God's Program for the Church

In our Reformed circles, we often decry those churches that are full of programs. However, it is not programs per se that are wrong, but man-made programs. Last night, our men's book club had its first meeting this year, as we are reading through and discussing "Dual Citizens" by Jason Stellman, a pastor in the PCA. And Stellman makes a great point in the first chapter when he writes, "...when the evangelical church focuses on methods and programs to try to meet these demands for intimacy with others and with God, it far too often mimics the world-and that mimicry can spill over into the area where the church's distinctiveness is to be most evident: corporate worship. The church forgets that God Himself has prescribed a simple, straightforward, and east-to-follow program for the growth of the church and the edification of believers: the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper."