Companion Services: Why our morning and evening gatherings are different
In the introduction to his Institutes, John Calvin writes:
“In my commentaries… there will be no need for me to argue at length about the subjects raised, since the present book [the Institutes] provides overall direction for those who wish to be helped.”
Robert White comments:
“The Institutes are thus a companion piece to Calvin’s entire work of biblical exposition and vice versa.”
John Gill did something similar. Producing a commentary on the entire Bible as well a Body of Doctrinal Divinity.
The idea behind these companion books, both Calvin and Gill produced, we've used to structure our gatherings at Banstead Community Church for more than a decade.
In the morning service the sermons preached take us through books of the Bible, verse by verse, like commentaries do.
In the evening service, the teaching focuses on doctrine like the Institutes or Body of Doctrinal Divinity do.
With the biblical exposition in the morning a companion to the doctrinal teaching in the evening and vice versa.
Marcus Honeysett has commented several times on the lack of theological teaching/understanding in and by churches where only exegetical sermons are heard.
“Increasingly I think this is a really important observation Those of us who preach can far too easily assume we are teaching theology in the process, when nobody is actually picking it up (The flip side is thinking that preaching is delivering a theology lecture. It isn’t)”
Having Sunday services with different focuses is one way we've sought to give people a doctrinal foundation.
Field Notes
A reminder that every Saturday I send out a Substack with 10 links from around the web worth checking out and the latest resources I’ve produced at Blog of Dan (my online Notion page).