Worship Works Review

So hot on the heels of the article in the Methodist Recorder about Musical Man comes a review in Christianity about Worship Works:

Obviously, the review isn't exactly what we would like, but it is amazing that a self-published book from an organisation with no distributor or publisher would be reviewed in Christianity in the first place.

Firstly, the description of the book is good, and makes it sound interesting.

Secondly, the critique saying that 'our examples and approaches are quite behind in terms of musical styles and references' is, to be honest, entirely fair.  We did choose examples for the book that were more Songs of Fellowship 1 and 2 than book 5.

Perhaps the reviewer hasn't fully appreciated the aims of the book.  As a ministry we are in a privileged but difficult position.  Roger's musicals appeal to churches that aren't particularly high-brow, and that love using music to tell the story of Jesus.  This means that we are rarely invited into those bigger, more progressive churches with plenty of resources that can write their own shows and can put them on with amazing AV and rock bands.  So we're not aiming at them.

This book is aimed squarely at more traditional churches with maybe a choir or singing group, an organist and possibly even a guitarist.  We are starting close to ground zero, assuming they may not even have Mission Praise, let alone the 'combined' or even 'complete' version!  There are some chapters on creative and prophetic worship that we hope will help those who are 'more progressive', but we are carefully sticking close to the calling and congregation God has led us to over the years.

So thank you, Christianity Magazine, for even noticing us!  And may God continue to use Worship Works as people read and engage with it.