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The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship

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The one great obsession of A. W. Tozer’s life was worship. Many have written about worship, but Tozer surpassed them all in simple passion and supreme purpose. Compiled from material never before published, this book presents Tozer’s systematic teaching on worship, the subject close to his heart. One of the first in evangelical circles to call attention to the doctrine of worship, Tozer knew worship as the purpose of man and the expectation of God. His thoughts on this subject were deeply rooted in biblical doctrine and historic writings, blending Scripture with some of the great devotional writers throughout history. Like sitting down with Tozer, The Purpose of Man delivers the soul cry of Tozer on worship and will inspire readers to not only understand worship, but also experience it in his or her own heart. “This will be the best teaching in my ministry. I want to deliver my soul as a prophet of God to the people, and to explain why we were created and why we are here, not to the satisfaction of the needed appetite only but to something bigger, grander and more eternal, that we might worship God and enjoy Him forever.” A. W. Tozer

186 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

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About the author

A.W. Tozer

665 books2,051 followers
Aiden Wilson Tozer was an American evangelical pastor, speaker, writer, and editor. After coming to Christ at the age of seventeen, Tozer found his way into the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination where he served for over forty years. In 1950, he was appointed by the denomination's General Council to be the editor of "The Alliance Witness" (now "Alliance Life").

Born into poverty in western Pennsylvania in 1897, Tozer died in May 1963 a self-educated man who had taught himself what he missed in high school and college due to his home situation. Though he wrote many books, two of them, "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy" are widely considered to be classics.

A.W. Tozer and his wife, Ada Cecelia Pfautz, had seven children, six boys and one girl.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
Profile Image for Douglas Wilson.
Author 313 books4,458 followers
March 6, 2017
Quite good. Tozer is solid over all, and writes with passion and intelligence. Some great word pictures as well.
Profile Image for Amber B..
10 reviews
March 16, 2011
After reading a quote by him in an article ("Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God."), I was interested to learn more about him and his writings. Knowing not much more than the title of this book, I ordered a copy. I never realized how timely this book would be. It was a God-sent and it's quite possibly one of the most life changing books I've ever read. It is well worth the read, and will more than likely draw you closer to God in the process.
Profile Image for Mackenzie King.
35 reviews35 followers
July 24, 2023
Simply wonderful. Tozer is a force of wisdom and is just about the biggest advocate of daily active worship I’ve ever encountered. This book was so rich in truth that I kept a highlighter constantly in hand. Would highly recommend for any Christian asking why it’s important that we worship God.
Profile Image for Arianna S..
29 reviews2 followers
November 9, 2020
Creo que este es uno de esos libros que debo releer para establecer una opinion definitiva. Sin embargo, pienso que es un escrito del que se puede aprender y ser confrotado en el camino, aun sin estar de acuerdo al 100% con lo que el autor presenta.



Profile Image for Justin.
381 reviews
May 29, 2017
In the introduction the editor claimed that the reader's views would be changed by the end of the book. I was skeptical, but decided to read on. At first I was not so sure that I agreed with that a lot of what Tozer said. I had to actually think about it more to figure out that he was taking more of a black and white view.

I really loved that he ended each chapter with a prayer. It was a really good example for incorporating the chapter into something I could understand better.

The read wasn't as entertaining as I would have hoped it to be, but like the introduction said it did change the way I look at worship. I guess you can say that it helped mature what I already knew of worship.

In recommending this book I think that you could start at the introduction, read chapter 14, and then read chapters 1 - 14.
Profile Image for Theresa.
138 reviews4 followers
April 22, 2024
Every time I pick up Tozer I never fail to be amazed at how his writing is timeless--it's easy to understand, hard hitting, thought provoking and so, so good. I walk away feeling simultaneously more aware and enriched.

The Purpose of Man provides insight into what worship has become (and this was written so many years ago now, so it is even more of a "YES!" than it was then) and how to create pure intention and action in it. There were some "a-ha" moments for me as well. I love when books do this in a sound way such as Tozer does. This book speaks on how to to view worship, how we are created/designed for it and how to make it an active part of your lifestyle.

Each chapter closes with prayer which I found to be a wonderful way to end the reading, especially since I chose to read no more than one chapter each time I picked it up. I did that with the intention of being able to move forward in reflection and truly absorb whatever was in the chapter. The prayer was a great addition to that and rounded it out well.

I highly recommend picking this one up. Whether you choose to read this or another Tozer, get ready with all the pens/highlighters/markers or whatever you use to mark special moments because there are A TON.
28 reviews2 followers
August 31, 2020
Holy macrel this is a good book! A W Tozer has (lovingly) punched me in the face with his words and I am so glad. If you are feeling stale or not connected with God, this will blow your mind and completely change your attitude to worship. The last chapter alone blew my mind with each sub-topic.

“If what we believe does not make God more real to is, if it does not make us more Christ-like in every aspect of our life, of what value is it? The maintaining of our worship is a responsibility we cannot shirk. It must be paramount in our daily life.”

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” - 2 Cor. 3.18
Profile Image for Anna-Kate Ayers.
34 reviews1 follower
Read
February 19, 2025
Had me reflecting on worship in different ways— was certainly a worthwhile read. Encouraged me in moments where I did not necessarily feel like worshipping and gave me a deeper understanding of what it means for all that is in me to Bless His Name

Psalm 103:1
Profile Image for Charlotte Vazquez.
53 reviews3 followers
August 10, 2021
“Our concepts of God must be rescued from the deplorable depths they have sunk…the frightfully inadequate condition that hinders pure and delightful worship.”

This book took me a while to read, mostly because of my priority of other things but also because of how rich and slow-to-digest it is. Tozer writes with truth and conviction and the most noticeable passion of anything I’ve ever read outside of the Bible. This book was so good and important and I’ll likely be rereading it all my life. As believers our sole purpose is to worship and bring glory to our Maker! 👏
Profile Image for Matt Boezinger.
20 reviews
January 17, 2023
Understanding and experiencing a revival of true worship may be the greatest need in the church today. I am thankful that Tozer, with clarity and passion, leads us through all the mess of man-made notions of worship that inundate American churches (both in his time and now) and points us to real, scriptural, spirit-filled, all-consuming worship that every human soul longs for. O God, may we never forget that we were created to worship. Your Son came and died and rose again that we might live out true purpose forever!
Profile Image for Hallie Dumas.
125 reviews2 followers
January 20, 2023
Well this was my least favorite Tozer I’ve read by a long shot. It wasn’t bad but also (imo) not super good 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Great reminder to never get your hopes up even if you’ve liked other books by the same author 🤙🏼
I’m half joking, but seriously I’d recommend The Knowledge of Holy / The Pursuit of God SO SO MUCH MORE than this book. Those both impacted me even after I put them down, and this just didn’t do that!
Profile Image for Halle Wassink.
233 reviews
August 18, 2023
“God made man in His own image and blew in him the breath of life to live in His presence and worship Him. God then sent man out into the world to increase, multiply and fill the earth with men and women who would worship God in the beauty of holiness. That is our supreme purpose.”

Heartbreaking, joy bringing, thought provoking, life transforming. Reading this book was worshipful. Loved that he always pointed points back to scripture. Loved how poetic and powerfully it was written.
Profile Image for Jayne Waterhouse.
16 reviews
April 28, 2024
This was a very encouraging book that resonated with me. Our purpose is to reflect Gods glory in our lives and to worship the Creator in all we do. He created us to worship and enjoy Him forever and everything we do should be centred around that. We can’t compartmentalize our lives so that worship is restricted to a single time and place but is the very essence of who we are. “You are not worshipping right in any place until you are worshipping God right in every place. If you cannot worship him in the kitchen, then you cannot worship him audibly in the church.”

To worship one must do that in spirit and truth. By submitting to the truth of who Jesus is and then recognizing our own sinfulness and allowing Christ to be our atonement to renew us. And this is done through the Holy Spirit for he is the one that can purify and cleanse our intentions and he intercedes for us and makes them acceptable to Jesus. The Holy Spirits home is in our soul enabling us to be “portable sanctuaries” and worship in spirit and truth everywhere we go.

I really appreciate Tozers books and there’s lots more in here that I took away!
Profile Image for Camille Miles.
5 reviews
October 12, 2022
Wowie wow wow! Another powerful Tozer volume, I swear I underlined something on every page! Its a beautiful description of how to live a true life of worship and what worship looks like as a lifestyle and not an event. There are also lots of practical takeaways that I really appreciated. Highly recommend!!!
Profile Image for Olivia.
697 reviews133 followers
January 14, 2023
As per usual, A. W. Tozer digs into the magnitude of life without fear of being direct and stating truth. I appreciate his writing because he leaves room for the believer to dig God's Word for truth but shares his perspective and view of worship through his own search of the Scripture.
Profile Image for Dan Mingo.
255 reviews5 followers
February 12, 2020
Tozer has a way of really making you dwell on things. This book is excellent. He answers the simple question, what is the purpose of man? To worship God. I highly recommend.
17 reviews
March 25, 2024
Tozer does not back his thoughts with much scripture. This book is mostly about his own unique experiences while in a worship trance. I'm not sure he is really reflecting what the Bible says.
Profile Image for Julia.
226 reviews2 followers
August 20, 2024
Tozer just seems so full of himself
1 review
September 22, 2021
Tozer speaks in this book of his admiration for the "Christian mystics." He writes:
The intimacy of their relationship with God is all that truly matters. If a writer only has information to offer that he has obtained by research, I will pass on him. Give me the writer who has the passion and fire of God in his soul, which flows onto the page.
Tozer summarizes in this description exactly what I appreciate about his own writing. It is also what frustrates me. Throughout The Purpose of Man I find myself challenged and encouraged by many of the arguments made by Tozer but at the same time I find myself unable to evaluate whether some of his arguments are entirely Biblical due to his lack of reliance on biblical references. Regardless of whether I can take the truths fully to the bank, I can at least trust that there is a degree of relative truth in the testimony of a man of has spent many years more than I have in the pursuit of true worship.

The good:
Tozer emphasizes a truth (that I think is Biblically supportable and that the church needs to be reminded of) that we are created to worship God, and, as Christians, we are saved to worship God. We are not ultimately saved for the lesser reasons we might be tempted to imagine. It is ultimately for this grand purpose and responsibility.

Flowing out of this overarching truth (hinted at in the title of the book) are some helpful distinctions that I found helpful to think through:
-Worship should be central to the life of the Christian. If there's one thing that I took from this book is a conviction (in agreement with Tozer) that worship being the purpose for which we were created/saved, should be intentionally at the center of our lives and we should be intentional in ordering our lives to prioritize it. This argument is explicitly made in the book but what is perhaps just as convicting is the testimony of Tozer evident in how Tozer writes about God and Worship. This book is clearly the work of a man that worshipped God in a depth of purpose and intensity that I've not previously imagined.
-Worship should happen in all of life. Corporate worship is a distinct form of worship but not the only time we should worship.
-We must worship God in truth. That means knowing the truth about God and not worshipping a God of our own design.
-Work shouldn't happen without Worship (chapter 7)

The bad:
This is not a focused book in the sense that it is easy to understand where Tozer is going and why.
Maybe that is because it is apparently not a book that Tozer actually wrote but was complied and edited from his works and sermons. It does not come across as one coherent work that walks from one point to the next but rather each chapter seems like it could be divorced from one another.

I think Tozer goes too far without Biblical support when he says things like "You are not worshipping right in any place until you are worshiping God right in every place." Does he expect perfection? It is one example of a tendency to overstate and exaggerate that I saw a few times throughout the book.

The practical advice in the final chapter is welcome and I appreciated most of it but I don't relate to Tozer's explanation of his own experience of hearing the voice of God - yet he makes it sound universal. I'm never sure when Tozer would allow for a diversity of experience (especially when it comes to the experience of our relationship with Christ).
Profile Image for Josh Westerlund.
57 reviews
February 17, 2024
Reading the “Purpose of Man” by A.W. Tozer felt like somewhat of a tedious slog. I was disappointed at this, as I have read other books by him, and found them much more worthwhile. While I found many of Tozer’s conclusions to be sound, the graceless and borderline legalistic rigidity of his approach throughout was grating. 


Tozer is correct, in that ultimately our entire lives, every aspect, should be oriented towards the worship of our Creator, and also correctly points out that we are unable to accomplish this without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The aspect that I feel he fails to make prominent, downplays, or is utterly missing, is the overarching truth that we can not, on this side of heaven, be sanctified to the extent we might perfectly worship. The majority of this book felt like he was judging almost all believers as deficient, inferior, and at times, even failing to worship to the point of sin; all the while extolling his own practices and longing for the “good old days” when he seems to think everyone got it right. 


All that being said, regardless of the approach,the truths imparted in this book resonated deeply with me. My worship prior to understanding who God is was formulaic, joyless, and ceremonial - being limited to the appointed times of worship at a church. Until I came to an understanding of my Savior and what He had done for me, I could not worship. I now find myself in spontaneous worship of singing, praying, meditating, or even just bathing in the glory of God's awe inspiring creation. Feel-good praise songs that I used to enjoy now grate on me, for I desire to sing praises to my Father, of my Savior, and to their glory, not my own. 


As I grow in my understanding of who God is and His holiness, as well as who I am and my utter helpless dependence upon Him, my worship grows deeper. As I have developed the discipline of deeply diving into the Word of God, and hearing His words spoken through eternity, these understandings have grown exponentially. When I reach further understanding of our God’s perfection, my fleshly response is that of Peter, “depart from me Lord! For I am a sinful man!” yet through the power of the Holy Spirit, my soul rises like a plant seeking the sun, joyful and hungry for more. My true being longs to breath it’s native air in communion with my God, and every wisp it encounters on this side of heaven is glorious. Come Lord Jesus, for I long to be able to fully worship You!
Profile Image for Greg Skodacek.
137 reviews18 followers
June 5, 2025
Mankind's Purpose for Being

"That biblically defined purpose is that we might worship God and enjoy Him forever."

"Worship is man’s full reason for existence. Worship is why we are born and why we are born again. Worship is the reason for our genesis in the first place and our regenesis that we call regeneration. Worship is why there is church, the assembly of the Redeemed, in the first place. Every Christian church in every country across the world in every generation exists to worship God first, not second; not tacking worship at the end of our service as an afterthought, but rather to worship God primarily, with everything else coming in second, at best. Worshiping God is our first call."

"They had a spirit of no expectation. True worship that is pleasing to God creates within the human heart a spirit of expectation and insatiable longing."

This book is Tozer gold!
Profile Image for Steve Croft.
300 reviews5 followers
May 23, 2025
Tozers classics, 'The Pursuit of God' and 'Knowledge of the Holy' are immortalised. The former is in my top 5, the latter shall be read shortly. 'The purpose of Man' is much lessor known, and not up to the level of his best books, but they are so high I struggle giving this 4 stars. Tozer is best read very slowly, one small chapter at a time as a devotional.

Man was made to worship and fellowship with God.

"There is no worship pleasing to God if there is anything in me displeasing to God. I cannot worship him on Sunday, but not on Monday. I cant worship him in my songs, but displease him in my business."

"God is infinitely more concerned that He has worshipers than that He has workers. Unfortunately, most evangelicals do not share this concern. For the most part, evangelicals have been reduced to the position where God is a supervisor desperately seeking help. "

"God is infinitely more concerned that He has worshipers than that He has workers. Unfortunately, most evangelicals do not share this concern. For the most part, evangelicals have been reduced to the position where God is a supervisor desperately seeking help.

"Some may think they are worshiping in the name of Jesus, but they are not necessarily worshiping in the nature of Jesus. Name and nature are one in the Bible. It is impossible to divide Jesus between name and nature. When we ask anything in the name of Jesus, it does not mean pronouncing the name “Jesus.” It means that we are in conformity to His nature. To chant the name “Jesus” has no power in it. Whoever asks after His nature and asks in accordance to His Word, that man can get what he wants."
Profile Image for Helen.
93 reviews6 followers
May 5, 2025
'The Purpose of Man'. It's all about worship - learning to truly worship God is the path to truly relishing an intimacy with God that cannot be found anywhere else. He makes some bold statements that I don't necessarily agree with, but his points can make a person think about how much worship is in their life, other than Sunday mornings. What I find so incredible is that he wrote this book in the late 1940s. Its application to today is incredible. As a person who loves musical worship, I can appreciate Tozer's grasp of its importance. However, I dislike it when someone thinks, or I guess, with Tozer, it is believed, that everyone's life should be lived only one way. His assumption that if we aren't all lying on our floors for hours each day in worship, then we are defying God's call on our lives. I did agree that too many Christians do not engage in pure worship. Sunday mornings, singing a few hymns doesn't cut it. Worship isn't simply singing but an attitude. One thing I did learn in a prelude bio of this book was the reality that Tozer was a sinner like the rest of us and had serious flaws in his life. Knowing he was human made his words easier to digest and contemplate. He was definitely anointed by God.
4 reviews1 follower
January 28, 2021
I love everything written by Tozer. It's not that everything he writes is a home run. But he has many more hits than misses. He definitely had a grasp of true holiness that few Christians possess. I get the impression from his writings that Tozer was a man who had an intense desire to know God and His character as profoundly as possible.

In this book, I think Tozer does a good job of demonstrating that real worship is more than just what we do on Sunday morning within the walls of a church building, but rather a way of life. This is an important life-changing truth that all Christians need to learn.

Perhaps the best chapter, or at least my favorite one, is the final chapter in which he gives practical advice on how to go about our daily devotions with God. This information has shaped the way I currently spend my early mornings with the Lord.
Profile Image for Courtney Carter.
35 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2025
It’s interesting to see how different generations break down what is worship and how we worship. Looking at examples straight from the Bible to being in the series where our pastor studied and worked out the “Holy Roar” teachings (see Chris Tomlin and Darren Whitehead), and then to read Towzer, it’s just fascinating to glean the knowledge from so many studied parties. There are so many similarities, so many differences, but yet so many unique experiences that each person who studies and processes this topic ends up sharing. Grateful for a God who doesn’t demand our worship but wants true fellowship and interactions with our whole selves and our whole lives.
41 reviews1 follower
June 11, 2020
Good basic treatment and advice

Tozer usually, and this seems to be true in this book, writes either to those who have recently been born from above or for those who's faith has waxed cold throughout time. In this book the author argues for the centrality of worship, not as an event, but as a life style, which is a must for every child of God. In the last chapter he shares some practices which have been helpful for him while acknowledging that each person should have their own experience and dealings.
Profile Image for Maga Gutierrez.
10 reviews
November 17, 2020
Muy buen libro.
No hay nada mejor que leer a alguien que haya experimentado de manera personal cada y una de las palabras que expresa. Puede parecer muy radical su manera de expresar su relación de adoración a Dios, pero nada mejor que ver sus dichos contrastados con la palabra de Dios y así afirmarlo.
Un libro con un sentido muy práctico para el creyente que día a día está llamado a adorar a Dios en todo y en cada área de su vida.
De hecho que lo volveré a leer, cuando crea o perciba que estoy olvidando el propósito para la cual fui creada.
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