Audience of One

Awesome God (a somewhat tardy review)

Awesome God is a CD from Sovereign Grace Ministries (for those who know about these kind of things, that’s C.J. Mahaney’s organisation) aimed at 7-12 year-old kids. I help out with the 9-11s at my church, and have also helped with the 7-9s (and have a seven-year-old cousin) so this seemed like something I could review.

I’d been getting increasingly frustrated with some of the kids’ songs we’d been singing in church. A lot of them seemed to be of the “Jesus, you’re my best friend” tradition, with nothing in them about why he should be and what else he should be (salvation and Lord respectively). (One of the songs is in fact called “Jesus, you’re my best friend” and is actually very difficult to sing.) There’s nothing wrong with singing about Jesus being your best friend, but songs are to “teach and admonish” (Collosians 3:16) also. It’s all very well singing “Jesus, you are my best friend; you will always be; and nothing will ever change that”, but when faced at school with non-Christians challenging your faith, unless you’re remembering why he’s your best friend you’re not going to be particularly encouraged. I like having good Christian songs and hymns stuck on my brain because it helps me remember what God is like and what he’s done. Songs like the above do not help.

So, to Awesome God. Well, immediately the lyrics attracted me. This is sound doctrine and catchy tunes which had me singing along and singing after the CD had finished. So far so good. However, I’m not sure all of these songs will work so well in a congregational setting. They’re almost too pop-song-like for their own good – catchy, but with confusing pauses designed to embarrass those who don’t know the song too well. Some would actually be quite tricky for your average kid to sing – I’m musical, so have almost no problem, but the best congregational songs are singable by the majority and I’m not sure these ones always will be. (Then again, I’d criticise the majority of songs we currently sing in our church along the same lines. I guess I’m just hard to please in this area.)

As to the album as something for kids to listen to (in the car etc.) I found myself feeling far more critical than I wanted to be. I wanted to really like this CD. I wanted to write a glowing review, but instead I found myself finding it slightly irritating after a bit. The reason is that it sounds, to my British-indie-rock-loving ear, too American. I hate using American in a bad way, but there’s just some typically American music that I don’t like. Production decisions on this album were very much American. This isn’t a bad thing for some people – for me, I found it very hard to recommend this recording, though I would probably recommend the songs.

All in all, kudos to Bob Kauflin and the team for wanting to do something like this. I like almost all of the lyrics (but I’m slightly fed up with church songs going on and on and on and on so Forever God’s chorus grated slightly), I think the songs are good for the musical and have no idea how an average church congregation (especially one full of kids) would cope, and I guess I’m just not a fan of the American pop-rock production though I can appreciate it’s well done.

To people chosing kids’ songs, either get hold of the album, or download the lead sheets and try them out on a piano. I’ll probably send the CD onto Richard Simpkin (music director at St Helen’s) for him to review next – he is the person whose opinion I value most on matters of music in church. To be honest, I’m not really qualified to write this review, but if Richard ever writes a review I’ll be sure to mention it here.

(There. Finally, I’ve got around to writing this review. It’s been far too long. Apologies to you all.)

Currently listening to: Sovereign One – Sovereign Grace Music

Matthew @ 16:20, March 25, 2006 to Reviews | Comments (2)