1. One question that arose in my mind in the course of the reading was: What do we do if we are already members of a church that does not always adhere to the principles these books lay out as patterns for worship? This question does not particularly come from my own personal experience, but I know that some people who come here to school may be faced with this question. Another question that is related to this is: What do we do if we do not like how worship is done in our church? Specifically, what steps should we take if we would like to see things (e.g. song selection, order of elements within the service, etc.) change in corporate worship?

2. Duncan has quite the abrasive critique of Evangelicals (pp. 24-25). I'm not exactly sure of what he means when he states: "They do not generally believe that church government is established positively in the word; they often do not see the local church as essential to the fulfillment of the Great Commission or to the task of Christian discipleship." First of all, I think a definition needs to be given for what he means by "Evangelicals." Secondly, (assuming he is saying Evangelicals are adherents of Protestantism who preach the good news of Jesus Christ and hold to the historic doctrines of the faith) those two accusations seem to not be true. Certainly there are churches that would consider themselves evangelical of which this penetrating criticism would be considered right. But to group all evangelicals together and to generally level this accusation does not seem to be fair, much less true of many churches. Any thoughts?

3. I thought the readings as a whole were very enlightening. The authors emphasized many important truths, pointedly using Scripture to uphold each point's validity. The lengthy quotation of Boice on pp. 18-20 of GPTG was excellent. Peterson's examples from the OT of a proper engagement with God in worship were helpful. Burroughs' insights into the story of Nadab and Abihu and to the verse in Lev. 10:3 are a stirring slap-in-the-face. The importance of be extremely careful in our worship before a holy God stands out in his exposition.