A Life of Worship

Do you have a life of worship beyond Sunday morning? This YouTube mini-movie challenges the church to live a life of worship.

The Gift of Worship

Most Christians need to learn that the heart of worship is giving to God, not receiving from Him. Help equip and train your people to understand this biblical truth. Music by Jeremy Riddle.

Hillsong - Still Worship Video

A GREAT Worship Song...!!
Hillsong Still, Ultimate Worship

I Surrender - Video

The word "worship" is used in churches everywhere. But have you ever wondered how Jesus used that word? The answer may surprise you. Music by Marc James.

Worship Intro

Worship Introduction Video

The perfect Church Service

The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

C. S. Lewis

That's My King

The first video is from Ignite Media www.ignitermedia.com

The second is another version of the same audio with different images. Higher quality copies of this one are available here: http://www.4-14.org.uk/thats-my-king-s-m-lockridge

Great to use during a Sunday service or within a small group.

The late S.M. Lockridge once presented an incredible message, describing our God and who He is. Though God can't be described with just words, this is as close as you can get this side of Heaven.

Singer Boy George

Singer Boy George said, "On Sunday I attended the christening of my year-old godson Michael, and he was as restless as everyone else. The priest was a lovely man with impeccable dress sense, but I was confused from the moment he took the pulpit. Most of us only ever go to church for weddings and funerals, so sticking to the Book is pointless...and what's the point of rattling on about sin when most of us are doomed to eternal damnation? It doesn't warm people to Christianity, it only makes them feel like hypocrites. Worse still are the utterly depressing hymns. I'd like to see live music, acoustic guitars, and percussion. Church should be a joyous and liberating experience--[it] badly needs a facelift because it is God's theatre on earth, and he should be packing them in."

Boy George, London's Daily Mail, Feb. 23, 2000

For worship is a thirsty land crying for rain

For worship is a thirsty land crying for rain;
It is a candle in the act of being kindled.
It is a voice in the night calling for help.
It is a soul standing in awe before the mystery of the universe,
It is a time flowing into eternity . . . . . .
. . . . . a man climbing the alter stairs to God.

- Author Unknown

Spirit Level by Ann Bird, Methodist Publishing p17

Worship work and play

Gordon Dahl once observed, "Our problem is that we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship."

Last week I went to a meeting ...

Last week I went to a meeting that was attended by several thousand people. The offering was taken on the way in and everyone gave £12 or £14, which was well above the necessary Diocesan average.

There was a great air of expectancy. The singing was enthusiastic, often spontaneous, if not particularly tuneful. People seemed very relaxed in talking to strangers sitting near them. There were bursts of clapping and general applause from time to time and at particular moments many thousands raised their arms.

The whole event went on for nearly two hours and at least half the crowd went home rejoicing. Watford won 1-0.

The Rev Timothy Watson - Church of England Newspaper - 7th March 1997.

The UEFA Cup Final

"One of the most illuminating moments in working through this process was in attending the 2nd leg of the UEFA Cup Final in 1984. Totttenham won 3-2 on penalties; when the penalty was saved which brought the victory, there was such a rush of collective emotion from 35,000 Spurs supporters as I have never felt before. That experience enabled me to realise how much of what I had prevoiusly experienced as 'worship' was part of the wider human phenomenom of collective focus on (literally) one goal."

SDMTS notes on Worship, Jonathon Clark Module 308 - JDC 1997

William Temple

"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 with the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

William Temple STETS Module 308

Evelyn Underhill

Worship, in all its grades and kinds, is the response of the creature to the Creator.

Evelyn Underhill - STETS Module 308

Karl Barth

"Christian Worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in human life"

Karl Barth cited in Forrester - Encounter With God, p15

Westminster Shorter Catechism

What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)

Luther

God gave us five senses, it is sheer ingratitude to worship Him with any less.

Luther

Scratching the surface

In many ways we have just scratched the surface of worship expression. We have yet to touch a dynamic in creativity that changes the church and draws a lost world into the power of intimacy that worship reflects.

Soul Survivor Magazine Aug 97, p9, Divid Ruis

J John

Why is it that if you go to a football match and shout, clap and jump up and down you are a fan, but as a follower of Jesus you clap, shout and jump up and down you are a fanatic?!

Soul Survivor Magazine, Aug 97, p28, J John

Worship is ...

Worship is about responding to God. We celebrate His goodness, we bow beneath His greatness, we thank Him for His kindness and embrace Him in His nearness . . . and much more besides . . .

There is a time to praise the Lord enthusiastically and a time to simply be still, whether we dance, shout or bow, the focus is Jesus.

As we offer up our songs, we often begin to experience a seep sense of His presence. It is a time of intimacy where we can meet with God. Worship gives us the chance to give God the thankfullness in our hearts and the praise He deserves, "yet we can never out-give the Giver".

Worship is about the whole of our lives. It's the things we do, the things we say, the way we treat people and our attitude to life. Music, however, is a powerful and indeed biblical, expression of this.

Lakeside 1997 Program

The divine priority

"The divine priority is to worship first, service second . . . One grave temptation we all face is to run around answering calls for service without ministering to the Lord himself." So writes Richard Foster

Richard Forster

Nicky Gumble

" Why is it that if a cinema comedy produces laughter, the film is regarded as successful; if they theatre tragedy brings tears to the audience of the production is regarded as touching; even a football match thrills the spectators, the game is reviewed as exciting; but if of the congregation are moved by the glory of God in worship, the audience are accused of emotionalism? "

Questions of Life - Nicky Gumble p158

Weorthscipe

"Worship" comes form the old English word "weorthscipe" and means "to ascribe worth unto". The essential idea is that whatever it is that you value most highly or place the greatest worth upon is what you worship.

Worship - Jack Hayford p6

Worship and what you become

You become like the God you worship.
See Psalm 115

Worship - Jack Hayford p7

Fresh Worship

It is a present invlolvement with God that inspires and releases fresh worship. What God has done for us may well inspire praise, but worship, as a response of love to love, functions only in the present.

Judson Cornwall - Let Us Worship p42

To praise ...

"To praise above with the saints we love, Oh, that will be glory. But to praise below with the saints we know, well, that's another story!"

Judson Cornwall - Let Us Worship p42

Dictionary definition

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists the following twelve words as either analogous words for worship or synonyms of worship:
adore, admire, dote, esteem, exalt, love, magnify, regard, respect, revere, reverence and venerate.

This is what the english word worship means. It is the adoration, veneration, exaltation and magnification of God. It is when we respect, esteem love, admire and even dote on God that we are worshipping Him. Quite obviously, worship is totally concerned with the worthiness on God, not the worthiness of the worshipper.

Judson Cornwall - Let Us Worship p48

Kierkegaard

The Danish Philosopher, Kierkegaard, compared worship to a dramatic production.

In worship, it often seems as though the worship leader is the actor and God is the prompter, whispering into his ear, telling him what dto do next. The congregation listen and, at the end, the 'applaud' if they like the way he's led worship, or throw things if they don't!

But Kierkegaard said that's all back to front. In reality, God is the audience, the congregation are the actors, and the person leading the worship is the prmopter, simply keeping the production going.

So when we come together to worship, we come wanting to please God alone, offering him our very best.

Frogs in Cream p123

Worship and Sacrifice

"Sacrifice is the essential act of external worship. It is a prayer which is acted, a symbolic action which expresses both the interior feelings of the person offering it, and God's response to this prayer. It is rather like tha symbolic actions of the prophets. By sacrificial rites, the gift made the God is accepted, union with God is achieved and th eguilt of the man is taken away. But these effects are not achieved by magic, it is essential that the external action should express the trus inner feelings of man, and that it should be favourably received by God."

Roland De Vaux - Ancient Israel, P451

The Most Nigh God

"Believers need to know by experience that the Most High God is the Most Nigh God"
Howard Snyder, New Wineskins p63

1500 Illustrations P402

Honoring our Lord

While I was serving in Paraguay, a Maka Indian named Rafael came to sit on my porch. I was eating and went out to see what he wanted. He responded, "Ham, henek met." Again I asked what I could do for him, but the answer was the same. I understood what he was saying but not its significance: "I don't want anything; I have just come near."

I later shared the incident with a local veteran missionary. He explained that it was Rafael's way of honoring me. He really didn't want anything; he just wanted to sit on my porch. He found satisfaction and pleasure just being near me.

"What brings you here, my child?" the Lord asks.

"Ham, henek met."

Doesn't that reveal the heart of true worship?

Stuart Sacks, Villanova, Pennsylvania - Preaching Today

Worship and Consumerism

Worship ... fits right into the consumerism that so characterizes American religious life. Church-shopping has become common. A believer will compare First Presbyterian, St. John's Lutheran, Epiphany Episcopal, Brookwood Methodist, and Bethany Baptist for the "best buy." The church plant, programs, and personnel are carefully scrutinized, but the bottom line is, "How did it feel?" Worship must be sensational. "Start with an earthquake and work up from that," advised one professor of homiletics. "Be sure you have the four prerequisites of a successful church," urged another; "upbeat music, adequate parking, a warm welcome, and a dynamite sermon." The slogan is, "Try it, you'll like it."

Duane W. H. Arnold and C. George Fry in "Weothscrip" (Eternity, Sept. 1986).

Stop evaluating worship and start experiencing i

Bobby Sanderson, minister of music at the First Baptist Church, Columbus, Mississippi, has written that he read an article about worship. In that article, the author said, "I wish I could get my people to stop evaluating worship and start experiencing it." Sanderson says that he began asking himself some hard questions:

1. Is worship about God or is it about what I like?
2. Do I seek God's presence or the comfort of being with friends and doing what is familiar?
3. When is the last time God "blind-sided" me and spoke in a way I did not expect?
4. Am I so contemporary I lose the transcendence of God?
5. Am I so traditional that I forget God's relevance?
6. Do I see myself as part of an audience giving approval/disapproval to worship leaders?
7. Can God use what I don't like?
8. Am I more into music than the spoken word?
9. Do I ignore the command to sing just to get to the "message"?
10. Do I leave worship with a clear sense of what I'm supposed to do?
11. Is the style of worship more important to me than the object of worship?
12. Do I love His presence as much as the songs I sing and play?
13. Can I worship Him when it's hard work and my joy is running low?

The Sobering Effect of Truth

Any of us more than twenty-five years old can probably remember where we were when we first heard of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

British novelist David Lodge, in the introduction to one of his books, tells where he was--in a theater watching the performance of a satirical revue he had helped write. In one sketch, a character demonstrated his nonchalance in an interview by holding a transistor radio to his ear. The actor playing the part always tuned in to a real broadcast. Suddenly came the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot. The actor quickly switched it off, but it was too late. Reality had interrupted the staged comedy. For many believers, worship, prayer, and Scripture are a nonchalant charade. They don't expect anything significant to happen, but suddenly God's reality breaks through, and they're shocked.

Brian Powley