View
The Look of Acts
Robert Hart What the Church Steadfastly Does Every Sunday
My wife and I recently had dinner with some friends who go to a large and very modern church. While we ate, we listened to them tell of their frustration. They are unhappy because a large cross that was the central focus of what is, in their terminology, the worship space, had been replaced by large video screens. The Sunday services, they complained, were no longer a time of worship, prayer, and preaching, but were more like a rock concert, a show. A verse from the Book of Acts came to my mind, prompting a discussion of what needs to take place in church services, as opposed to performances: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (2:42).
Several years ago, I read about a proposed drive-through "church" for people in a hurry. They could go to a place similar to a drive-through bank, say a few prayers in their car, receive communion somehow, and go on their merry way. Such "worshipers" need not waste their time on any of the things associated with the experience of a full-blown service.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Robert Hart is rector of St. Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Anglican Catholic Church Original Province). He also contributes regularly to the blog The Continuum. He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
• Not a subscriber or wish to renew your subscription? Subscribe to Touchstone today for full online access. Over 30 years of publishing!
personal subscriptions
Purchase Print &
Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives including pdf downloads for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
gift subscriptions
GIVE Print &
Online Subscription
Give six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for the reduced rate of $29.95. That's only $2.50 per month!
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
kindle subscription
OR get a subscription to Touchstone to read on your Kindle for only $1.99 per month! (This option is KINDLE ONLY and does not include either print or online.)
Your subscription goes a long way to ensure that Touchstone is able to continue its mission of publishing quality Christian articles and commentary.
more on christianity from the online archives
30.2—March/April 2017
Our Path to Holiness Runs Straight Through Calvary by Robin Phillips
8.4—Fall 1995
The Demise of Biblical Preaching
Distortions of the Gospel and its Recovery by Donald G. Bloesch
more from the online archives
28.1—January/February 2015
on State Impositions & Church Acquiescence by Stephen Baskerville
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
A Critical Memoir of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani Abbey by Patrick Henry Reardon
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
