quotations about worship
The great end for which you are to worship here is, that you may worship everywhere.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
Perfect Life
Worship is the subjection of the personality of the worshipper to the object worshipped; it is therefore the affirmation of the relations the two personalities bear to one another.
SABINE BARING-GOULD
The Origin and Development of Religious Belief: Christianity
The dullest observer must be sensible of the order and serenity prevalent in those households where the occasional exercise of a beautiful form of worship in the morning gives, as it were, the keynote to every temper for the day, and atunes every spirit to harmony.
WASHINGTON IRVING
"Christmas Day"
The purpose of leading worship is not to be a rock star--it is to serve.
MELISSA SCHLEICHER
"Worship woes", The Echo, February 5, 2016
Silent worship is an opportunity to seek one's inner spirit and find a powerful sustenance.
STAR STAFF
"Quakers meet for silent worship", The Winchester Star, March 31, 2017
The purpose of worship is to get the gospel to someone.
DEVIN BACHMAN
"Battle of the Praise Bands", Georgia College Colonnade, February 25, 2016
Performance worship is now the norm. I fear this is the case with practically all evangelical megachurches and their emulating congregations, which now includes a growing number of desperate mainline congregations, as well. We also see it in the hip, edgy, urban emergent congregations that tout their return to liturgy, but still find themselves enslaved to commercial entertainment forms. Yes, performance worship has killed worship.
JONATHAN ALGIER
"Performance Music: Worship?", Patheos, March 13, 2017
Worship may take many forms. Down through the centuries, Christians have worshiped by singing antiphonally in Greek, chanting in Latin, singing lustily in German, plaintively crooning Celtic melodies, shouting in the wild, primitive harmony of the "Sacred Harp" hymnal, clapping hands and swaying to a rhythmic spiritual, praying with hands raised and eyes lifted or with hands folded and eyes closed. Worship has taken many forms reflecting the complexity of human experience. The outward form of worship is not of primary importance. What matters in worship is whether God is pleased with the worship we offer him, and whether or not we focus our attention on Jesus' presence in our worship.
DAVID WICK
"What worship involves", Spencer Daily Reporter, March 9, 2017
It is the pleasing of God that is at the heart of worship. Therefore, our worship must be informed at every point by the Word of God as we seek God's own instructions for worship that is pleasing to Him.
R. C. SPROUL
A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity
Simply put, worship is an it-is-well-with-my-soul experience.
ROBERT WEBBER
Signs of Wonder: The Phenomenon of Convergence in Modern Liturgical and Charismatic Churches
Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real, all else is unreal.
MAHATMA GANDHI
The Story of My Experiments With Truth
It is very good for us to meet in this place for Public Worship. A peculiar blessing seems to be promised us, when we do so. Christ pledges Himself to be in the midst of us.
ASHTON OXENDEN
Sermons on the Christian Life
Worship is essentially and radically eschatological. By singing new songs, we continue to anticipate the death of death, the coming kingdom, and the ultimate resurrection. By refusing to sing anything new, we symbolically forget about the forward trajectory of Christ's salvation.
JONATHAN AIGNER
"8 Reasons Churches Should Sing New Songs", Patheos, February 17, 2016
I've begun worshipping the sun for a number of reasons. First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the sun. It's there for me every day. And the things it brings me are quite apparent all the time: heat, light, food, and a lovely day. There's no mystery, no one asks for money, I don't have to dress up, and there's no boring pageantry. And interestingly enough, I have found that the prayers I offer to the sun and the prayers I formerly offered to 'God' are all answered at about the same 50% rate.
GEORGE CARLIN
Brain Droppings
It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Christian worship is not an act of self-achievement, an act in which we set out to impress a deity. Nor is worship an act of obeisance to placate a deity. Instead, worship is more like a personal covenantal encounter between the church and its Lord, all made possible through the work of the Spirit.
JOHN D. WITVLIET
"The Cumulative Power of Transformation in Public Worship: Cultivating Gratitude and Expectancy for the Holy Spirit's Work", Worship That Changes Lives
Our activity should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to Divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the Eternal Word.
MADAME GUYON
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
EDWARD GIBBON
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Performance worship substitutes entertainment for liturgy. Our new worship language even reflects it. We once had sanctuaries, but not we have "auditoriums." We once had chancels, now we have "stages."
JONATHAN ALGIER
"Performance Music: Worship?", Patheos, March 13, 2017
Man always worships something; always he sees the Infinite shadowed forth in something finite; and indeed can and must so see it in any finite thing, once tempt him well to fix his eyes thereon.
THOMAS CARLYLE
Essays