Why Doctrine and Worship Matter

Where This Series Begins

Before this series looks at Topeka, Azusa Street, tongues, or healing, it has to settle a prior question. Does it matter what a church believes, and does it matter how a church worships? Many people today would say no. As long as someone loves Jesus and means well, they say, the details are a private matter. Scripture says otherwise. God has spoken, and He cares both about what His people believe and about how they come before Him.

The word sounds academic, but the idea is simple. The word Paul uses most often for doctrine, didaskalia, means teaching or instruction. Every Christian holds a doctrine of God, of Christ, of salvation, and of the Holy Spirit, whether he has thought it through carefully or not. The only question is whether his doctrine is sound or unsound. When Paul speaks of sound doctrine (Titus 2:1), he uses a word that means healthy. Sound doctrine nourishes the soul. Unsound doctrine, however sincerely held, makes it sick.

That question will follow us through the whole series. The Pentecostal and charismatic movements make many claims about the Holy Spirit: how He comes to a believer, what gifts He gives today, how He speaks, and how He moves in worship. Every one of those claims is a doctrinal claim, and every one of them shapes how a church worships. So we begin where Scripture begins: with the importance of truth, and the importance of worshipping God in the way He has asked.