God Speaks To Us in Worship

Some say the goal or focus of the worship service is the sermon and that other things like singing are only preliminaries. The preliminaries are not without some value, but they are not really essential to worship and carry the great risk of being a distraction from the sermon. Others sharply distinguish between worship, which they define as praise and prayer, and preaching. They argue that the sermon is a distraction from worship and that preaching should be kept to a minimum. Two views - but is either right? What IS the role of Scripture in the worship of the church, and how should we listen when God speaks to us?