Worship Album Review: “Sing As One” from Life.Church

Life.Church is a multi-site church ministry with locations across the United States and a blossoming global online presence. Their passionate purpose is to make fully devoted followers of Christ, as seen in their abundant small groups and the popular YouVersion Bible app. Life.Church Worship is their collective of worship pastors who strive to make music that helps others grow in their relationship with Christ and pursue this goal as a church.

Life.Church Worship released Sing As One in July of 2023. This project is a collaboration of worship leaders with the purpose of uniting believers in song:

“​​When we wrote this album, we wanted to create more than just words for people to sing,” said Cassidy Estevez with Life.Church Worship. “We hope this album helps people press into what really matters, which is worship that draws us closer to the Father, aligns our hearts with His, and reminds us of our desperate need for Him every day.”

Musically, you won’t be disappointed with Sing As One. There’s a harmonious magic happening here, with this diversity of smoky, soulful voices, incredibly modern instrumentation, and rhythmic complexities that all come together to form a cohesive, worshipful whole completely befitting the title track, Sing As One.

WORSHIP FUNCTION

As believers in Christ, we have so much to sing and rejoice about. And then, when you gather together a large group of intensely talented worship leaders, the result is a high-energy, impressively diverse, and well-rounded album with God’s glory on their mind: Sing As One.

Sing As One certainly stands out for its intense cool factor and superior musicianship. With this diverse collection of worship leaders, amazing vocalists, styles, themes, and colorful music, Sing As One is really fun to listen to. It is, perhaps, the next ‘big thing.’

But unfortunately, I think it’s become a bit too much of a big thing for the average church worship experience. While this album is gorgeous and rich, offering plenty of opportunity to praise God and belt out great tunes, a large portion of the album may be too complex for the regular church to learn and to sing.

But that doesn’t make this album any less valuable for personal worship or for those times when you need some good Christian music to get you through the day. And while all of the songs on the album are high caliber, there are a few songs that stand out if you are considering incorporating them into your church’s worship.

STANDOUT SONGS

Thank You

Thank You is one of the most significant songs on this album. Thank You puts our current day-to-day struggles in the perspective of what God has already done for us, and it gives us the words to say thank you for what God is doing and will do in our lives.

This is probably the most accessible track on the album, as well – the easiest for both worship teams and congregations to grasp and use as part of their worship language.

Hold the Line

Hold the Line is a high-energy new twist on an old hymn, My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less. It’s a natural fusion of ancient and modern music with soulful sounds and the more profound theology of hymns.

Clean Heart

The recording of Clean Heart is very long, which lends itself well to reflective background music for offertories or, especially, communion. This contemplative piece helps the worshiper to reflect on allowing God to renew our hearts and fill us with His Spirit.

Faithful

Leaning into a more R&B-flavored gospel style, Faithful is pretty rhythmically complex but worth the effort as it puts the focus on God’s faithfulness to us in an upbeat style.

BIBLICAL FAITHFULNESS

You’ll find Sing As One sprinkled with Biblical references about God, his mercy, and his faithfulness. And while these songs don’t go deep theologically, they go wide communally, meaning they weren’t written to fit any specific church theology but instead bring all different types of believers together in worship. Here are a few examples.

Clean Heart hits on Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart. But along with cleaning up our hearts, the song also talks about filling our hearts with Jesus.

Unstoppable gives us a mix of vague Biblical references that you might easily miss, from Acts 2:17 (your sons and daughters will prophesy), the Kingdom of God, and a veiled reference to the walls of Jericho tumbling down. These hidden gems all point to God being Unstoppable.

Now and Always gives reference to God as our Good Shepherd, guiding us through the dark valley, similar to what you read in Psalm 23.

So while you may find some hidden gems of Bible references, you’ll also hear a lot of language pointing us to our need for God and giving us words that we can use to worship Jesus all together as one body.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There are some unforgettable moments captured in this recording of Sing As One, showing off incredible vocal talent, diverse musical style, and rich words of worship. And while most of this album might be a bit of a lofty goal for most worship teams, working through a few of these pieces might be worthwhile for musical and spiritual growth.

You can find Life.Church Worship resources for Sing As One through CCLI, Essential Worship, and loopcommunity.com.

MORE

The Sing As One album is a joy to listen to, with its thoughtful diversity, intense worship style, and incredible musicianship. It’s as ear-grabbing as it is high-intensity and worshipful.

LESS

These songs are challenging and over-produced for the average church to incorporate into their normal worship services. However, they might be worth the effort.

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