As a big fan of Worship Central especially after their previous release ‘Set Apart’ (fantastic album, that one!), it was a pleasure to review their newest project ‘Stir a Passion’. Like ‘Set Apart’, this is also a live album. In case you’re not aware, Worship Central is a UK-based worship ministry collective fronted by Tim Hughes and Luke Hellebronth.
‘Stir a Passion’ is a 11-track worship album, recorded at “The Gathering” conference and produced by Willie Weeks (Passion, Matt Redman) and Jimmy James (GuvnaB, LZ7). Here’s what Luke Hellebronth has to say about this project:
“The oldest prayer of the Church is ‘Come Holy Spirit,’ and it’s a daily prayer for us. We recognize the need to ‘go on being filled’ with the Spirit of God, who gives us life and always leads us to Jesus. The more we see of God’s power in our lives and church, the more we want to keep asking Him to stir our passion for Him… it’s a constant cycle of worship. Our hope is that these songs communicate and express something of the work of the Spirit in our own lives and churches. There is always more with God and we’ll be so happy and honoured if these songs help to stoke the fire of worship in hearts, lives, communities and churches.”
Track list
- Pray
- Majesty (O The Mystery)
- Stir A Passion
- All for Love (Gethsemane)
- Jesus (Spontaneous)
- Praise the Lord (Evermore)
- Never Give Up
- Glory to Glory
- O Lord We Seek Your Face
- Waves
- Hope and Glory
About the songs
Right from ‘Pray’, the opening tracking loosely based on the ‘Our Father’ prayer, the songs are engaging, emotive, singable and would make an excellent addition to your worship music collection.
The title track is a beauty—simple, honest, prayerful, passionate and is going into my next set list… like right away!
‘Praise the Lord (Evermore)’ has a very catchy and easy-to-sing-along chorus. If you’re looking for short anthemic songs/choruses, you should check out ‘O Lord we seek You face’ and ‘Waves’ (apart from ‘Stir a Passion’ of course). The already popular ‘Hope and Glory’ closes out the album.
There’s also ‘Jesus’, a spontaneous song—a rarity in professional worship recordings these days! Strangely, not too many up tempo songs here, not that I am complaining, the album is great as it is.
‘Set a Fire’ is not a project that stops at merely performing worship song after worship song—there’s real worship leading and ministry here—in fact, it’s what I like most about it. Prayers, praise, cries, rawness, anthems, declarations—you’ll find all of them and more. This is a classy release from Worship Central.
Disclaimer: I received this album for free from Integrity Music to listen and post this review. The views expressed here are completely my own and I am not obliged to write a positive review.
