"Worship,” Jack Hayford once wrote, “changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped." That transformational ability of worship—to mature and conform us to the image of Christ—is too often forgotten.

What replaces formation varies. For the liturgical, rote recitations may be accepted in place of transformation. For low-church Christians, perhaps the temptation is to the quiet familiar. For the attractional church, it may be bright lights and slick videos. For the missional, the temptation becomes focusing as much on the where of worship as on the Who. For Charismatics, it’s the ever-elusive experience of God, the high of divine encounter.

There are many ways we are drawn away from worship’s core ability to make us more like Jesus. But if that is true, might not there be many more ways to embrace and experience acts of worship as opportunities for pastoral transformation?

It’s in answer to that unspoken question that author and ...