Newfrontiers Leadership Conference - International Conference 2004: The Passion Of God's Son

Reviewed by Tom Lennie

A passion-laden experience recorded live before 3,000 leaders/students from 40 nations. Similar in sound and feel to other recordings from Brighton's Church On The Rock and indeed to Stoneleigh output, worship leaders include stalwarts Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds and Louise Fellingham. Fine modern anthems of praise and worship, nearly all songs are quite fresh (less than two/three years old), though one of my favourites stems from 1990; this the eminently worshipful "The Grace Of God Upon My Life". ("It is unending, unfailing, unlimited, unmerited....") Another of the numerous fine moments comes when little-known Evan Rogers leads on his "Greatest Day" hymn. Virtually all tracks originate in the UK (Oakley, Redman, Layzell, etc), though, strangely, none of the songs Louise leads on are Fellingham-composed, while Townend is a co-writer on just two tracks, eg, the resurrection hymn "See What A Morning" - destined to become a sure Easter classic. My only concern is that there's nothing ultimately new here - it's all very similar to previous recordings from this team. Still it's good music, truly congregationally user-friendly - and the songs are bound to prove highly popular.