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As of this writing, Rebecca St. James completed her inclusion in the Newsboys' Adoration tour and is continuing the Live Worship tour throughout Europe before returning to the United States. Want a good recording of the concert? Pick up Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name. The strongest moments of this memoir heavily outweigh the weak points.

This recording is not a frame-by-frame diary of the Live Worship tour; instead, it's an excellent snapshot of this tour as a worship event. Listeners will not hear "Wait for Me" in this set but will hear non-stop, well-paced worship delivered by the tight-knit band. Those who attended and enjoyed this tour will be delighted with this recording.

Hence, the only weakness of the tour is that it was perhaps too short (as is the live CD). Every RSJ fan could probably write his or her own set list, and mine would include "My Hope" from Transform, "I Thank You" from Wait for Me or even the title track to RSJ's God Individuals' set lists, of course, are merely editorial commentary; however, I am disappointed that one of RSJ's strongest compositions that was performed beautifully in the Live Worship tour, "Omega" is missing from this recording. Maybe in the next live CD?

Okay, the CD is short. Not a problem. The list price is $8.98, and when I bought my copy during the Live Worship tour, there were still bonus copies of the  Worship God DVD. And not advertised on this CD is the ForeFront Eterne St. James recording of Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord" as a hidden track.

The most important thing to note about Live Worship is that--over the years, something about Rebecca St. James has not changed--God is the bottom line. This CD rocks immediately into "Lamb of God," cools the pace ever so slightly with a dandy version of Matt Redman's "Blessed Be Your Name," picks up with "Quiet You with My Love," and continues such a beautiful worship flow all the way through the studio version of "The Power of Your Love." In many ways, I like Live Worship better than the studio project, Worship God (I definitely prefer this version of "Above All"), because in this case, there's better spontaneity in worship. Yes, the audience is indeed "miked" quite well and is clearly apparent in this worship recording. By the way, I'm incorrect about something; Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name isn't really a recording of a concert; it's an excellent memoir of this touring worship event.

Olin Jenkins    May 10, 2004