The one thing I love so much about the Anglican church is that it actually has a standard: The Book of Common Prayer. I first began my more serious studies at a very staunch Reformed Presbyterian seminary that taught the validity of the Old Testament laws and their application to modern times - via New Covenant philosophy of course. But the irony of this particular theology is that it holds to no standard of worship! They speak of what is called the Regulative Principle, which essentially teaches that if it is not found in the New Testament it cannot be practiced. But this would limit the theology of worship to a completely fragmented state (also it would mean that no musical instruments could be used). The New Testament was not given to us in a propositional form. There is no New Testament Leviticus. The truths of the Bible were meant to be handed down to bishops and pastors, as St. Paul explains. Like all modern ethics, there must be a theological standard set in order for the standard to maintain its form through generations. And it was precisely the bishops and pastors of the Church of England (with the help of other Reformers) that were able to set this standard for us in these confusing times of moral relativism.
The question is: Does your church have a theological standard for worship? Or, can the pastor make up whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Is he bound to the history of the Church? Or, can he submit to the trends of modernity? If he can’t conform to modernity, who says that he can’t? Is there any historical succession of ethical standard within your authority structure? What will happen to your movement in three or so generations from now? Will your “conservative” worship survive?
To conclude, I would like to refer my readers to what I believe is the result of standardless worship in the Church, known as the Emergent movement.