Worship For World Changers was sparked by a nationwide 25-city tour called "Acquire the Fire" by Teen Mania. Through these crusades, thousands of teens came to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. This live, energetic and powerful recording contains the music of the 1996 ATF conferences.
The album starts off with the familiar Newsboys song, "Shine." For just about any good youth conference, the music should be relatively simple and straightforward. Because of this, the verses to "Shine" are absent, which bodes well for the producer, John Lawry (formerly of Petra). This particular version of "Shine" includes at least as much bass and percussion as the original, which is quite characteristic of the entire album.
Without any further ado, the Teen Mania band jumps into an electric guitar driven version of the old worship hymns "Oh The Blood" and "Nothing But The Blood." Code of Ethics is brought in, though the effect of this is difficult to distinguish. As the crowd roars, the praise song "I Walk By Faith" kicks in, followed by a series of praise songs riddled by electric guitars and heavy bass, plus some keyboard backing. Among the remainder of the songs, "I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb" by Ray Boltz makes its way into the song list, and Anointed also lends a hand.
The format of the album brings up some interesting live-recording factors. The lead singer and praise leader manages to make a few mishaps, leading one to believe that there wasn't a whole lot of editing going on. On the other hand, the presence of a roaring crowd that seems to always cheer in the same way (and is polite enough to cut it out right before the next song starts) causes one to think the editors did too much. Whatever the case may be, the producers and editors managed to put out an album that sounded exactly live and exactly recorded over, which isn't always what you want in a live recording.
Overall, the Worship For World Changers is a great source for any youth music leader in need of a few new songs and some new ways of playing some old songs.
