King of Love by Austin Stone
Available October 22, 2013
My first impressions of Austin, Texas came from watching the Austin City Limits live concert shows on PBS during my teen years. Since then I’ve continued to appreciate the Austin music scene, both for its local contributions and for its support of good music around the country and across the globe.
Out of this city comes The Austin Stone Community Church, a large Christian community known for its proclamation of the gospel, love for the arts, and involvement in ministries of mercy. Many worship leaders around the world first came to know Austin Stone through former staff worship leader Chris Tomlin, who left Austin in 2008 to join Passion City Church in Atlanta.
Since then, the Austin Stone worship ministry has continued to give the church gospel-centered songs of worship, under Worship Pastor Aaron Ivey. This continues with their new record, King Of Love, released today.
The first thing I noticed about King Of Love is the signature Austin Stone style. It’s authentic and earthy, but also completely accessible to those who are used to the contemporary praise band model. King Of Love seamlessly blends new songs of praise (written by leaders like Ivey, Todd Agnew, and Lead Pastor Matt Carter) with old hymns, including popular classics like Nothing But The Blood and There Is A Fountain. The title track itself is a reworking of Henry Baker’s lesser known hymn The King Of Love My Shepherd Is, perhaps best known in modern times for being sung at Princess Diana’s funeral.
This is also a thoroughly Christ-centered record, which faithfully moves through historic liturgical elements to tell the story of the gospel. To see the comprehensiveness of their liturgical subject matter, look at this list of common liturgy elements, followed by King Of Love songs that satisfy these elements:
Adoration — Bright & Glorious
Celebration of Assurance — Jesus Is Better
Thanksgiving — Calvary’s Cross
Petition — Flood My Soul
Communion — He Is Here
Charge and Blessing — Redeemed To Redeem
Hip hop artist Propaganda joins in on Redeemed To Redeem, reminding us that “There is no rewind, only redeemed.” It’s a powerful moment on the record, blending musical styles but telling the same coherent story.
No Greater Aim is another highlight for me. The song begins with the state of our lost souls, “Once my heart was lost, tangled deep in sin,” and ends with an anticipation of heaven, “’Till in death we’ll meet on heaven’s shore.”
Surrender is a major theme of King Of Love. This cycle of songs gives us solid theology to chew on, but also gives us words of praise for responding to theological truth. Time and again, the lyrics invite us to surrender our whole being to God, which is the true essence of Christian worship – a 24/7 outpouring, in all that we do, to the glory of the Lord.
You can grab a free mp3 download of the song Jesus Is Better here.
This will also include the story/theology behind the song, a chord chart, and various instructional videos for the musicians on your team.
You can purchase “King Of Love” at austinstoneworship.com, or on iTunes.
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Bobby Gilles is Sojourn Church’s Director Of Communications, and works with Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery to communicate Sojourn’s mission and vision. He co-wrote the children’s book Our Home Is Like A Little Church, published by Christian Focus. As a former radio disc jockey and music director, he was twice named a National Top 10 Finalist for Gospel Music DJ of the Year.
