How Do We Define Worship - Martin Smith (Delirious?)

I recently read this short article by Martin Smith and thought it was interesting, what do you think...?

Defining worship is a bit of a tricky one. I recently watched a documentary about Turner, the great impressionist painter, who was famous for the way he captured light. Turner was a master at painting the unpaintable, working in the open air, often in dodgy weather. He used to work furiously fast, so that he'd capture the changes in the light, landscape and sea as they happened.

The TV presenter, an artist in their own right, set out to try and paint like Turner one afternoon, but found that as they began to paint the light, the sea, the sky, they could not begin to do justice to what they were encountering. The sky was simply too massive and luminous, the sea too powerful and textured... it was almost impossible to capture them on a simple canvas.

When we try and define worship, we often find ourselves in the same position. Worship is such a vast concept that no one definition can contain it. Instead, I find I end up collecting little quotes and ideas that give me glimpses of the incredible, dynamic adventure that we call worship.

A definition we've been using a bit with Worship Central is: “Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. It is our whole-hearted response to God’s extravagant love and mercy.”

I also love Roman's 12's all-encompassing "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice"

Then these are few I've heard again recently that I think are great...

“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.” (William Temple)

"Worship is a deliberate and disciplined adventure in reality." (Willard Sperry)

And for something a bit different, an Eastern Orthodox perspective:

"Christian worship is the response of men to the Divine call, to the 'mighty deeds' of God, culminating in the redemptive act of Christ." (George Florovsky) Basically, it's all about Jesus...

"Worship is not primarily man's initiative but God's redeeming act in Christ through his Spirit." (Nikos A. Nissiotis) Basically, it's not about us, it's all about Jesus...

Has anyone else got any interesting definitions of worship to add here...?

Simon