Reddit reviews Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice

I don't think it's quite fair to see the Reformation in this way. Chapell has a great book on worship "Christ Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice." He argues

> The Roman Catholic liturgy had a pervasive and profound influence on later liturgies in Western Culture ... Catholic worship prior to the sixteenth-century Council of Trent, when much additional complexity was added to aid the sacramental emphases of that tradition [divided] the liturgy into two main movements relating to Word and sacrament. ... These divisions of worship are evident as early as the second century. ... Prior to Trent, when the sacraments became so much more a focus of the liturgy, Roman Catholic sermons were more than the brief homilies common today. The Sermon was a means of congregational instruction, encouragement, and inspiration for a live of godliness.

So the elements of the Roman liturgy were seen as culminating in two great moments during the service - the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Upper Room. The elements of the liturgy were crescendos towards these two pinnacles. Calvin (and Luther before him and Westminster after him) deliberately followed these broad contours of the earlier liturgies in shaping his own order of worship. When you see elements of Luther and Calvin such as the introit, the Kyrie, the Gloria and so forth as equally much part of this Liturgy of the Word as the sermon is, it balances things out considerably. I'd argue that in my tradition (PCA) we've lost some of the understanding of the Liturgy of the Upper Room portion of things, but this is much more a statement about us than it is a statement about the Refomation practice.

Anyway, I highly commend Chapell's book. I think you'd really enjoy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Christ-Centered-Worship-Letting-Gospel-Practice/dp/0801036402

Great read.