Reviewed by Tony Cummings

To actually see an appeal, on the inside sleeve of this album, for unknown worship songwriters to send in demos of their new worship songs to the source company of this album is one of the most heartening things I've seen in the worship scene for years. For too long one or two giant publishing outfits have so monopolised the scene that they've put all their album and songbook resources behind the select few who have "names" and/or Bible week profile behind them and seemingly ignored hundreds of grassroots local church ministries in Britain's churches. Clearly Kevin Mayhew's World Wide Worship are determined to rectify this depressing situation and this album series is a good demonstration of what could follow. For alongside neatly produced studio renditions of songs by big name worship songwriters like Graham Kendrick, Reuben Morgan, Brian Doerksen and Don Moen (the latter's . "Hear Our Prayer (Our Father)" is treated to a fine reading by the soulful-voiced Sarah Erasmus) you've also got a shoal of material from still-to-be-established sources every bit as good in quality as their famous counterparts. First play ensured I'll be returning to Paul Critchley's "Draw Us Near", Paul Banderet's "Send Your Word O God" and Richard Worley's "Trusting You In Every Trial", the latter a beautiful, wistful declaration of trust. I would urge all worshiping churches looking for fresh material and all young songwriters wanting to benchmark their compositions against what God is doing in today's church, to investigate this series. Long may it continue.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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