Joseph Crider serves as dean and professor of Church Music and Worship for the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He previously taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served at many churches.

Dr. Crider is also one of the kindest men that you will ever meet. I was able to take his class called the Worshipping Church at SBTS. It was great!

1. Human beings have been designed with the innate and insatiable desire for a glimpse of glory and the desire to worship the giver of that glimpse. (Pg. 14)

2. The church has become enamored with looking to performers for a staple diet of church music as congregants clamor for the most recent worship hit the sing in their cars all week during the commutes. (Pg. 21)

3. Without Scripture saturating corporate worship, people may respond to something or someone other than Jesus Christ. And when Christ is not the object of worship, the Holy Spirit is not the One empowering the worship. (Pg. 29)

4. The worship of worthless gods produces worthless worshipers. (Pg. 43)

5. The church will never unite around music. The church will have difficulty worshiping Christ Jesus to the glory of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit when a charismatic worship leader with a great voice never speaks a Word of Scripture during worship. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, the church can and will unite in worship around the Word. (Pg. 49)

6. Our worship is not meant to transcend our condition; rather, God’s love and sovereignty transcends our circumstances. (Pg. 87)

7. Each week in corporate worship, the truths of the Gospel need to be rehearsed and celebrated. (Pg. 103)

8. In a church culture that is bent on helping people feel good about themselves, worship services that proclaim forgiveness and grace apart from the reality of Christ’s work on the cross are killing authentic worship. (Pg. 118)

9. Those who gather for worship need to be changed by it, and that happens when they are active participants and responders. Worship is not meant for people to simply spectate. (Pg. 127)

10. A worship service without prayer deprives our people of the encouragement that comes from our relationship with the God who calls us to pray and with each other as we pray. (Pg. 130)

11. Worship leaders who pour over every line of every song they sing with an intentional purpose of helping their people engage in a dialogue with God, see the greater purpose for congregational singing. (Pg. 132)

12. Real worship is meant to be enacted by real people (with real life issues), recalibrating their lives toward the only one in the universe who can fill the deepest needs and desires of their heart. (Pg. 142)

13. Worship services that are void of significant amounts of Scripture and that lack lyrics reflecting a believer’s sadness over sin and lament for a broken world and the reality of pain and loss, create a potentially plastic and ultimately fragile view of life. (Pg. 144)

14. Worship leaders and pastors may not realize that the moment they choose songs for their gathering (even five minutes before the service), they are building a vital framework upon which their people encounter and respond to God. (Pg. 153)

15. Hold on to the Word and continue to discover the never-ending treasures of God’s revelation to us as we respond to Him in worship. (Pg. 190)

To purchase a copy of Scripture-Guided Worship, click here.

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Evan Knies is an elder of North Hills Church in West Monroe, LA. He is the husband to Lauren and father to Maesyn. He is a graduate of Boyce College and Southern Seminary.