Worship Is....

Some definitions I come across in my studies.....

William Temple:

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God,
To beed the mind with the truth of God,
To Purge the imagination by the beauty of God,
To open the heart to the love of God,
To devote the will to the purpose of God.


Harold Best:

Defines worship in the broadest sense as "acknowledging that someone or something else is greater--worth more--and
by consequence, to be obeyed, feared, and adored...Worship is the sign that in giving myself completely to someone
or something, I want to be mastered by it."
(Music Through the Eyes of Faith)

Warren Wiersbe:

Worship is the believer's response of all that they are--mind, emotions, will, body--to what God is and says and
does."
(Real Worship)

David Peterson:

Worship of the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the
way that he alone makes possible.
(Engaging with God)

D.A. Carson:

Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their
Creator-God precisely because he is worthy, delightfully so.


You can see that there is no simple easy definition of worship just as there is no simple easy definition of love. Both can be beautiful in their simplicity but you can't escape their complexity.

As we move deeper into the subject of worship I want to underscore that the starting place in understanding worship--especially for worship leaders--is to recognize that worship flows from the person and work of God. God is the foundation upon which our worship is laid.

Christian (Biblical) worship begins with a reflection on who God is; worship never begins with us or on a reflection of our wants and needs. We don't begin by thinking about ourselves rather we consider who God is and God's expectations for worship. In this way we keep worship grounded in God.

Two very important things to keep always in mind:

--we don't create worship; we do not manufacture, create, or develop worship meetings. Worship is about a response
to a person, God. Effective worship is never a result of our efforts. Worship happens when we learn to say yes
to God's invitation to have an encounter with Him.

--We do not initiate worship; God always acts first. God approaches us, calls us and invites us.

Let me close with A.W. Tozer:

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...[as] no religion has never been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent that her speech."