True Worship began as a series of sermons by Dr. David Whitcomb, Pastor of Community Baptist Church in Greer, South Carolina. Mark Ward subsequently recast the sermons into a manuscript for the book. Let me begin by saying that most pastors tend to leave the worship “stuff” to the music “guy.” It is exciting to see a pastor take such an interest in the subject of worship, to develop an entire series of sermons which ultimately lead to their publication in book form. I have been blessed; all but one of the pastors I have served with have taken worship seriously. I’m afraid, however, from hearing stories told by colleagues, that the one pastor with whom I served that relegated worship to the level of a non-essential is actually in the majority among pastors. God help us! This clearly isn’t the case with Dr. Whitcomb. He is to be commended for this.
These reviews may seem a bit schizophrenic because I may use “Dr. Whitcomb” and “the authors” seemingly interchangeably. Whitcomb and Ward share the by-line for the book, but the book originated with a series of sermons by Dr. Whitcomb. Rest assured I understand the distinction in my own mind, even if I can’t communicate it to the reader. 
The first chapter of the book, entitled “Worship that God Accepts,” covers the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis. Dr. Whitcomb does a fairly good job at describing the differences between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering. By pointing to both Old and New Testament texts, he proves that God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering and His disapproval of Cain’s offering was a matter of heart. “The difference lay not in the offering but in the offerers” (emphasis in original). Abel’s focus was on God; Cain’s was not. “Cain proved by his response to God’s disapproval that his heart was not right before God.” Not only was his original motive not right, his response to God’s correction was misguided as well.
The authors close the chapter by rightly pointing out, “True worship is expressed by those who have righteous hearts.”
There are two ideas in this opening chapter with which I disagree. The first is Dr. Whitcomb’s deduction that God sets a specific time and place for worship. He uses a rather weak exegesis in combination with a hypothetical interpretation of Genesis 4:3 to offer that argument. Genesis 4:3 reads, “In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground . . .” (ESV). Dr. Whitcomb suggests that “in the course of time” literally means “at the end of time.” He admits that “we do not know from this text what ‘end’ God meant. Yet God has the prerogative to set a time when His creatures express worship to Him.” Certainly God has the prerogative to set a time when His creatures express worship to Him; the problem is not that He does or does not have the prerogative to do so. The problem is that He does not exercise that prerogative. In fact, in John 4, Jesus abolishes the long-held belief that worship could only happen at a specific time or place. In the next paragraph, Dr. Whitcomb makes a similar argument with regard to place; to which I can offer a similar counter-argument. Now, this is only the first chapter of the book. I am interacting with the book as I go rather than “reviewing” the book after having read it all the way through. Perhaps as we go along he will address these issues and make the necessary adjustments.
The second thing I took issue with was this statement: When God disapproved of his worship style, “Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell” (NKJV). This is perhaps just a slip up on the authors’ part. They have done a good job at making the argument that the acceptability of the two offerings had nothing to do with the offerings and everything to do with the offerers. I would argue rather firmly that the offering is the worship style; it made no difference to God whether or not the offering was an animal or fruits and grains. The difference came in the motivations of the offerers. So, God, in fact, wasn’t disappointed at all in Cain’s worship style. He was disappointed in Cain’s heart attitude.
Chapter 2 is entitled “Worship that Pleases God.” I’ll be reading the book over the next week or two, but I may not get to post much because I’ll be away at a conference followed by a long-awaited vacation. I’ll post when I can, but my priority for these next two weeks will be learning, rest and relaxation, and quality time with my God and my family.