Songs That Shape Us

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Editor

Joshua A. Waggener

Professor of Church Music at Southwestern Seminary

Editor

Joseph Crider

Dean and Professor of Church Music and Worship in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Seminary

Editor

R. Allen Lott

Professor of Music History at Southwestern Seminary

Editor

Charles T. Lewis

Associate Dean of the School of Church Music and Worship and Professor of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Seminary

The issue of spiritual formation in Christian worship continues as a persistent topic in evangelical scholarship, as well as a critical question for local church worship ministry. Theologically, the issue can be articulated in questions such as:

• For those “called according to [God’s] purpose” (Rom 8:28) to be glorified with Christ (Rom 8:17, 30), how can Christian worship help to conform them “to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom 8:29)?
• How might Christian worship play a part in a believer being “transformed by the renewal of [his] mind” (Rom 12:2)?
• As a congregation, how might we “[behold] the glory of the Lord” and be “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18)? Practically speaking, many in worship ministry are caught up searching for the preferred local music style of expressing praise to God. Many a “worship war” has been fought over such preferences. The declared “winners” of such battles are those whose preferences, in the end, determinethe instrumentation, arrangements, and song choices for public worship