There's no question that Keith Elgin is a called and anointed worship leader. You can tell when you first pop in his latest live worship collection, Our Hope, that he has tremendous exhortation gifts and a deep passion for leading people into the presence of God. The Washington, D.C.-area worship pastor enjoys the perspective of both serving regularly at his home church and praising on the road—sharing the stage with the likes of Chris Tomlin and P.O.D., among others. 

 

Our Hope comes on the heels of Elgin's 2011 EP, with five of the songs from that release finding their way onto this new full-length. Essentially, this record is two different records. On the one hand, you have a half-dozen of Elgin's takes on some of the most popular songs in worship music today, from Tomlin's "Our God" to Hillsong's "Stronger" to Jason Ingram and Reuben Morgan's "Forever Reign." On the other, you have a half dozen of his own original worship tunes.

 

With the cover songs, it's clear Elgin loves the tunes and has a passion for the words that are sung. But as far as the record is concerned, we don't learn a whole lot about Elgin as the artist. The arrangements are by and large close to the original/widely known versions, and thus don't add much to the equation. It's tough not comparing Elgin to the original artists and versions of the songs, so including those songs, while strategic and awesome for the particular night when this live album was recorded, doesn't do much for the listener of the recorded product. He does a great job on these covers; we just want to see more of Elgin the artist, as many of us experience covers of these songs on a weekly basis in our own churches.

 

That said, truly Elgin shines on his own material, where he's able to give us a glimpse into the things that make him worship and get him excited. The first original on the project, "Dance Dance Dance," would be at home with the New Life style of worship. His baritone vocals, the electric guitar riffs and the triumphant chorus would likely ring familiar to fans of Desperation Band and Jared Anderson. The encouragement to dance, sing and shout because of our faith in Jesus is exciting and great for a youth or conference setting. It's clear from these live recordings already that Elgin shines at encouraging and motivating the congregation.

 

With the first chord, you can tell things have become contemplative with "Our Hope is in You," a song Elgin wrote with Third Day frontman Mac Powell. You can tell this one has a little Southern influence in it when you hear the chorus. And if you really concentrate, it's not tough to imagine Mac singing it. The powerful chorus resounds: "Faith unshakable / hearts unbreakable / Our God will come through / Our hope is in You." It's a passionate, hopeful song designed to be sung through tears and gritted teeth, and it's one of the album highlights. Elgin introduces the bridge by declaring to the assembled, "When we face trouble in this world, we can rise when we run to the light that is Jesus." 

 

"In My Life" is a song that talks about what Jesus did and responds with a powerful chorus prayer: "Be lifted high, be lifted high / In my life, Jesus be lifted high!" It's a song that starts reverently and solitarily, gradually building to a dramatic crescendo of passion in the chorus. It's a very simple song that could be played to congregations of 30 and 30,000—the mark of a good, universal-type song.

 

"Made For More" sounds like a Brandon Heath song, with that signature conversational-style singing the verse, followed by the rally cry that "we were made to love." This song plays out more like a midtempo pop song than a congregational worship tune, but that said, it's one of the strongest moments on the record, with great production, complementary backing instruments and CCM radio-friendly melodies. Lyrically, the excellent songwriting talks about the brokenness around us, which illustrates our need to share the love of Jesus.

 

I was a bit stunned to hear Elgin break out in rap with his final original song on the album, "Give it Up." The rap, while a gutsy expression of Luke 17:33 ("Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."), fails to translate, at least on the recorded album. I'm sure it was a blast live. But in an age where lots of Christian rappers are delivering their rhymes flawlessly, the piece comes across a bit out of Elgin's stylistic neighborhood. With elements of rap, rock and even a little country on this one, the rap chorus takes Luke 17:33 to the streets: "You gotta give it up if you wanna live it up."

 

A great glimpse of what Elgin could do with cover songs comes on the last track of Our Hope, a track simply titled "Medley." It's a folk/country jamboree likely influenced by the likes of Christian music's reigning folk grandpappy, David Crowder. But Elgin really rocks at this style, and it suits his voice well. He seamlessly weaves "There is Power in the Blood of the Lamb," "I Saw The Light" and "I'll Fly Away" together. 

 

What Keith Elgin's Our Hope does well, it does really well. It captures the energy and excitement of one particular night of worship. The DVD in particular does that, as you add visual stimulus to the audio. Elgin's original songs, by and large, complement his voice, are well written and are congregational. 

 

Elgin proves himself on this project as a passionate worship leader and a good songwriter. I think in future projects I'd like to see him take some more risks with his recordings. The cover songs he did just didn't deviate too much from what we experience on Sunday mornings across Western civilization. While there is much to enjoy about Our Hope, Elgin revealed with his original songs and "Medley" that there's much more to see. And we want to see it. 

 

As Christian music (and music in general) seems to split into two camps—the synth-driven dance music and the folk-driven campfire fare—I'd love to see Elgin take a crack at the folk end of things. It suits his voice well, and would allow for his excellent songwriting to be accompanied by some top-notch folk music experimentation. And that could prove a dynamite combination for this passionate worship leader.

Song to Download Now:
"Made for More" (Get it on iTunes here.)