Best Christian Books on Worship: 11 Classics, Free to Read
If you read one classic book on worship, make it A. J. Gordon's How Christ Came to Church. A Boston pastor dreams that a stranger sat in his church one Sunday, listened, and left, and that the stranger was Jesus. Gordon spent the rest of his ministry living out what that dream taught him: Christ is really present when His people meet, and everything in the service should be fit for Him to see. For a shorter start, read the second meditation in Andrew Murray's Lord, Teach Us to Pray, on worship "in spirit and in truth."
The old writers didn't think of worship as a style of music or a part of the service. To them it was the whole soul turned toward God, gathered with His people on the Lord's Day and carried into the week. They kept coming back to Jesus' words to the woman at the well. God is Spirit, so outward forms without the heart are empty, however beautiful. God is truth, so worship has to be shaped by what He has said, not by what pleases us. And because Christ is the way to the Father, Christian worship comes through Him: His name in our prayers, His cross in our songs, His presence in the room.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24
Here are eleven of the best books on worship in TheWay Library, from the big questions to singing, praying and guarding the heart.
Start here
1. How Christ Came to Church, by A. J. Gordon
Gordon tells his dream, then draws out its lessons in short chapters: Christ is here today by His Spirit, the light of His presence shows up what is unworthy, and the house of God should be cleansed of the entertainments and fund-raising shows that had crept into it. Arthur T. Pierson adds a life of Gordon and shows how the dream shaped the man.
Yet Christ is still Christ; and he has never outgrown the print of the nails.
How Christ Came to Church, In Thy Light
See who A. J. Gordon was. Read How Christ Came to Church.
2. Lord, Teach Us to Pray, by Andrew Murray
Four short meditations you can read in an hour. The second, "The True Worshippers," is the one for this subject. Murray says worship isn't something we do for an hour on Sunday; it has to be the spirit of the whole life.
Our worship must even so be in spirit and truth: His worship must be the spirit of our life; our life must be worship in spirit as God is Spirit.
Lord, Teach Us to Pray, The True Worshippers
The fuller version of these lessons is in With Christ in the School of Prayer; see our guide to the best Christian books on prayer. Read Lord, Teach Us to Pray.
3. The Existence and Attributes of God, by Stephen Charnock
This is a huge Puritan work, but you only need two of its discourses here: Discourse III, "On God's Being a Spirit," and Discourse IV, "On Spiritual Worship," both on John 4:24. Charnock explains what spiritual worship is, why we owe it, and how to deal with a wandering mind in prayer. He is searching and practical.
The best we have is to be presented to God in worship.
The Existence and Attributes of God, Discourse IV
He also asks the question every worshipper should ask on the way home: "How do we find our hearts after worship?" Read Discourse IV, On Spiritual Worship.
Singing
4. A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody, by Isaac Watts
In 1707 most English churches sang only metrical Psalms. In this short essay Watts argues from the New Testament, "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," that Christians may sing new songs that speak the gospel plainly and praise God in the name of Christ. It changed English worship. His own Hymns and Spiritual Songs, with "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," was the result.
Is not our Heart often warm'd with holy Delight in the Contemplation of the Son of God our dear Redeemer whose Love was stronger than Death?
A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody
See our guide to Isaac Watts' books. Read the Essay on Psalmody.
5. The Psalms, by Alexander Maclaren (Expositor's Bible, Vols. 2 and 3)
The Psalms were Israel's hymnbook and have been the church's prayer book ever since. Maclaren gives his own careful translation of each psalm, shows its shape, and draws out the experience behind it. Volume 2 has the thirst for God in Psalms 42 and 43, Psalm 51 and the longing for God's house in Psalm 84. Volume 3 runs from Psalm 90 to the hallelujahs at the end, with Psalm 103, the songs of ascents and Psalm 119.
Not with noise nor tumult, but in silent communication, God's grace and peace refresh the soul.
The Psalms, Vol. 2, Psalm 46
Volume 1 is in our guide to classic Bible commentaries, along with Spurgeon's Treasury of David.
6. The Life of David, by Alexander Maclaren
A shorter way into the Psalms: David's life told through the songs he wrote in each season, as shepherd, fugitive, king and penitent. You see where worship comes from: a real man meeting God in the field, the cave and the palace, and after his worst sin.
He is too sure that God hears to use many words; for it is distrust, not faith, which makes us besiege His throne with much speaking.
The Life of David, chapter 6
Praying and leading in worship
7. Pulpit Prayers, by Alexander Maclaren
One hundred fifty-eight prayers the great Manchester preacher offered in public worship, full of Scripture and reverence. They show what a pastoral prayer can be: adoration, confession, thanks for Christ and His Spirit, and intercession for the church, the sick and the wandering.
We thank Thee for Jesus Christ; we thank Thee for the love in Him; we thank Thee for that Divine Spirit which comes to abide in men's hearts through faith in Thy Son.
Pulpit Prayers, prayer 102
Spurgeon's public prayers are in the prayer guide. See also Alexander Maclaren's books. Read Pulpit Prayers.
8. Ministerial Life and Work, by W. H. Griffith Thomas
A handbook for ministers. Part II starts with leading public worship, with praise, prayer and the reading of Scripture, before it moves to preaching and pastoral care. Useful for anyone who plans or leads a service, not only pastors. Read Ministerial Life and Work.
The heart in worship
9. Discourses on the Love of God, by Isaac Watts
Watts on loving God with all the heart, and on the place of feeling in religion. He defends warm affections against cold, merely rational religion, then warns just as firmly against living on feelings and mistaking excitement for grace. It's a balanced book for anyone puzzled about emotion in worship. The scan has some misread words.
Cold reasoning, without passion, would have no such sovereign and powerful effects.
Discourses on the Love of God, The Use of the Passions in Religion
Read Discourses on the Love of God.
10. Wherein? by G. Campbell Morgan
Studies in Malachi. God's people kept up their worship but brought Him blind and lame animals, and answered every rebuke with "Wherein?" Morgan shows a religion that goes through the forms while the heart has gone cold, and God's love that still says "I have loved you."
God looks for the giving at His altar of a gift that costs something.
Wherein?, The Complaints of Jehovah
Guarding worship
11. A Christian Directory, Part 3, by Richard Baxter
The third part of Baxter's great manual, "Christian Ecclesiastics," opens with directions on the worship of God, avoiding corrupt worship, and behavior in public assemblies, then answers about 170 questions of conscience. Baxter writes for a divided church and pleads for peace among Christians on every page. Dip into it. Read A Christian Directory, Part 3.
Worship at home and at the table
The old writers expected worship to happen at home every day, not only at church. James W. Alexander's Thoughts on Family Worship and Matthew Henry's A Church in the House are in our guides to Christian books on parenting and marriage and family. For Communion, see the best books on the Lord's Supper.
More by these authors: A. J. Gordon, Andrew Murray, Isaac Watts and Alexander Maclaren.