved by its leaders and demanded by the congregation.
My conviction gained from Scripture is that God has always prescribed the lawful practices and activities of the gathered church. In the New Testament no less than in the Old, God's word is very specific about what the church should do. When the Old Testament worship forms passed away, so did its many activities, except for the ones prescriptively described in the New Testament: prayer, praise, singing as prayer and praise, giving, preaching and teaching, breaking bread together/the Lord's supper, water baptism.
I highly recommend this book: Old Light on New Worship: Musical Instruments and the Worship of God, a Theological, Historical and Psychological Study by John Price as a place to begin. Fascinating!!
Here's a website with a lot of good information on the regulative principle, the need for it, and consequence of not adhering to it: Musical Instruments in the Public Worship of God.
Happy researching—I hope you will!
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