Delighting in the Ordinary
Spring 2022
“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122:1).
The past two years have seen church life in many places return to the basics. Speaking in broad terms, larger churches are usually hubs of activity, meetings, and programs. Many of these things were suspended and there was a maintenance, to some degree, of the essentials of public worship. Responses to this among congregations varied. For some, there was a fresh appreciation for the fundamentals of prayer, singing, and hearing the Word preached. For others, there was a frustration that the church was stagnating, even regressing.
What are we making of the presence of a thirst for excitement in church life? This thirst may be a truly spiritual desire for God to move in power. It may be a carnal impression that activity denotes spiritual life and growth. At all times it is good when the Lord’s people can delight in the ordinary. By ordinary I’m borrowing from the language of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Question 88 asks, “What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?” The catechism's answer is, “The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.”
There is a repetitiveness in the patterns of church life. We do the same things every week. But repetition should not be despised. To do so would be akin to despising the rising of the sun every day. God has built routines into Creation, and we have a weekly Sabbath given to us by the gracious hand of God. On that day, which we are to call a delight (Isaiah 58:13), we gather for the exercise of the ordinary. We seek to engage in the ordinary in a spiritual, extraordinary way (John 4:24) but these activities are still regular and routine.
Ordinary is used by our catechizers in distinction to the extraordinary. God used signs and wonders to confirm His Word, but now salvation comes to us through the ordinary means of grace. The fact that God would use these means to save souls is incredible and mind-blowing. In that sense they are wonderful and beyond ordinary as we might use the word today. Yet we gather every Lord’s Day for the ordinary, not for signs and wonders. We must endeavor to delight in the ordinary and not thirst for new things in a way that reveals a discontent for the ordinary.
Such a contented spirit does not preclude a burden for revival. We pray for revival, conscious that if a revival came it would produce great excitement in the church. A thirst for revival is good when it is driven by a burden for God’s glory in the saving of sinners. But revivals are rare. They are rare in part because God has sovereignly ordained that they are rare. Of course we want to see God move and we pray for that. But we need to be careful not to despise the constant work of God in the ordinary.
A delight in the ordinary also does not preclude legitimate, fresh attempts to reach sinners. Paul could speak of his ministry as being “made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). Although we strive to reach the unreached in ways within the bounds of scriptural principles, we ought not to see church life in terms of the next special event, meeting, or conference. These things may have a role and be helpful, but they must not convey an attitude that the regular use of the ordinary means is insufficient to accomplish the will of God.
As 2021 ended, I reflected on God’s grace in using the ordinary. Children were being raised under the Word and saved by the power of God. The Lord’s people faced manifold trials and even death with faith and victory. The Lord’s people were kept from falling by the power of God. The ordinary means were used in God’s hand to accomplish these things and more.
“[Reformed churches] deny that the means of grace can of themselves confer grace, as if they were endued with a magical power to produce holiness. God and God only is the efficient cause of salvation. And in the distribution and communication of His grace He is not absolutely bound to the divinely appointed means through which He ordinarily works, but uses them to serve His gracious purposes according to His own free will. But while they do not regard the means of grace as absolutely necessary and indispensable, they strongly oppose the idea that these means may be treated as purely accidental and indifferent and can be neglected with impunity. God has appointed them as the ordinary means through which He works His grace in the hearts of sinners, and their willful neglect can only result in spiritual loss.” Louis Berkhof