A Fence, Not a Cage
Why the PCA needs a Directory for Worship that guides the church we have, not the church we imagine
A constitutional Directory for Worship will not, by itself, make the PCA worship well.
That may sound like a strange argument in favor of constitutionalizing a Directory for Worship, but it is an important point to make. Sometimes (always?) we speak as though putting words into our constitutional documents automatically produces the corresponding practice in the life of the church.
But in reality, the Form of Government does not automatically make every session wise. The Rules of Discipline do not automatically make every church court patient, courageous, consistent, or just. Our doctrinal standards do not automatically make every elder a careful theologian. Constitutional ink matters greatly, but our beloved documents are not magical. They do not replace pastoral wisdom, patient instruction, local shepherding, or the slow work of forming congregations in the truth.
The same is true of a [constitutional] Directory for Worship.
If the PCA adopts a revised Directory, we should not imagine that every elder, session, and congregation will suddenly become uniform in practice. Nor should we want the Directory to function that way. A faithful Directory is not meant to press every congregation into one narrow mold. It is meant to give biblical direction to the church as she worships the living God.
I’ve been told and now I tell elders: Shepherd the people you have, not the people you wish you had. This applies to preaching, teaching, praying, visiting—all aspects of pastoral ministry. Do you know the people in your church? Then seek to love them, not an imagined “better” version of them.
Similarly, now that the PCA is squarely centered in middle-age, we should be trying to shepherd the Church we have, not the one wish we had. And that applies to both “sides” of any argument to the contrary. Do you really know the denomination you are in? Then seek to love her, not an idealistic or imagined version of her.
The PCA is not a single congregation with many satellite campuses. It is a denomination of churches in different contexts, with different histories, different sizes, different capacities, different musical resources, different pastors and elders, and different pastoral challenges. Some congregations worship in historic sanctuaries. Others meet in schools, storefronts, community centers, or temporary spaces. Some have long-established patterns of worship. Others are young congregations still learning how to order the service of God with reverence, simplicity, and joy. Some are governed by elders with different philosophies of ministry than yours or mine.
A good Directory must be strong enough to guide all of us and broad enough to serve all of us.
That does not mean it should be vague. A Directory that merely says, “Do what seems worshipful to you,” would not be a Directory at all. The church needs more than suggestions. Worship is too central and formative to be left to instinct, taste, habit, or the personality of the minister. The church needs shared principles, shared vocabulary, and shared constitutional guidance.
The genius of a Directory for Worship, at its best, is that it gives real direction without pretending to write the whole service in advance. It identifies the ordinary elements of worship. It teaches the church what worship is. It gives elders and ministers categories by which to plan, evaluate, and lead the congregation. It provides guardrails. It reminds us that worship is governed by the Word of God, not by the preferences of the moment.
But it does not need to settle every prudential question in every place. It does not need to make a small rural congregation look like a large urban one. It does not need to make every service sound identical. It does not need to flatten the legitimate variety that exists within the bounds of biblical and confessional worship.
A Directory should be a fence, not a cage. A fence is a real boundary. It says, “Here is the field in which we may safely play.” It protects. It clarifies. It marks off what belongs from what does not. But a fence is not a cage. It does not exist to eliminate movement, wisdom, judgment, or freedom. It creates a bounded space in which the church may act faithfully.
That is what the PCA needs in worship: not liturgical anarchy, and not liturgical captivity, but ordered freedom under the Word of God.
This is also why constitutionalizing a Directory should not be treated as though it will accomplish everything at once. It will not. Some elders will need to read it slowly. Some sessions will need to discuss what it means for their congregation. Some churches will discover that certain inherited patterns need to be strengthened, clarified, or reconsidered. Others may find that the Directory gives language and confidence to practices they have long embraced.
But in all of this, pastors and elders cannot outsource their calling to the constitution. If the Directory says that worship is a holy meeting between God and His people, ministers must teach that. If it says that the ordinary elements of worship are grounded in Scripture, sessions must plan accordingly. If it commends reverence, joy, intelligibility, order, and pastoral care, elders must model those things. If it gives direction about sacraments, prayer, singing, offerings, vows, and the public reading and preaching of Scripture, ministers must do more than know where the chapter is. They must help the congregation see the beauty and wisdom of it.
A constitutional Directory can give us a common standard. It cannot give us pastoral courage.
It can give us biblical categories. It cannot give us love for the flock.
It can give us guardrails. It cannot make us patient drivers.
It can give us clarity. It cannot make us holy.
And this reality is a feature, not a bug. Our constitution serves the life of the church; it does not replace it.
For that reason, we should not demand that a revised Directory be either everything or nothing. It does not need to answer every future question in order to be useful. It does not need to satisfy every preference in order to be faithful. It does not need to produce instant uniformity in order to be worth adopting.
The better question is this: Will it give the PCA a clearer, more biblical, more useful framework for the worship of God?
If so, then we should receive it gladly and use it patiently.
The work of reforming and strengthening worship is never finished by adopting a document. But it can be helped by one. A good Directory will not do the work of pastors and elders for them. But it can help pastors and elders do their work better.