Review: We Are Alive, Elevation Worship

Yesterday I received my copy of Elevation Worship’s We Are Alive from Wade Joye. I first got hooked on Wade’s blog praying for his daughters, and thought it was quite gentlemanly of him to shoot out a free CD to 100 worship leaders. I’ve only listened a few times but here’s a review based on my first impressions:

I love this CD! The music is a high energy blast of catchy hooks, down stroked eighth notes and delay driven octave chords. (Translation for non-music speak: it rocks!) The overall sound reminds me a lot of Seven Places, and for me that’s a good thing. The unity of sound is surprising considering three different worship leaders’ creative talents went into it: Wade Joye, Chris Brown, and Mack Brock. Steven Furtick was the executive producer on the project. Here is a lead pastor who really supports his worship department. I seldom listen to music in my car - usually talk radio, but I like this so much I took it with me on the road.

My favorite song so far is Undivided. The keys and guitar create a counter melody to each other that sweeps me in. I find “Undivided here’s my heart it’s yours, it’s yours” stuck in my head long after the song has stopped.

At a first glance I didn’t find anything I could use on Sunday morning. I’ll definitely keep listening, but there are several reasons this CD doesn’t fit:

• Lead Singer Vocals: We Are Alive features vocals that are mostly one singer pop-style vocals like you’d hear on the radio as opposed to traditional church “choral” style harmony. In general there’s very little harmony on the CD. We are transitioning our ministry towards incorporating more of the “one singer” style, but we aren’t there yet. When I walked into this role the heritage here was a style of a Soprano, Alto, Tenor 3-part harmony on every song (as it is in many churches). I’ve only recently starting putting vocalists on a song by themselves without harmony. It’s made a powerful impact, but it’s still new.
• Electric Guitar: I’ve found I really need to ration how often I put electric guitar into the mix. (This is despite sermons encouraging otherwise.) Nothing splits a congregation like distortion - some people desperately love it and others can’t stand it, I’m selective and intentional about how often I put songs in the mix that need to be driven by electric guitar. On We Are Alive There’s only one song, “Here In This Place” where you can even hear an acoustic guitar. The same reason I love this CD is what makes it unusable in my current context.
• Intricate melodies and instrumentation: The multilayered sound is beautiful and interesting. It also take extra effort to scale down for a smaller band. This doesn’t rule it out all together, it’s just becomes an extra barrier. Like most guys with volunteer musicians I look for simple songs that don’t require professionals to pull off. I do intentionally place a few songs into the rotation that are musically intricate in order to challenge the band. On We Are Alive every song fits this description. That means the whole CD get relegated to a list with very few open slots rather than the “good old standards I can pull out any time” list.

Bottom Line: We Are Alive is a great CD with radio friendly hits that is worth picking up for your personal listening pleasure. If your worship band is doing a lot of Steve Fee, Lee McDerment, Deluge and Hillsong United then you will probably find some gems here for your Sunday morning. For everyone else it’s stylistically beyond what will make sense for your congregation.

We Are Alive sounds nothing like a “worship CD.” That’s probalby the best compliment I can give it.

Review: Joel Augé - On the Blue

It’s pretty interesting that music seems to go in cycles. There seems to be many bands that come out that point to some of the greatest musicians of our time.

Joel Augé is one of those guys. A veteran in the industry, he has learned to hone his sound. Most have not heard of him because he played in a few little known bands before getting signed as a solo artist with Integrity.

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Review: Klaus - Glory: An Evening of Worship with Klaus

Recorded LIVE at Christ For The Nations Institute, Glory combines well known Klaus songs with some great new tunes.

Klaus was born in Germany and currently lives in Canada with his family. He is a graduate of CFNI and following his graduation he returned to be the morning worship leader there from 2003-2005. Klaus produced two album’s during that time.

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Book Review - “Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship”

What am I here for? Why am I walking around this planet? What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose for being here? The way a person answers these questions has dramatic ramifications on the way they choose to live their lives. By the grace of God and the illumination provided by his Spirit, Christians have to understand that the reason we were created was to worship God and enjoy Him forever.

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Book Review: Worship Matters

Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God
Bob Kauflin

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Crossway Books (March 31, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 158134824X
ISBN-13: 978-1581348248

I have been an avid reader of Bob Kauflin’s blog Worship Matters for over a year. I read it almost daily and try to incorporate what I can within my ministry. Bob has been in worship ministry for a long time and his insight is much appreciated. Anything I read I weigh it against two thoughts:

1. What can I get out of this?

2. What can others get out of this?

While I personally love Bob’s blog I find that it may be a difficult read for those who are just starting out in ministry. It is full of great thoughts on theology, ministry and worship but I think some of it is very complex.

When I ordered this book I was eager with anticipation, but expecting more of what he does on his blog. What I got was a special treat.

Theology with practicality in terms that can be understood.

This book is a must read for anybody involved in worship leading or service planning. It delves deep into the theology of worship, but does it in a way that almost anybody can understand. It explains the trials, pitfalls, definitions and many, many other things. Then Bob goes into application. He teaches how you can take his insights into your own service and use them for a more effective ministry.

There are four main sections in the book:

1: The Leader
2: The Task
3: Healthy Tensions
4: Right Relationships

Each section discusses the topics and then encourages application. He goes into detail about what worship is, it’s many styles, leadership, how to put together a service, lyrical content, tensions, worship wars, songwriting, and relationships.

This is a fantastic book and a delightful surprise. Worship matters found it’s place on my shelf of “must read books on ministry” and I’d recommend it for yours as well.

Go buy it and dig deep.

Review: Wake Up the World, Gateway Church

If you’re anything like me, you found Gateway Church’s last album, Living for You a pretty solid album to pull from in your church. With songs like “You, You Are God” and “Revelation Song,” Living proved to be an excellent breakout project from the Southlake, Texas-based megachurch and certainly padded this worship leader’s bag of tricks with some great new tunes. Read more