Various

by Jenny Bennett

What began in 1985 as an intimate Bible study on the campus of Baylor University is now a multi-faceted organization that has really become more of a movement than just one entity. Conferences for thousands of college students and leaders across the nation and worship CDs produced under its own record label, sixsteps, are just two of the fruits yielded from founder Louie Giglio’s vision of Passion in 1995.

sixsteps’ most recent project God of This City, featuring Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, David Crowder*Band and others, was recorded live during Passion 2007 and is a must for any praise & worship music library. Produced by Nathan Nockels, the project’s highlights include his wife Christy’s rendition of Hillsong’s Hosanna, Charlie Hall’s You Are God and Steve Fee’s We Shine, which was co-written by Giglio and has become popular at Christian youth retreats and contemporary worship gatherings over the last year. 

You can sense the crowd’s passion when Chris Tomlin sings “our God is a God who saves” in the album opener Let God Arise, and when Matt Redman shouts “We’re gonna shout for the Glory of God in this place!” in a British accent that’s barely detectable in his singing voice, before launching into the high-energy Dancing Generation, you can visualize the dancing for joy that must have ensued. Matt and Chris are the biggest contributors to the album, with three and four tunes respectively.

The album could almost be the soundtrack to the 2008 GMA Dove Awards; four out of seven of the artists represented are nominated in at least one category, as well as producer Nathan Nockels for Producer of the Year. The compilation’s dramatic closer Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), co-written by Tomlin and Giglio, is nominated for Song of the Year and Worship Song of the Year.

Group of the Year nominee David Crowder*Band helps round out the project with O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing and another stand-out track, The Glory of it All. Relative newcomer Kristian Stanfill adds interest with Beautiful Jesus. A host of band members and additional singers (including CeCe Winan’s children Alvin III and Ashley Love), along with the element of worship participation from the crowd, this body of works is sure to awaken, in all who have ears to hear, a desire to bring praises to God. And it's clear that is the goal.

sixsteprecords.com
Passion Conference web site

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