REVIEW: Joshua Seller – MY KING IS COMING

Artist: Joshua Seller

Release: My King is Coming
Highlights: “Came to Save”, “Greater”, “My King is Coming”, & “Worship Rises”

Joshua and I met while we were both speaking at the Forge Conference this past October, at which time he gave me a pre-release of his forthcoming CD, “My King is Coming”.  However, I got so much new music at that conference that it honestly took me a few months to really give it a good listen.

Joshua is the worship pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in Ontario, Canada, a 2,000 member plant of James MacDonald‘s Harvest Bible Fellowship in Illinois, as well as a top 10 finalist in the 2002 season of Canadian Idol, and a participant in the Worship Rises movement in Canada.

As a worship leader, there is much to like here: the lyrics are Biblical, the melodies are singable, and the songs would be fairly easy to interpret by any modern-rock worship band that’s cut it’s teeth on all of the popular tunes by Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, or Fee.  Probably the strongest songs are this CD – which, because of the nature of Seller’s accessible songwriting are also the most corporate – are the power-ballad “Greater” and the high energy rocker, “My King is Coming”, both of which I plan to use at my church soon, however any worship pastor would do well to also check out the upbeat “Came to Save” and the timelessly beautiful “Worship Rises”.

To add to those positives, the production is near perfect, and the songs are performed with obvious passion – I can really FEEL the heart behind them.  The only possible downside to MY KING IS COMING is that it sounds so much like Tomlin, Stanfill, & Fee – that’s to say, there are no creative breakthroughs here – no John Mark McMillan or Gungor moments – just well-written, accessible, corporate worship music.

Do you like well-produced collections of usable modern-rock corporate worship songs with a youthful edge?  You’ll find a great deal to like here.  Personally, I’m looking forward to singing “Greater” and “My King is Coming” at St. Simons Community Church, and looking forward to hearing more from Joshua in the near future.  Keep them coming, bro!