Thoughts on Worship - Compiled by Shannon Williams

“Before any of us can engage people in authentic, interactive adoration of God, we must first of all become worshipers.”

…Sally Morgenthaler

“Men and women on this earth ought never to fool themselves about the reality of true worship that must always be in spirit and in truth. It is plainly possible to have religious experience and forms of worship that are not at all acceptable to God.”

…A.W. Tozer

“Neglecting the Old Testament has caused some of us to distort some parts of the New Testament, resulting in (among other things) a muddled theology of worship.”

…Lynn Anderson

“Evangelism is an exceedingly important work of the church as is teaching, fellowship, servanthood, missions, and the healing of broken lives. But it is worship…that really stands behind all these activities. The church is first a worshipping community. Evangelism and other functions of ministry flow from the worship of the church.”

…Robert Webber

“Worship offered in spirit and in truth is neither an exercise in psychological command over an audience nor a means to the end of producing a certain feeling or response in the worshippers. Real worship is always God-centered rather than man-centered.”

…Rubel Shelly

“John Rogers of Carlisle, Kentucky, for example, had written to Campbell in 1834, noting that “many of us, in running away from the extreme of enthusiasm, have, on the other hand, passed the temperate zone, and gone far into the frozen regions.” “There is, in too many churches,” he added, “a cold-hearted, lifeless formality, that freezes the energies.”

…C. Leonard Allen

“It is possible to have some of the elements of worship – perhaps admiration, self-abasement, surrender, attachment – and not be among the redeemed at all.”

…A.W. Tozer

“Both the expression and the experience of praise involve the total person – the whole being: head, hands, and heart.”

…Lynn Anderson

“Providentially, the Spirit is working overtime in the 1990’s, opening up more and more people to considering matters religious and theological. The Spirit is casting these people with their religious and theological questions into public space and causing the church, where it is still open to such conversation, to respond. One of the public spaces into which the Spirit is casting these seekers is public worship. While I tend to think the church is often at its most inhospitable in public worship, the Spirit nevertheless draws them there. Those churches that respond with hospitality will enjoy growth at many levels, including numerical. Those who exclude these seekers and refuse to take up the challenge of public ministry among strangers will experience the opposite.”

…Patrick R. Keifert