Review of Here For You, by Passion

Passion, Here For You (sixsteps/Sparrow)
Released: March 8, 2011

I remember when I heard my first Passion record—Passion 98—in high school.  It was fresh and different.  Little did I know at the time that I was listening to a mile-marker in the short history of contemporary worship.  Passion and Delirious are the pivot-point on which “contemporary worship” swung to “modern worship.”  Thirteen years later, much has changed, and much has stayed the same.  Many of the same faces and voices that were emerging in 1998 (Tomlin, Crowder, Hall, Redman) are now household names in contemporary Christian music.  Those twenty-somethings who were more raw emotion and energy have matured into thirty-somethings who have added a bit more depth to their passion.  Here For You clearly shows that Passion still dominates the modern worship scene.

SUMMARY

Passion always produces great albums.  To my ear and heart, this is not a hallmark album, however.  Musically, it is a typical modern worship album (this is not a criticism).  Textually, there are a few small surprises, but nothing jumps out that has not been previously recorded.  Awakening (2010) had a few outstanding songs (e.g. “You Alone Can Rescue”).  This album doesn’t seem to carry the same kind of stardom.  The songs I would most likely incorporate into worship are: “All to Us” (see my review of Tomlin’s album for comments on this song) and “Spirit Fall.”

Repeats from other albums and projects include: Crowder Band’s “Shadows,” from their Church Music, Stanfill’s “Forever Reign” from Hillsong’s A Beautiful Exchange, and “All to Us,” from Tomlin’s And if Our God is For Us.

MUSICALITY

The production, as always, is great.  The album is filled, with few exceptions, with the typical instrumentation: flowy keys, electric guitars, light acoustics, big drums, and crowd noise.  “All My Fountains” is a nice sonic departure from the standard tones and sounds of modern worship.  It is more earthy and vigorously acoustic rhythm reminiscent of late 90s Dave Matthews.  Christy Nockels (“Carry Your Name”) really does have a golden voice…the finest in Passion’s arsenal.

Perhaps the most novel aspect of Here For You is the introduction of rap into Passion’s recordings.  Lecrae appears on “Shadows,” with David Crowder, and on the bonus track of “Our God,” with Chris Tomlin.  With others, I’m appreciative of the incorporation of other genres, and especially from brothers and sisters who have an equal claim to the history of American church music—the African American tradition.  Some may disagree, but I believe rap is very much rooted in a combination of blues and the sing-song/shouting style of traditional black gospel preaching.  However, as many have noted, rap is a hard medium for congregational music.  It is effective as a preaching medium, and in a responsorial format (e.g. a verse plus a congregational refrain), but it is certainly something for congregations to listen to, not participate in.  Still, it’s a welcome addition to Passion’s albums specifically and worship generally.  Perhaps it is another small sign that racial bridges can be and are being broken down in and around worship.  Praise God for that!

THEOLOGICAL CONTENT

With this album, we see yet more cross-pollination between Hillsong worship and Passion worship.  “Set Free” is co-written by Redman, Tomlin, Ingram, and Ben Fielding.  Stanfill leads Hillsong’s “Forever Reign.”  There is also a little nod toward the hymn tradition on this record.  The chorus of “Lord, I Need You” very briefly touches on the text and melodic line of the 1872 hymn by Annie Hawks, “I Need Thee Every Hour.”  I’m also excited to see the maturation of the songwriters with texts which “sound” like the expression of the biblical Psalms.  Kristian Stanfill’s “Always” is a weaving of several psalms (like 121 and 130) which give voice to lament in worship.

Some songs on the album, such as “Lord, I Need You,” “Carry Your Name,” and “Constant,” are deeply gospel-centered and Christ-saturated.  The text of  “Lord, I Need You” is doubly praiseworthy because it highlights Christ’s righteousness, not our own triumph, the latter being a nagging theme sometimes found in modern worship:

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
And where You are, Lord, I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

Likewise, I appreciate the opening line of Crowder’s “Sometimes”:

Sometimes every one of us feels
Like we’ll never be healed
Sometimes

Modern worship needs to rest in these moments of lamentation more often, like the Psalms do.  The song carries quite a progression that one often doesn’t see in one hymn:

It begins in individual lamentation:

Sometimes every one of us aches
Like we’ll never be saved
Sometimes

It progresses to hope:

When we’ve given up
Let Your healing come
When there’s nothing left
Let Your healing come
Til we’re rising up
Let Your healing come

It moves to adoration:

It’s Your love that we adore
It’s like a sea without a shore
We’re lost in You
We’re lost in You

It moves to consecration and mission:

Where You go, we will follow
Oh, God send me

“All My Fountains” is an interesting expansion on that phrase taken from an under-appreciated psalm (Psalm 87), an eschatological song about the children of Zion and the joy of being in the protection and presence of God.  Knowing the psalm gives great context for the joy of “All My Fountains”:

He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
The LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious things are said of you, city of God...
Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,
 and the Most High himself will establish her.”

The LORD will write in the register of the peoples:
“This one was born in Zion.”

As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”   (Psalm 87 [NIV])

The first three songs are calls to worship, songs of exaltation.  “Symphony” lifts the eyes similar to the opening lines of “How Great is Our God,” with its Psalm 19-like first verse:

Shining wonders, fields of splendor
How they sing Your symphony
The deepest oceans, rising mountains
How they sing Your symphony

There is a strong emphasis throughout the album (which is typical of modern worship) of finding God’s special manifestation in the moment of musical worship.  “Waiting Here for You” sings,

And we’re desperate for Your presence
All we need is You

“All My Fountains” cries,

Come on, rain down on us,
Rain down on us, Lord

It has always been a part of the modern worship ethos to seek God’s special manifestation in the moment of singing.  Many worship songs ask for that very thing, saying something like, “as we sing, come meet us here.”  I wonder, with such a heavy emphasis on the presence of God in music, whether modern worship has steered us away from seeing how the presence of God is also (and perhaps better) manifested in other elements of worship like the Lord’s Table.  A gentle reminder to those of us who love and appreciate the vitality of modern worship is that the Scriptures testify and the history of the Church’s worship corroborates the reality that God chooses to manifest Himself most acutely in the Lord’s Supper, not in singing.  But, unfortunately, modern worship movements like Passion have been at least a small step removed from corporate worship of the local church, acting more like parachurch worship movements than core expressions of Christ’s church (interesting sidenote: Passion City Church has launched as a Passion-offshoot in Atlanta). While I’m all for encouraging generations to gather, be inspired, and rise up for ministry (Passion is a movement targeting the specific demographic of college and young adults), I wonder whether Passion’s influence on the Church has at least in a small way led evangelicalism more toward missing what uniquely happens in worship when we celebrate the sacrament together.

It is encouraging to see the theological jab in “Spirit Fall.”  Often times, simple songs of the Spirit are nebulous and do not highlight the roles that the Spirit plays.  Here, we have a very specific call for the Holy Spirit to act:

Oh, come
Magnify the Son
Savior of the world
The hope for everyone

The Spirit’s job isn’t just to give us goosebumps and overlay an emotional blanket on our hearts during worship.  The Spirit has come to bear witness to the Son, to herald the gospel, and to illumine Christ to us.  To my mind, this is what gives this simple song some uniqueness in the modern worship expression.  Personally, I am not usually drawn to more experiential songs, but this one attracts me because of its theological angle.

“Set Free” is an exciting song intended to get bodies moving:

And we’ll dance, dance
Dance in Your freedom
Oh, Your glorious freedom
Forevermore, forevermore

Perhaps because it’s more of a “dance” number than a “sing” number, the text-writing is a bit more loose.  I often encourage worship leaders to hold up as a criterion for song-selection the idea of logical cohesion (see my article “How I Choose Songs for Corporate Worship”).  Where is the point at which words and phrases move from being “impressionistic” to random?  I wonder whether “Set Free” teeters on this tipping point:

Joy, joy, unspeakable joy
Hope like never before
You came for us
You are our freedom

Love, love, unshakeable love
We shall over come, we will never give up
We lift a shout, we lift a shout
Everyone singing

Come on, come on now, we’ve got a new song
Come on, come on now, a song of liberty
Let the world hear heaven’s melody
This is the shout of the hearts You’ve set free

There is a conceptual glue which holds these statements together, certainly, but the text is awfully loose.  I’m not totally against it, but I want to continually raise the question that many do not: Should we not pause to ponder the fact that, while standing in the rich history of hundreds of years of Christian worship, we are the first to express words in this way, so loosely hung together?

I’m also interested in discussing the phrase, “dance in your freedom.”  For as popular a phrase as this is in modern worship, there aren’t many Scriptural parallels to it.  In the Bible, certainly there is dancing.  And a major theme of the gospel certainly is freedom.  And yet if you do a Bible Gateway search of the words and phrases, “dance freedom,” “dancing freedom,” and “dance free,” at least in the NIV, no matches are found.  Where did this phrase and idea get so popular for modern worship?  Does it have its roots in David’s naked, “undignified” worship?  Is it an attempt to encourage that attitude of heart?  It is not at all bad to strive for bodily freedom in worship; God deserves our all.  Dancing is an expression of worship, of course.  But where did we come up with this phrase, and what is its meaning and purpose?  I simply want to question its prevalence in our modern hymnody. 

Because of Passion's incredible influence over evangelical worship (in many ways, they are trend-setters) they must be open to scrutiny and questions like those above.  Still, Here For You contains nothing off-course theologically, and will no doubt leave a positive mark on the landscape of modern worship.

Great Critique of the Crowder Worship Conference

In his Christianity Today article, arts pastor W. David O. Taylor shares his insights from his time as a presenter and participator in Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference.  (I keep posting about this conference because I believe it's a significant marker in modern church music history.)

Here's some dialogue with a few quotes from the article:

You know you are at a worship conference sponsored by David Crowder when a fog machine kicks in and gobo lights wash the stage in color while the Welcome Wagon sings an exquisitely spare version of "Hail to the Lord's Anointed." It makes you wonder what the Moravian James Montgomery (1771-1854), author of the hymn, would have thought.

Love it.  Gobos + Montgomery = my cup of ancient-modern tea.  (How's that for consumeristic?)

The bounty of "I live for you" and "I'm gonna give my praise to you" songs kept reminding me that me, myself and I were engaged in something terribly important right then. After a while, as my grandma might say, I plum wore out. I got tired of me. But for those of us who allergically react to the wealth of I-songs, we need to remember that the Psalter includes a surplus of first-person singular prayers.

Amen.  But Taylor also provides a good counterpoint to keep the I-pendulum from swinging too far:

The British theologian David Ford explains the Psalter's dynamic well. He observes, "The Psalmist's 'I' accommodates a vast congregation of individuals and groups down the centuries around the world today.

The "I" in worship must still (and, biblically, was always intended to) be a corporate "I."  That's worth chewing on.

In an e-mail prior to the conference, Crowder shared with me a concern about rock music. He asked, "Is the pop-rock song 'disposable', as many suggest, and if so, what does that mean about basing our congregational singing on such a thing?" One might ask the same thing about the pop-rock musician. Does the stage-centric, unidirectional, heroic-leader, "passive"-audience, shout-fest, heart-on-the-sleeves culture of pop-rock music militate against healthy worship practices? Maybe. But not necessarily.

I agree.  Too many critics of modern worship believe these things are necessary evils rather than potential evils.  Heart, heart, heart.  It's encouraging to me that Crowder is thinking deeply enough about the nature of pop music to ask the question he asks.  Kenneth Myers would be proud...though still unappreciative of Crowder's art. ;)

If you throw a David Crowder into the Louie Giglio mix, you get the latest iteration of evangelical history: Wesley and Wesley, Moody and Sankey, Graham and Barrows, Giglio and Crowder. You get a classic pattern of preacher and musician, working together to bring the church to a renewed encounter with the living God.

Brilliant observation.  And this, folks, is why knowing history is so valuable.  There is nothing new under the sun, and perhaps the "old" ways aren't as outdated and irrelevant as we thought, huh?  This may be a stretch, though, given that almost nothing Crowder has produced post-Illuminate is congregational material. It's not a criticism of what Crowder has done.  It's just an observation.  Sankey and Barrows may have been performers in their own right, but they are known for their contribution to hymnody, not solo material.  Crowder's on the path of being remembered as a contributor to the latter, not the former.  (For what it's worth, the Giglio-Tomlin pairing more closely parallels the historical recapitulation, but Tomlin wasn't at this conference.)

The temptation at a conference like this is to be cynical and judgmental. Cynicism says these people are phony. Judgmentalism says these people are doing it wrongly. But I beg to differ. I found a lot of songwriters who humbly seek to provide the church with good worship music.

Would that more modern worship critics arrive here.  So much of what fuels the church disunity on these issues is the absence of a generosity of spirit.

Bifrost Arts from a Mainstream Worship Perspective

Check out how one blogger described their experience of joining with Bifrost Arts in worship at the David Crowder Fantastical Church Music Conference.  It's reveals how far people like us have to go in the quest to bridge the worlds of historicity and liturgy with mainstream evangelical worship:

Bitfrost Arts, a hymn-sing group from…well, I can’t remember if it was from Virginia or Missouri, but regardless, their sound was at the same time familiar and mysterious.  Instead of relying on the large square projection screens to prompt singing, Bitfrost Arts had printed out hymn-sing sheets, which really served more as an order of worship, complete with responsive readings and liturgical leadings.

I say that the sound was familiar in that most of what we sang were (somewhat) familiar hymns of the historical church.  The 2500 attendees were accompanied by a 15-person choir (comprised of randomly selected Baylor students on the quad), a drummer, guitar and bassist, as well as a full-sized harp.

I say the sound was mysterious in that the act of singing the old hymns with 2500 voices created a passionate sound which echoed off the walls with the same effect as if we had been standing in St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Archaic yet relevant, to sing these songs was to take a fully engaged step back into the historical church.  And the harp just added the appropriate eerie/surreal layer to blanket it all.

Words or phrases that intrigue me are:

• how they spell "Bifrost" :)
• "a hymn-sing group" (?)
• "archaic yet relevant" (I know what they mean...not sure "archaic" is the right word, though)
• "a fully engaged step back into the historical church" (true...there are many instances of disengaged steps back into the historical church)

Kauflin Shares Insights on Crowder's Church Music Conference

Bob Kauflin, Sovereign Grace pastor and worship leader, author of Worship Matters, and blogger at worshipmatters.com, reflects on his time participating in Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference last weekend.  As the time was drawing near for this event, I posted about why this conference was significant, especially from the perspective of the hymns movement.

See Kauflin's whole post, but here are some of my takeaways:

• Isaac Wardell and Bifrost Arts "led us in a low-key but engaging time of singing that was built on a more formal liturgy than most of us were probably used to. I thought they did an effective job showing how a liturgy made up of more historic elements, when well led and properly explained, can really serve to focus our eyes on the person and work of Christ."
• According to Kauflin, it sounds like Rob Bell was a little gray on the doctrine of the atonement.  Hmm...
• Four quotables from the "Why Do We Sing" panel discussion:
  --“Singing is a way we give ourselves away.”
  --“We sing to remember and re-member.”
  --“We are separate from the world and singing helps us remember that.”
  --“Singing involves relationship, faithfulness, and trusting in the work of Christ.

David Crowder: Exhibit A on Why Pop Rock Can Be Legitimate Art

I run in circles that consistently expose me to those with the view that so-called “high art” is the only legitimate art.  Everything else is at best a weak attempt at art-making or at worst worthless rubbish, so they say. Kenneth Myers’ schema, which has received heavy praise and usage among high-art-only advocates, is usually, in some form, the philosophical crux of their argument (whether or not they are conscious of Myers).

Myers wrote the influential book All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes and continues to run a terrific program over at Mars Hill Audio, which promotes thoughtfulness in the spheres of church and culture.  The schema encourages making a strong distinction between “high,” “folk,” and “pop(ular)” art, toward the end of avoiding consumerism and a host of other popular cultural idols. 

When I first read Myers, I was sold out to it.  The more I have been a practitioner-philosopher rather than merely a philosopher (the latter was my state when I read All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes), the more I’ve come to realize that Myers’ taxonomy is too wooden.  He has offered a schema that allows a good deal of analysis (perhaps not possible without it), but it ultimately does a disservice to our thought about art and music if we use his categories without some strong caveats.

Ultimately, I’ve come to the conclusion that the high/folk/pop distinctions have boundaries which are far too porous to offer us a lot of analytical fruit.  The reason I’ve arrived at this conclusion is because, post-Myers, in my return to entertaining the notion that pop music could perhaps have something of value to contribute to culture artistically, I found myself observing more carefully that not all “pop music” is the same.  I’ve been recently enjoying and appreciating David Crowder Band’s Church Music in my car on my way to and from work, and I believe that it provides good counter-evidence to Myers’ stark boundaries.

Church Music is a highly-programmed neo-disco, techno album.  And it’s beautiful.  I’d like to hone in on track 13: “Church Music (Dance!).”  At first listen, you’ve got a disco beat with an opening techno talk box / vocoder melody line.  If anything sounds “pop,” this is it.  Myers would probably listen to the first fifteen seconds and immediately throw it into his pop-category, with all its nasty implications (ephemeral, gimmicky, used-then-tossed, etc.).  And, by all standard definitions, the song (along with the album) is pop—programmed, highly-produced, edited to perfection, rhythmic, rock-oriented.  But is it throw-away material?  Is it dismissible?  Or does it have artistic value?  I think the latter.  Take the opening verse:

Dance if you're wounded
Dance if you're torn in two
Dance broken open
Dance with nothing to lose

This is actually an incredibly profound biblical message, terrifically enhanced by its musical setting.  I recall a sermon on Isaiah 54 by Tim Keller, who pointed out how Isaiah’s prophecy was a shocking statement:

"Sing, O barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,"
says the LORD.  (Isaiah 54:1)

Why would God admonish one of the most culturally-cursed members of ancient society—a barren woman—to sing?  Why would God tell the disgraced to rejoice?  Because the kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom.  Kingdom values teach us “blessed are the poor” and “blessed are those who mourn.”  God's reign means that present and future blessings accompany the weak and the downcast.  The beauty of Crowder’s artistry here is illustrating these kingdom values through the creative interplay of text and music.  The disco-pop style is playful and light-hearted.  It is music which sounds like it is intended to be danced to, not listened to (“used,” as Myers would say).  It’s got a driving four-on-the-floor beat and funky electric rhythm guitar motif.  The bass line spends much of the song in the typical funk-progression of step-wise octaves.  They sing “dance” with a bluesy vocal scoop.  But who are they admonishing to dance?  The wounded.  The broken.  The downtrodden. The song’s end betrays its kingdom-intentions:

Change the world
Change your soul
Fill it up
Here we go
Here we go

Oh His is a story that saves
Majestic feel
Feel it at a steady pace

Sung with a syncopated R&B/techno rhythm and harmony, it’s gripping.  It’s Isaiah 54, disco-style.  And because it’s disco-style, the message is all the more visceral.  And isn’t that what good musical art does when wedded with words?  Doesn’t good musical art enhance words, even say and expand on words in ways that words can’t?

I’m sure the astute aesthetic philosopher and art-thinker would poke holes in my implied definition of “art,” but I’m not trying to say anything too profound here.  I’m just trying to point out that, in this pop song, there exists sophistication, thoughtfulness, beauty, profundity, and truth—these are some of the ingredients of art, are they not?

Not all pop can be dismissed.  And when Christians do pop, it’s not always “aping culture,” as some say.  Sometimes, it’s fresh…and redemptive…and downright beautiful.

Crowder and the Hymns Movement Converge

The David Crowder Band is hosting a Church Music Conference at Baylor University in Waco, TX, September 30-October 2.  This is exciting on many levels.  I’m pumped to see the name of a Friday breakout workshop: “A New Old Vision for Worship – Liturgical Spirituality for Post-Modern-Semi-Reformed-Hipsters.”

Here's what is truely exciting: more signs of the subversive growth of influence of the hymns movement are on the horizon.  The David Crowder Band (for those who didn’t know) is THE name in modern worship.  Of course, they’re a performance band.  Of course, their most recent records really haven’t been “worship albums.”  Still, Crowder emerged out of the flagship modern worship movement—Passion—and is still tethered to it.  Therefore, this event with Crowder is significant.  Who’s on the roster?  You’d never know from the up-front promotion, but tucked in more detailed advertising, we hear of two names:

The Welcome Wagon

BiFrost Arts

Check out their music some time.  The first thing you notice is that, in the rock genre, they are the polar opposite of Crowder—under-produced, anti-digital, pitchy, lo-fi, quirky, indie, pop-orchestral…Sufjan Stephens-esque.  The second thing you notice is that the text-material for their songs are either old church hymns or songs which are bathed in the thought and life of historic hymnody.

But actually…this isn’t such a far leap from Crowder.  Much of Crowder’s material beyond the radio-friendly hits leans in a direction that shows that the treasure-troll-haired singer appreciates music akin to what BiFrost and the Wagon are doing.

But more is going on here than mere musical appreciation.  People often think that all modern worship has sold out to novelty with no sense of connection to the historic songs of the church.  It’s just not true.  The Passion movement put out Hymns: Ancient and Modern, and littering all of Crowder’s material are hymns as old as the Greek “Phos Hilaron” and as new as “Heaven Came Down.”  Make no mistake.  Crowder loves him some hymns.   And Crowder is obviously appreciating artists like BiFrost Arts and The Welcome Wagon, not only for their musical innovations, but for their textual focus.

Still, this goes even deeper.  The Welcome Wagon and BiFrost Arts are not only intermingled with one another, but they are wedded with the heavy-hitters in the hymns movement—Indelible Grace.  Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken’s connection and collaboration with these two groups are case in point.  They’ve got denominational ties, too: Welcome Wagon’s leader is Vito Aiuto, an ordained PCA minister; Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace is ordained in that denomination, as well.  Many of the artists associated with both groups are PCA die-hards.

All this to say: We have the hymns movement, perhaps for the first time, being welcomed in to a bona fide mainstream evangelical worship event.  Just like Indelible Grace’s Ryman Hymnsing, this is a moment to plant a flag in the sand as a marker of the growing influence of the grass roots hymns movement.  Thank God.

Review of Passion's New Worship Album, Awakening

Passion, Awakening (2010, Various Artists)

In my opinion, the Passion folks have drawn the clearest line of demarcation between the stylistic eras of “contemporary worship” (80s and 90s) and “modern worship” (late 90s to the present).  I remember when Passion ’98 hit the scene.  The songs felt fresh, youthful, and different from its predecessors, and from that time forward, we watched the blossoming of the solo careers of these Passion artists (Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, David Crowder, Charlie Hall, etc.) as well as the arrival of even newer waves of modern worship (e.g. Hillsong United).  This most recent album of Passion’s shows stylistic and textual progression from their 1998 starting point.

OVERALL SUMMARY

Worth getting it?  If you’re buying this album for personal edification, get it.  You will be encouraged.  If you’re a worship leader looking for congregational material, save money and just buy the few songs worth evaluating (see the song-by-song analysis below).

Songs I would most likely end up using in worship: “You Alone Can Rescue” (Redman), “Our God” (Tomlin).

Accessibility: As usual, their sung keys favor tenors and altos (singing in nearly the same vocal range), alienating the bass and soprano vocal range.  But good worship leaders should have the musical ability to re-set these songs in accessible keys (and if they don’t, they should think about getting some musical training or else choosing a different vocation…because they’re not serving the church well when they lead these songs in the recorded keys).  Once the songs are set in congregation-friendly keys, the majority of them are accessible and singable for most congregations.

Theological depth: Passion still cannot stand up to the great hymns of the faith, but the longer they’re around the more their songs progress to being God-centered rather than human-centered, with a stronger gospel focus.  There is still a lack of substantive reflection on one major part of the Christian experience—suffering.  Where one of my friends had described the texts and styles coming from Hillsong United as “adolescent,” I would comparatively describe this latest collection from Passion a bit more mature (20s, early 30s?) with some deeper songs that push the average upward.  Whether they know it or not, the Passion folks still reflect a charismatic/Pentecostal theological perspective in the way they choose to express, experience, and request God’s presence. 

Musicality: As always, superb.  I would characterize the style as modern, yet conservative, with a slight edge.  They are not as experimental with rhythm, electric guitar work, synth sounds, and song structure as, say, Hillsong United, but they aren’t remaining stuck in the same stylistic forms that they were using on the previous albums (I keep comparing them to Hillsong United, so it’s worth pointing out that United actually made it on this album).  Musically, Tomlin’s “Our God” is enjoyable to me, especially for its bridge and musical interlude (see below).  The album is well-produced and polished, as always, and they’ve included more of the congregational “sound” (background voices) than in previous albums.  Probably because of the influence of Hillsong United, there are more congregational “whoa’s” (I don’t know what else to call them); they appear on several tracks.  I personally like this (to me they serve the biblical function of “shout of praise”) but I know that it seems to many in the church like pointless, rock-concert frivolity.  Still, could congregational “whoa’s” be the new version of call-and-response antiphonal singing?  Ancient-future, baby!

SONG-BY-SONG ANALYSIS

Awakening
It’s great to see two heavy-hitting worship songwriters (Chris Tomlin and Reuben Morgan) team up!  Here are the first two verses and chorus:

(V1) In our hearts Lord in this nation awakening
Holy Spirit we desire awakening

(V2) In Your presence in Your power awakening
For this moment in this hour awakening

(C) For You and You alone awake my soul
Awake my soul and sing
For the world You love Your will be done
Let Your will be done in me

This is a nice, simple call to worship song, with a gradual build into a surprisingly powerful second half.  Its theme comes from psalms like Psalm 57: “Awake, my soul!”, and it’s therefore a wonderful reminder that, left to ourselves, we are spiritually lethargic (dead, even) and need our soul awakened by an outside Force (in the non Starwarsian sense).  Later, there are hints of the gospel and expressions of the desire for not just subjective, individual “awakening,” but world-awakening:

Like the rising sun that shines…
From the darkness comes a light…
Like the rising sun that shines…
Only You can raise a life…

In our hearts, Lord
In the nations, awakening

While I don’t have anything against this song, it personally doesn’t “do” anything for me.  It might for others.  I’m open to using it, but it’s not top on my list.

Say, Say
This is one of those pump-you-up songs.  To me, it seems filled with loosely connected Christian-ese clichés. The chorus:

Say, say
Say you believe it
Sing for the whole world to hear it
We know, and we declare it
Jesus is King
Sing loud, sing like you mean it
We know, and we declare it
Jesus is King

(yelled) “Say, say!”

For me, there’s too much hype and not enough substance to offer it to my congregation.  If songs are going to pump you up, their rockin’ musical backdrop needs to be accompanied by some pretty strong gospel-reflection—God’s true Pump.  Without it, we’re just a deflated spiritual corpse, rotting “from the inside out” ;).  “Jesus is King” serves as a gospel-reflection, but it’s just too nebulous…not enough meat on the bones.

Our God
Here’s a mid-tempo song that really has a rockin’, Coldplay-influenced bridge section.  I dig it!  It focuses on God’s power in both performing miracles and saving sinners.  Its chorus is general, but exalting:

Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God, You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer
Awesome in power
Our God, our God

The bridge is empowering to the believer:

And if our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us?
And if our God is with us
Then who could stand against?

In a Hillsong-style eighth-note banging build, it climaxes in a beautiful, powerful instrumental section that would be fun for bands to play and musically fits the triumph of the text.  Though this song is rather loose and generic in its reflection, it is transcendent enough, and it musically floats my boat.  It’s on my radar, but I’m not chomping at the bit to introduce this one.  It is my second favorite song on the album.

How He Loves
Though I’ve used this song before, I don’t personally feel it’s good for corporate worship.  I’ll explain why in a future post.  It’s a great personal worship song, and this particular version is a bit more stripped down and raw than some other recorded renditions…which I appreciate.

Healing is in Your Hands
Christy Nockels has an incredible voice.  I wish I had half her ability.  It is versatile and very expressive.  It’s difficult to teach women to sing like this.  This song focuses on the wideness of God’s love for us and the healing the gospel brings.  It verges on performance-song because of its upper range and held notes in the chorus.  The song doesn’t jump out at me, though, for congregational use.

King of Heaven (Isaiah 61)
This is an interesting, up-beat, eschatologically-oriented song.  I’m appreciative that this song, like Brooke Fraser’s “Hosanna,” is bringing attention in corporate worship to the second advent of Christ and the implications for the church’s present mission.  We need more songs along these lines: 

(C1) We’ll sing the gospel to the poor
We’ll go to comfort those who mourn
You’ll put together what’s been torn
King of Heaven

For the simple reason that other songs with a view toward justice and the eschaton do a better job of being cohesive in message and implications (e.g. “Hosanna,” our “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending,” or Tim Hughes’ “God of Justice”), I’m inclined not to add this to my regular rotation of worship songs.

You Alone Can Rescue
THIS IS THE BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM.  This is from Matt Redman’s We Shall Not Be Shaken, which I reviewed over half a year ago.  When I wrote that review, this song was on the top of my favorites for corporate worship, but I ended up shelving it.  Its re-appearance on Awakening has renewed my zeal to use it.  It is God-centered, Christocentric, and soaked in the gospel.  The bridge moves me to tears.  I love this song.  It has “soli Deo gloria” written all over it.  Here it is, in its entirety:

(V1) Who O Lord could save themselves
Their own soul could heal?
Our shame was deeper than the sea
Your grace is deeper still

(V2) You O Lord have made a way
The great divide You healed
For when our hearts were far away
Your love went further still
Yes Your love goes further still

(C) And You alone can rescue
You alone can save
You alone can lift us from the grave
You came down to find us led us out of death
To You alone belongs the highest praise

(B) We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes
You're the giver of life

Where the Spirit of the Lord Is
Here’s the chorus:

We know where the Spirit of the Lord is
(Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty)
We know living in Your freedom
(Living in Your freedom we see Your glory)
We know where the Spirit of the Lord is
(Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty)
We're Yours and Yours is the kingdom (We are Yours)
Yours is the kingdom (Yours is the kingdom)

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m personally growing weary of modern worship songs that speak in nebulous terms about “freedom.”  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for true, Christ-bought, biblical freedom, but I get the sense more often than not in modern worship that when freedom-language is used, it gets truncated into an I’m-free-to-express-myself-however-I-want kind of vibe.  It seems to me that Paul’s phrase in 2 Corinthians 3:17 (from which the chorus of this song comes) gets abused in the context of worship.  Paul’s discussion of “freedom” in the larger context of that book and chapter involves a freedom to directly approach God the Father…but it’s not really addressing the context of corporate worship.  It’s speaking more personally, and even missionally.  Paul’s point seems to be that because God has so deeply reconciled us to Himself (He allows us full access to His presence!), we have a resulting ministry of reconciliation to deliver to the broken world.  The concept of being “free” in a corporate worship seems quite ancillary to the thrust of the passage.  Of course it is true that approaching the Father directly through Christ very much speaks to what is involved in the corporate worship experience for Christians, but this is NOT what Paul is addressing.  In summary, then, I don’t believe that this song is in theological error, but it is perpetuating an application, which, because of its frequency of “air time” in modern worship, might lead people to believe that the central thrust of the passage is worship.  This happens sometimes when short phrases from the Bible are quoted and re-quoted in worship songs…they take a life of their own and can confuse the Bible-reader about what that quote is truly talking about in its Scriptural context.

Where I see the concept of freedom abused in modern worship is in giving license to “express yourself how you want to.”  I’m not against this outright, but it does cater to American individualism, and, when encouraged in the corporate worship setting, lessens the corporate idea of worship and heightens individual experience.  Instead of corporate worship, “freedom” often produces a bunch of isolated worshipers, having a one-on-one experience with God…those worshipers just happen to be standing by several others who are also having a similar God-encounter. 

So despite the fact that this song rocks my face off, and despite the fact that it has a very cool antiphonal call-and-response between men and women in the chorus, I probably wouldn’t use this song in corporate worship.  Though perhaps I’ll change on that if someone convinces me I’m out to lunch (or buys me lunch).

Rise and Sing
Another pump-up song.  Fee really rocks this one out, complete with the aforementioned responsorial congregational “whoa’s.”  Stylistically, it’s punk-ish.  See the above thoughts on “Say, Say,” because they apply here, too.

Like a Lion
I like the musical themes in this song.  It’s beginning is reflective and helpfully preparatory (and it reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight”…a plus).  Its text is unique.  It reflects on the explosive love of our God, residing in our hearts like a lion. 

(V1) Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold to see a revolution somehow

(C) My God's not dead, He's surely alive
And He's living on the inside roaring like a lion

(V2) Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead I need a resurrection somehow

(Pre-C) Now I'm lost in Your freedom
Oh this world I'll overcome

(B) Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground with the sound of revival
Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground with the sound of revival

My problem with this song is that I’m not sure what it means.  It seems quite internal and subjective.  Biblically, God’s Lion-like qualities are for external purposes—dominating, ruling, conquering.  Of course all those things happen inside of us, but it seems that other biblical metaphors take over in those discussions.  Furthermore, “My God’s not dead, He’s surely alive, and He’s living on the inside” sounds a lot like the very subjective hymn line that does absolutely nothing for defending the faith:

You ask me how I know He lives
He lives within my heart!

(And just when you thought I had nothing bad to say about hymns!)  When you make a claim, “My God’s not dead,” you are entering the world of apologetics.  It is a response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous atheistic quip.  Unfortunately, like the line from “He Lives,” this song’s answer is subjective.  Of course my personal experience of God’s indwelling presence is enough to convince me of His existence, but it would not be how I would choose to respond to someone defending atheism.  It would most likely fit in a cumulative case of other more rational arguments.  I know I’m rabbit-trailing here, but I’m convinced that worship leaders are like dieticians, and whatever they feed their flock will shape the health of the people’s souls.  This song just doesn’t have enough to commend it for me to overlook the odd non-apologetic it contains.

With Everything

Wow!  Hillsong United on a Passion album!  Two worlds collide!  Is this some kind of modern worship monopoly--a centralization of power, seeking to overthrow all lesser contenders?  Are they threatened by the ever-growing influence of the hymns movement to the point of needing to rally the troops?  I wish…and I jest.  I like this song.  It is powerful and moving, even if a bit disjointed.  It ends with congregational “whoa’s,” the high note being a held-out G# (!).  It caps off the album with a sense of unceasing worship.  A friend who attended Passion 2010 told me that United was surprised by the congregational mass who kept singing the “whoa’s,” and the band was joyfully “forced” back into building the song up again.  It must have been powerful to worship with such eager participants. 

For Christ and His Church,
Zac