Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

All that I know about Kingdom Network is that they were helping this year with the children's worship at Grapevine in Lincoln. Five of the nine tracks are penned by Andi Markham, a band member. The songs are mostly in the mould of Spring Harvest Kids Praise songs, but not nearly as good, and in these days, not good enough to put on a commercially available CD. The first two songs do a variation on the "let's see how many body parts we can get to praise the Lord" theme. I didn't think we needed another one of those songs let alone two! Track three consists entirely of these words -
"We're joining in the army, the army of the Lord. Left, right, turn around, jump up, touch the ground." What is that saying about God, or about our worship? I'm afraid the music and lyrics are generally dull, verging on the banal. There is a difference between simple that works and simple that is just bad. A song that is good for children must be judged by the same criteria as any other song. It needs a good tune and words that help us to respond to God in a whole variety of ways. We actually need our best musicians, poets and songwriters to be writing songs for children. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I think our kids deserve better than this.


Jonathan Evans is vicar of St Nicholas' Church, Beverley, in East Yorkshire, and plays his guitar as much as the congregation will put up with it.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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