Review

What do you get when you combine eleven thousand college-aged people, thirteen powerful worship songs, and six stellar worship leaders? You get one amazing CD/DVD combo titled "How Great Is Our God." Recorded live at the Passion 05 conference, "How Great Is Our God" features some of today's most popular worship songs as well as some classics, performed by such worship leaders as Chris Tomin, Matt Redman and David Crowder, just to name a few. This project is not one of those slapped-together compilations of live recordings by big name worship leaders, but rather it is a seamless journey of sincere worship that, in my opinion, represents everything that is good with modern worship.

The project begins with David Crowder Band's pop-punk flavored "No One Like You" and immediately the listener is treated to the thrill of hearing thousands of worshipers celebrating in one song as they sing "There has never ever been anyone like You." Another great track is Matt Redman's new song "All Over the World," which he penned with Martin Smith of Delirious. Any fan of Matt Redman will also enjoy his moving rendition of Tim Hughes' "Whole World in His Hands."

By Chris Tomlin's "Indescribable," it becomes apparent just how many great songs there are on this album. Songs like "Majesty," "Nothing But the Blood" and the title track "How Great is Our God." In fact, one of the best moments comes at the end of the song "How Great Is Our God" when the whole audience joins in an acapella version of "How Great Thou Art." Like the other Passion CDs, "How Great Is Our God" features the usual worship leaders Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockles and David Crowder, however a nice addition to this line up is Shane Barnard and Shane Everett (aka Shane and Shane) on the last track, "It is Well."

While a few of the songs on this album can be a bit wordy, most of them are very useable for Sunday morning worship service. These songs convey the unifying message of awe of the Creator and the desire to know Him deeper with each passing moment. Personally, the worship team at the church where I lead worship already does seven of the songs on this album. I've found one advantage of integrating these songs into our worship repertoire is that a lot of people already know many of these songs due to radio play.

Another great feature worth mentioning is the DVD that is included in the Special Edition CD + DVD combo. Chock full of special features, this DVD is definitely not an afterthought. It contains 4 live music videos taken from the conference, a few documentaries about the Passion conferences and an awesome teaching by Louie Giglio, the man behind the Passion organization.

"How Great Is Our God" is a fantastic project and is by far the best Passion recording to date. My only complaint is that they didn't include Chris Tomlin's "Holy Is The Lord" on the CD (although it is included as one of the music videos on the bonus DVD). This CD/DVD is a rich resource for corporate and personal worship plus it's simply a great listen. "How Great Is Our God" is a must have for anyone who loves modern worship.

Review by Jeremy Dunn