Spotify Albums of the Month – April

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Mark Heath

I have been enjoying listening to a variety of new albums on Spotify again this month, so here’s another round of recommendations for you to try out.

Jars of Clay – The Long Fall Back to Earth.

This album was released only a couple of weeks ago, so it provided the perfect opportunity for me to check out yet another popular and successful Christian artist that thus far had passed me by. It took me a few listens before I really got into it. I would describe it as a consistently good album with no real stand-out tracks. There are lots of gentle, atmospheric melodic tracks interspersed with a few more upbeat numbers, and shades of Coldplay here and there. My favourite tracks on the album are Hero and Heart.

Jon Foreman – Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer EPs.

Jon Foreman is lead singer and main songwriter with Switchfoot, but last year he completed a series of four solo EPs, one for each of the four seasons, with a more acoustic and stripped-down backing than the Switchfoot albums. The quality of lyrics is high, with some songs telling poignant stories, and several based on Scriptural passages. The backing is mostly acoustic guitar with various orchestral instruments quietly in the background adding interest.

Here’s my pick of the tracks from each album. Fall: Equally Skilled. Winter: Behind Your Eyes. Spring: Your Love is Strong. Summer: Instead of a Show

Chris Tomlin – Hello Love

Having enjoyed his last two releases (See the Morning and Arriving) I had high hopes for this album, but must confess to being a little disappointed. Its not that there is anything ‘wrong’ with it per se, it just seems too similar to everything that has gone before.

Opening tracks Sing, Sing, Sing and Jesus, Messiah essentially carry right on from where he left off before. Perhaps he would benefit from working with a different producer and band on future albums. I’m not sure that many of the tracks will have the enduring appeal of previous congregational worship hits such as Indescribable and How Great is Our God. He covers Bluetree’s God of this City, which gives extra exposure to an excellent song. The title track Love, complete with Watoto Children’s Choir would be more suited as a theme tune to a forthcoming Lion King movie.

Jimmy Needham – Not Without Love.

Christianity Today magazine gave this album a rave review and even compared his passionate lyrics to Keith Green. I decided it was worth a listen even though the “jazz-inflected acoustic pop” is not quite my normal choice of music. The opening track champions the apologetic power of love over mere words and arguments, but its hard to be provocative when your making a point everyone agrees with. There’s a nice mixture of moods. My favourite tracks are Before and After and The Author. The spoken closing track is certainly passionate, but in my view a little overwrought. I skipped it on subsequent listens. Overall a refreshing change from my normal listening habits, but probably only one for occasional listening.

PS Apologies to any readers in regions where you can’t access Spotify. I’m sure there are equivalent ways of checking these albums out.

Book Review – The Message of the Resurrection (Paul Beasley-Murray)

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Mark Heath

There are not a lot of books available on the resurrection at the moment (although I know of several due to come out later this year), but I did have this volume in the Bible Speaks Today Themes series on my shelf, and decided to tackle it over the Easter period.

The approach Beasley-Murray takes is to work through the New Testament, expounding most of the key passages dealing with the resurrection. He starts with the gospels, devoting one chapter to each. He shows how each gospel author brings a different emphasis to the narrative, as well as being careful to show the unity within the diversity. He points out that many preachers end up preaching more or less exactly the same sermon every Easter Sunday, which perhaps is why the theme of the resurrection is underemphasised – it can be hard to present it in a fresh way. One good way to start is to preach from each gospel separately, and focus on the distinctives of that particular account.

Preaching the resurrection without the cross without the resurrection leads to triumphalism; but preaching the cross without the resurrection leads nowhere: it is a ‘dead’ end.

As for apologetics, he does not systematically set out a case for the historicity of the resurrection, but deals with the evidence and objections as they come up through the gospel accounts.

He then moves on to the writings of Paul, obviously starting with 1 Cor 15, but moving on to tackle 2 Cor 4:7-5:10, Col 1:3-4 and 1 Thess 4:13-18. This of course moves from teaching about the resurrected Christ to showing the implications of the resurrection for us as believers. Then follows a chapter on the witness to the resurrection of “Peter and his friends”. This starts by going through various proclamations on the resurrection in the book of Acts, and then on to passages in Hebrews, 1 Peter and Revelation.

The next chapter is entitled “the witness of other voices to the resurrection”. Interestingly this brings us back to various passages in Paul’s writings, but identifying those passages thought by commentators to be citing early Christian hymns and creeds (Phil 2 being perhaps the most famous example). By this he shows how central the resurrection was to even the earliest Christians. He particularly links it to the Lordship of Jesus – his resurrection is the basis for his exaltation as Lord. And not just Lord of individual believers (though he is that), but Lord of everything and everywhere – Lord of the world.

In confessing Jesus as Lord the early Christians were not in the first place declaring that ‘Jesus is Lord of my life’; they were declaring that Jesus was ‘Lord of the world’.

There is a final brief chapter on the response of various theologians to the resurrection. He starts by listing influential voices who denied or doubted the resurrection (from Rudolf Bultmann through to Bishop of Durham David Jenkins), before surveying those who have written in defence of its historicity (from George Beasley-Murray – perhaps the author’s father? through to Tom Wright).

The amount of material this book covers makes it a very useful comprehensive guide to the New Testament teaching on the resurrection and will be particularly helpful to those looking for fresh ideas for preaching on the resurrection. I’m not sure how well it works as a book to be read from cover to cover as I did. There were a few places in which I got a little bogged down. But it is certainly a valuable contribution to a topic that has been surprisingly under-represented in recent years.

Spotify Albums of the Month

Posted on April 2, 2009 by Mark Heath

I decided at the start of this year that I would make an effort to expand my musical horizons by listening to some bands I had not heard before. I started buying a new album a month, but since discovering Spotify I have been able explore many new artists in a way that previously had been out of my budget. Sadly, very few Christian British artists such as Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Martyn Layzell, Phatfish, Vineyard UK etc are currently available on Spotify, but despite that there is no shortage of good new material to try out. Here are the highlights of what I have bought and/or heard on Spotify recently:

	Charlie Hall – The Bright Sadness Not really a typical worship album, although opens with a powerful anthem “Chainbreaker”. Has grown on me over several listens and steers clear of typical clichéd lyrics. In “Walk the World” he very makes a very interesting link between the symbolism of the communion meal and our witness.Rating:
	Switchfoot – The Beautiful Letdown Apparently Switchfoot have made it big and been around for a while. Who knew? This is not their latest, but is my favourite of what I have listened to so far. Hard rocking for the most part, and with more intelligent lyrics than you might be expecting.Rating:
	Matt Maher – Empty and Beautiful Not that well-known a name, but his opening track “Your grace is enough” has become well known through Chris Tomlin’s cover. I came across him after his song “I rejoice” was featured on a worship website. Not particularly unique when compared to other worship leader albums, but is very well produced and an enjoyable listen.Rating:
	Marty Magehee – Open Another artist I had never heard of before, who was previously part of 4Him, yet another Christian band who had passed me by. Anyway, this is his first solo album and its an enjoyable listen, with a nice variety of styles and possibly the one and only song dealing with the “da Vinci Code” in his quirky yet hauntingly beautiful track “Leonardo”.Rating: