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?

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).

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

“Believers need to know by experience that the Most High God is the Most Nigh God”
Howard Snyder, New Wineskins p63
1500 Illustrations P402

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

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

“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

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

You become like the God you worship.
See Psalm 115
Worship – Jack Hayford p7

“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