Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Chicago's Willow Creek Community Church has been one of the success stories for church growth and through their seeker sensitive services they have begun to influence churches elsewhere. The name of the game is to produce songs that unsaved visitors to the church can relate to. Therefore, a lot of these songs are jargon free and designed to be part of a presentation of worship rather than congregational. The first part of the album consists of songs that testify to the goodness of God and the fulfilment that comes from knowing him before moving on to songs that express love and thankfulness, it's slickly produced from soft pop in a Huey Lewis style through to big ballads but it never really comes alive. The highlight is the album's closer, "An Audience Of One" which is a song of devotion to God which allows the listener to pledge their life to pleasing God. This is music created to appeal to the American white middle class section of the community and draw them into the church and on that level it works. What we need is for more British musicians to create more radical music that will appeal to the unchurched in Britain.

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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