New Song by Chris Tomlin - "Jesus Messiah"

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade or so you know Chris Tomlin's songs have had a significant influence on contemporary evangelical worship services. He has a God-given knack for writing catchy, melodic, God-glorifying songs that soar when sung congregationally ("Forever," "Holy is the Lord," "How Great is Our God"). One look at the top songs from CCLI (the Christian copyright organization) will confirm that Tomlin has rightfully earned a place among the top songwriters of our generation.

The other phenomenon that has propelled Tomlin (and his songs) to the forefront is the huge shift in Christian music from "message" songs to "worship" songs. In other words, over the last decade the top Christian artists & albums (both in sales and awards) have been more and more in the "worship" genre - for example, bedrock artists like Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and Third Day have released multiple worship albums to critical and commercial acclaim. At the same time evangelical churches have been focusing more and more on the quality and relevancy of their musical repetoire - it's not uncommon for the music to occupy half of a modern worship service. So it's no surprise to me that Chris Tomlin is one of the hottest commodities in the Christian music industry given the convergence of multiple phenomena.

However, in spite of (or maybe because of) his popularity Tomlin's music has not been without criticism. Some have noted that Tomlin tends to write rather generically and (at times) simplistically. Many have rightly said that the keys in which he records his songs are not congregationally-friendly - but that can easily be addressed through services like SongSelect. I will say that a lot Tomlin's songs have the same feel and the same four chords - but then again a lot of contemporary worship songs are guilty of the same thing. What we have to keep in mind is that Tomlin is writing for the church and the primary concerns are 1) is it theologically sound, 2) is it singable for the average Joe & Mary, and 3) can most worship bands play it? I think on those accounts a good many of Tomlin's songs are worthy candidates for congregational singing.

And such is the case with Chris' new song entitled "Jesus Messiah". The focus of the song is on Jesus' substitionary death ("He became sin who knew no sin" - from 2 Cor. 5:21) and the various titles of Jesus. Musically it's nothing specatular but it is singable (when you lower the key a couple whole steps) and it addresses the HEART of the gospel and our worship - Jesus' death and life on our behalf. Take a listen and see what you think...I say, thanks Chris for another song that magnifies the greatness of Jesus' sacrifice and beauty.