How do we conceive of Worship?

I just finished reading an article by J.I. Packer entitled, The Puritan Approach to Worship.  It sparked a number of thoughts and questions in my mind that I want to share for your reflection and edification:

1. There are two approaches to worship in the Christian church: Liturgical study and "the lifting of one's eyes from man and his mistakes to contemplate God and his glory.  Are these two approaches at odds with one another?  Which do you resonate with more?  Are there other approaches?
2. How are the Scriptures to be used in Christian worship?  Luther advocated to allow traditional/secular things that were not contrary to Scripture but appeared helpful to the congregation, while Calvin admitted nothing that the Word of God did not directly prescribe.  Essentially the question can be boiled down to this: Does the Bible prescribe or proscribe how worship should occur?  Does it dictate or suggest?  Which rule do you lean to?  Why?
3. How do corporate worship services express our reception of and response to God's intervening grace in human history through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
4. Should denominations  dictate, guide or leave it to individual bodies to decide how service occur and what elements are included?  Why?
5. If you subscribe to dictation or guiding the worship of local churches, then you must answer the next question:  How should bodies that refuse to submit to the dictates or guidance of the denomination be disciplined?
6. John Owen asks us what we come to worship expecting to receive from God?  "What do men come to hear the Word of God for?  What do they pray for?  What do they expect to receive from him?  Do they come unto God as the eternal fountain of living waters?  As the God of all grace, peace and consolation?  Or do they come unto his worship without any design as unto a dry and empty show?...Or do they think they bring something unto God, but receive nothing from him?...To receive anything from him they expect not, nor do [they] ever examine themselves whether they have done so or no?...It is not for persons who walk in such ways, ever to attain a due delight in the ordinances of divine worship." What do you come expecting from Sunday worship?
7. Do we believe that preaching is God's Holy Spirit speaking to us?  If so, then what work is required of the listener?  What response should they give to the sermon in their daily life?  If not, how can we build the expectation that God is speaking to us through the minister by the Spirit?
8. Do we practice worship in all three spheres of life - public, private and domestic (family)?
9. How do we prepare for corporate worship?  What steps do we take as individuals and families to prepare to come and worship together?  Would preparation aid in receptivity?

Here are a few great quotes worth reading:

Worship comprehends all that respect which man oweth and giveth to his Maker...It is the tribute which we pay to the King of Kings, whereby we acknowledge his sovereignty over us, and our dependence on him...All that inward reverence and respect, and all that outward obedience and service to God, which the word [sc, godliness] enjoineth, is included in this one word worship. --George Swinnock

God is a Spirit infinitely happy, therefore we must approach him with cheerfulness; he is a Spirit of infinite majesty, therefore we must come before him with reverence; he is a Spirit infinitely high, therefore we must offer us our sacrifices with deepest humility; he is a Spirit infinitely holy, therefore we must address him with purity; he is a Spirit glorious, we therefore must acknowledge his excellency...he is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us, therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifiying mediator and intercessor. --Stephen Charnock