Good book that, contrary to the title, has to do with far more than worship but extends to the very foundation of ecclesiology. Waldron argues for the Regulative Principle and shows that it is not merely the Regulative Principle of Worship but extends to all the formal actions and structures of the church. He then applies this to formal worship (as suggested by the title).

The book does have some significant drawbacks. If you have read much of Waldron’s other material, this book *feels* very different; he is not in top form here in that he doesn’t seem to have his usual iron-clad outline. To be sure, each chapter is preceded by an outline marker, but some chapters wander a bit and can be repetitive. The book needs better editing as well; there are a number of spelling errors and a few “left over” words that seem to be from first-draft sentence structures. And, for those who have read Waldron’s booklet on the Regulative Principle, it is pretty obvious that this book is an expansion of that material. Nothing of course is wrong with that, but the old material feels stretched out and interrupted here.

Nevertheless, this book is quite good. It is written accessibly and mostly straightforwardly in a way that most church members will have no difficulty reading. There is a wealth of practical advice mixed in from Waldron’s years of experience and he offers good (though sometimes far too brief) explanations of some difficult texts. Even though I wish it was not given in the form of an expansion on his previous material, the new material here is certainly worth the price of the book.

Pick this book up if you want to know what the Scriptures teach concerning worship and how the Church is to go about worshiping her Lord, but if you are just looking for proofs of the Regulative Principle, read Waldron’s Regulative Principle of the Church.