January 20, 2026
by John Fonville
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Category:
Worship and Liturgy
| Tags: gospel, music, worship, singing, preaching, evangelicalism, Trinity, Prayer, Liturgy, Holy Communion, Book of Common Prayer, Word and Sacrament, church, Christian worship, theology, church practice, congregational worship, worship language, worship theology
This article challenges the common Evangelical habit of equating worship with music and calls the church to recover a fuller, biblical vision of worship centered on Christ’s saving action through Word and sacrament. While affirming music, emotion, and heartfelt singing as God-given gifts, it argues that worship is more than sound and atmosphere—it is the Triune God ser...
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January 6, 2026
by John Fonville
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Category:
Worship and Liturgy
| Tags: covenant, gospel, worship, mission, abrahamic covenant, promise, Prayer, Liturgy, Christology, Epiphany, Biblical, Christ, nations, Gentiles, collect, fulfillment, consummation, Reformed, church, scripture, Anglican, Magi, Matthew, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, theology, Redemptive, History, Abrahamic
Epiphany reveals Christ as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, as Gentile worshipers are drawn to the light of Israel’s Messiah and the blessing of salvation goes out to the nations....
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican Worship and Liturgy
| Tags: gospel, worship, assurance, evangelical, Prayer, Liturgy, Holy Communion, Discipleship, tradition, Reformation, Book of Common Prayer, Word and Sacrament, historic worship, church, scripture, Anglican, Cranmer, theology, repetition, formation, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
Many dismiss the Book of Common Prayer’s liturgy as “mere repetition,” but repetition is what forms us in Christ. Rooted in the Reformation, Anglican worship shapes our hearts, grounds us in Scripture, and offers deeper gospel fluency than the shallow novelties of modern Evangelical worship....
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September 18, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Ecclesiology
| Tags: church, mission, marks, preaching, baptism, Lord’s Supper, means of grace, gospel, Reformation, Anglican, michael horton, Word and Sacrament, Discipleship, theology, evangelism, worship, sacraments, grace, Gratitude, Christ, ACNA, covenant theology, Visible Church, Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, Means of Gratitude, Means of Obedience
This article explains how the mission of the Church is defined by its marks — preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. These means of grace are God’s strategy for delivering Christ to His people and sending the Church into the world....
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August 25, 2022
by John Fonville
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Category:
German Pietism
| Tags: evangelicalism, john calvin, martin luther, Anglican church, Protestant Reformation, German pietism, Douglas Shantz, pietist studies, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Reformation paradigm, Renewal paradigm, Evangelical paradigm, English Methodism, justification, sola fide, sacraments, Conversion, Liturgy, Self-examination, church, new birth, head knowledge, heart knowledge
My argument is this: By the year 1700, Protestant Christianity had begun developing significantly new practices and understandings of the Christian faith that focused upon Christian renewal, conversion, new birth and the coming millennial kingdom. These new practices and understandings were a dramatic departure not only from Roman Catholic Christianity, but also from the o...
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