- Your Love Is Better
- Live Out Loud
- How Can I Not Sing
- All Over This World
- The Greatness of You
- No Greater Thing
- I Want to Be With You
- Hallelujah
- The Cross that Bears Your Name
- Surrender (Take My Life)
- Who Is Like You
- Make You Known
After a relatively quiet 2007, Integrity Music's GlobalWorshipNow.com initiative picks up again with Lakeview Church's Make You Known. If we go by imaging alone, the church appears to fall squarely in line with its brethren at Hillsong or New Life Church—mega-church praise where the worship team, band, and choir are greater in number than the average congregation size.
But Lakeview says it isn't simply following fads. Established in 1918, it wasn't until 2001 when the now 85-year-old church began to experience a new understanding of what worship truly means. With that came a transition to a more contemporary worship style, as well as a surge of creativity and artistic expression among the church's ranks. As a result, the church has recorded a new live album every year since, including Make You Known.
At the outset, the church never veers far from the musical direction established by Passion or Hillsong United—big, stadium-sized pop/rock anthems with a few too many nods to vintage U2 to ignore. "No Greater Thing," "Your Love Is Better" and "I Want to Be With You" follow this mold all too closely, but particularly "I Want to Be With You," whose guitar riffs come straight from The Edge's playbook. That's not to say these songs aren't serviceable; if anything, their familiarity could be just what some of today's churches crave.
Yet what Lakeview lacks in distinction during the livelier tracks is made up for when things slow down. Besides utilizing a noticeably capable Latin percussionist for a number of the quieter moments, there are some great ballads to be found here, especially the moving "The Cross that Bears Your Name" and the stripped-down "Surrender"—both ready and waiting to be discovered by worship leaders nationwide. The more Lakeview works towards fine-tuning these strengths, the more it'll sharpen its own voice in the long run.