Reviewed by Mike Francis

Christ For The Nations UK (not to be confused with Reinhard Bonnke's Christ For All Nations movement) is a Bible training centre in Sussex which is an offshoot of the Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. Nine of the 11 songs featured here were written by Keith Shackleton, who also did the production and engineering. On this evidence he is well versed in the art of songwriting, and it's good to see original material instead of playing safe and recording cover versions of other people's hits. Alas, some of the songs are dragged out a bit and might have made more impact if they'd been pruned somewhat, and despite this being a live recording, there's a rather flat feel to proceedings, with not a lot of atmosphere. One of the two songs Keith didn't write seems to be an obligatory part of any worship album these days, "Be Thou My Vision". Sadly it's sung straight, and slow, and in strict tempo, and it suffers as a result. One name in the credits that harks back a good few years is that of Rob Newey, writer of much easy listening gospel music. It's good to hear his distinctive voice again. Summing up ,the plus points outweigh the minuses - but only just.

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