A Restoration Model Of Worship

Until the rise of the Stone-Campbell movement on the American frontier, the restoration movement that began in Britain was so fissiparous in spirit that much diversity in worship was inevitable. Eventually, however, a primitive model of worship based on the second chapter of Acts prevailed. The restoration movement can be traced to the departure by John Glass from the Church of Scotland in 1728. His son-in-law, Robert Sandeman, started several small churches in Scotland which patterned their worship in such a way as to restore the order of the church described in the book of Acts. Yet another branch of this movement began when James and Robert Haldane started an independent church in Edinburgh in 1799 as well as a seminary in Glasgow. As Sandemanean and Haldanean influence spread, Thomas Campbell and his family started attending services in the Haldane church southwest of Belfast, Ireland. Campbell, a Presbyterian preacher, was impressed by the ideas of the Haldanes. His son Alexan…