Quotes On Worship

All these men and women had an insight into worship and the presence of God.It seems that in someways, we as a corporate church, have lost some of the power of worship, the life changing aspect of it.Read these quotes carefully and let's see what we can glean from these people and what we can change in our lives.

Jerry Kerns - "The whole person, with all his senses, with both mind and body, needs to be involved in genuine worship."

C.S. Lewis - "The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance."


Graham Truscott - "When God's people begin to praise and worship Him using the Biblical methods He gives, the Power of His presence comes among His people in an even greater measure."

Charles H. Spurgeon - "God is to be praised with the voice, and the heart should go therewith in holy exultation."

A. W. Tozer - "Without worship, we go about miserable."

Manley Beasley - "'A glimpse of God will save you. To gaze at Him will sanctify you."

C. S. Lewis - "We only learn to behave ourselves in the presence of God."

Michael Catt - "If we are going to worship in Spirit, we must develop a spirit of worship."

Richard Foster - "As worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate, an escape from the pressing needs of modern life."

Jack Hayford - "Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped"

Jessica Leah Springer - "As John 4:23 says, Its time, as worshipers of God, to give him all we have. For when he is exalted, everything about me is decreased. So many times we stand in the way of really stepping into the secret place of worship with God. Just abandon tradition and the "expected" ways of Praise & Worship and get lost in the holy of holies with the sole intention of blessing the Fathers heart."

Lamar Boschman - "When I worship, I would rather my heart be without words than my words be without heart."

Graham Kendrick - "Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life." p.58 "A Heart For Worship" by Lamar Boschman

Don McMinn - "Our entire being is fashioned as an instrument of praise. Just as a master violin maker designs an instrument to produce maximum aesthetic results, so God tailor-made our bodies, souls and spirits to work together in consonance to produce pleasing expressions of praise and worship. When we use body language to express praise, that which is internal becomes visible." p.60 "A Heart For Worship" by Lamar Boschman

Tommy Walker - "How quickly we forget what it's all about. We can get so strategic that we worship so our church will grow, not because He is worthy. But we're doing all this because God is worthy and we want to worship Him."

H.H. Rowley - "The first element in worship is adoration. The Hebrews expressed this by their posture and not alone my their word. For they prostrated themselves before God. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. They did not come with an easy familiarity into the presence of God, but were aware of his greatness and majesty, and came with a sense of privilege to His house." H.H. Rowley"Worship in Ancient Israel" p. 257

C.S. Lewis - "It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men."

Ralph Mahoney - "Whenever His people gather and worship Him, God promises He will make His presence known in their midst. On the other hand, where God's people consistently neglect true spiritual worship, His manifest presence is rarely experienced."

Paul E. Billheimer - "Surely that which occupies the total time and energies of heaven must be a fitting pattern for earth."

Marianne H. Micks - "When we worship together as a community of living Christians, we do not worship alone, we worship 'with all the company of heaven.'"

Henry Sloane Coffin - "If there is one characteristic more than others that contemporary public worship needs to recapture it is this awe before the surpassingly great and gracious God."

Andrew W. Blackwood - "The time has come for a revival of public worship as the finest of the fine arts...While there is a call for strong preaching there is even a greater need for uplifting worship."

William Temple - "The world can be saved by one thing and that is worship. For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed 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.

"To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us." (A. W. Tozer. The Pursuit of God. Christian Publications. 1948. pg. 9).


"The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all." (A. W. Tozer. The Pursuit of God. Christian Publications. 1948. pg. 17).

"The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. ... We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence." (A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy. The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper and Row. 1961. pg. 6).

"In many churches the art of worship has markedly declined. The so-called hour of worship has become a time when mind and emotions are anesthetized into neutral. Out of habit, church obligation, affection for the minister, peer pressure, family togetherness, patriotism, or community expectation, people sink into their usual pews." (Leslie Flynn, Worship: Together We Celebrate. Wheaton: Victor Books. 1983. pg. 11)"


The Church has slipped into a philosophy of 'Christian humanism' that is flawed with self-love, self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and self-glory. There appears to be scant concern about worshipping our glorious God on His terms. So-called worship seems little more than some liturgy (high or low) equated with stained-glass windows, organ music, or emotion-filled songs and prayers. If the bulletin didn't say 'Worship Service,' maybe we wouldn't know what we were supposed to be doing." (MacArthur, John, Jr., The Ultimate Priority. Chicago: Moody Press. 1983. Preface, viii.).

Christendom has initiated its own specially educated and ordained priesthood, whose presence is indispensable to 'administer the sacraments.' These men, robed in gorgeous vestments, from within a roped off 'sanctuary,' stand before a bloodless 'altar,' with a background of burning candles, crosses and smoking incense, and 'conduct the worship' for the laity. With the use of an elaborate prepared ritual, with stereotyped prayers, and responses from the audience, the whole service proceeds smoothly and with mechanical precision. It is a marvel of human invention and ingenuity, with an undoubted appeal to the esthetic; but a tragic and sorry substitute for the spiritual worship which our Lord declared that His Father sought from His redeemed children." (Gibbs, A.P., Worship. Kansas City: Walterick. n.d., pgs. 97.98.)"

Whenever the method of worship becomes more important than the Person of worship, we have already prostituted our worship. There are entire congregations who worship praise and praise worship but who have not yet learned to praise and worship God in Jesus Christ." (Cornwall, Judson, Worship As Jesus Taught It. Tulsa: Victory House Publishers. 1987. pg. 70.)

"We can expect God to provide everything necessary to make worship possible. We children of God must ever be dependent upon God, for we have no resources of our own. We are as impoverished in worship times as a baby unable to provide its own bottle at feeding time. God, the object of our worship, also becomes the inspiration of that worship. He has imparted His own Spirit into our hearts to energize that worship. All that is due Him comes from Him. His glorious Person evokes admiration for and honor of Him, as He imparts His nature into me." (Cornwall, Judson, Worship As Jesus Taught It. Tulsa: Victory House Publishers. 1987. pg. 140.)"

worship is recognizing God for who He is; it is ascribing worth to Him; it is God's people telling Him about the worth they see in Him. In fact, worship could very well be thought of as 'worth-ship.'" (Don Weaver, Worship: The Heart's Response to God. International School of Theology.)

"The Church is the Church in her worship. Worship is not an optional extra, but is of the very life and essence of the Church. ...Man is never more truly man than when he worships God. He rises to all the heights of human dignity when he worships God, and all God's purpose in Creation and in Redemption are fulfilled in us as together in worship we are renewed in and through Christ, and in the name of Christ we glorify God." (James B. Torrance. "The Place of Jesus Christ in Worship", Church Service Society Annual. No. 40. May, 1970. pgs 41-62).