Patrick Mayberry – Wild Faith | 365 Days Of Inspiring Media

Centricity Music

Release Date: September 1st 2023

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Patrick Mayberry– Wild Faith (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

Never Stop Singing (feat. David Leonard)
He’s Just That Good
His
Wild Faith (feat. kalley)
Lead On Good Shepherd (feat. Crowder)
Give Me Jesus
A Million Times
He Is
Easy To Praise
Right Here

In 2014, in the very first year of this site being operational, I reviewed a compilation album called Reverence: An Offering. It was 19 tracks, I rated it 3 ½, and I didn’t pay it much attention. But in 2021, an EP released that sounded… eerily familiar. Patrick Mayberry, one of the newest signings to independent CCM label Centricity Music, released his debut EP Holy Spirit Come in 2021. I recognised his name from somewhere… and lo and behold, he was one of the artists on that underrated compilation that I didn’t place too much importance on, and no doubt I don’t think many other listeners placed importance on any of the independent artists on that compilation. However, Patrick has now been signed to a label and released his debut worship EP a couple of years ago. This goes to show you that anything is possible and if you work hard enough, and if you have determination to succeed; with God’s help you can achieve unfathomable and seemingly impossible things. Having heard many of Patrick’s songs throughout the past few years; when word came along of Patrick’s debut full length album Wild Faith, I was intrigued by this release. And thus, I wanted to voice my thoughts. Patrick’s EP was incredibly creative, unique, inspiring and encouraging as a worship project… so how does Wild Faith stack up and compare? Surprisingly… very good.

To be fair, I only have a couple of other worship album that we have reviewed, to compare Wild Faith to, when comparing worship albums this year. I’ve Witnessed It from Passion is mediocre, but I Believe from Phil Wickham is one of my favourite worship albums of the year, and Wild Faith comes very close. I still intend to review worship albums from Elevation Worship, Gateway Worship, Cody Carnes, and Jesus Culture within the year. But there’s something special about Patrick’s songs that facilitate communion and worship with Jesus. And as the album title suggests, Patrick inspires us all to have a wild faith that is full of abandon and full of vitality, rather than a faith that is formant and a faith that seems to be dreary and lacklustre.

Opening with the vibrant, energetic, and passionate worship song “Never Stop Singing”, the melody features David Leonard, and is a corporate worship song for Sunday mornings, as Patrick earnestly relays that we should never stop singing God’s praise- because of the fact that Jesus is seated on the throne and that He reigns forevermore. As an album opener, it’s a catchy melody, but lyrically, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. Yet Patrick’s passion and zeal for Jesus makes this song hard to dislike, and as we sing in unison and in abandon to our Lord and Saviour; we are invited to sing at the top of our lungs the biblical truths of Jesus that provide comfort and solace and healing. “He’s Just That Good” speaks about thankfulness and gratitude to Jesus because of the fact that Jesus is good and that He reigns forevermore; while “His” has Patrick pouring out a song of gratitude and thankfulness, as he considers it an honour for Jesus to call us His.

The rest of the album features Patrick diving deep into plenty of relatable topics and a myriad of qualities of Jesus Christ. “Wild Faith” is the title track, where Patrick and guest vocal kalley promise us all that ‘wild faith’ is the better way in the long run- having a child-like faith that is always in amazement and a faith that is every evolving and active rather than a faith that is stagnant and one that is based on events of the past than on what God is doing now and about the truth of who Jesus Christ is. “Lead On Good Shepherd” is a lively, pulsating and spirited Rend Collective-like melody where Patrick and Crowder trust God to lead them where they want to go, asking Him to ‘…lead on, Good Shepherd, I’ll follow all my days, there ain’t nothing sweeter than to watch You make a way, You’ve walked me through the valley but You never steered me wrong, so lead on Good Shepherd, lead on…’; while the updated hymn of “Give Me Jesus” is a stellar and exquisite recording and a definite album highlight.

“A Million Times”, a mid-tempo piano ballad, speaks about recognising that Jesus Christ has been faithful to us at least a million times, maybe more; while Patrick also overwhelmingly and exuberantly declares that Jesus is ‘…so much better than I thought He’d be, He is so much greater than my wildest dreams, He is way more holy, way more worthy, King of Glory…’ in the album highlight and fervent and explosive melody “He Is”. A testimony-type track follows with the poppy radio-friendly melody “Easy to Praise”, with Patrick outlining that ‘…when I was in the grave, You called my name, my heart woke up and out I came, into life with a fresh new faith, a whole new start, my past erased, You placed my feet on solid rock, He showed me love that will never stop, You put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise and now I’m gonna let it out, hear me shout…’. Wild Faith then ends with the confessional, reflective and circumspect ballad “Right Here”, where Patrick declares that Jesus Christ is right here beside us, and that ‘…when I’m praising on the mountain, when I’m falling to the ground, when I’m standing in the fire, when I’m breaking down, when I’m walking on the water, when I’m sinking like a stone, no matter where I’m going, You won’t let me go alone…’.

Overall with Patrick Mayberry’s debut album being thematically similar to his debut EP- being about worship and celebrating Jesus because of who He is and what He’s done for us; this is Christianity at its core. We love Jesus because He first loved us; and thus this album outlining the essence of having a wild faith, shows us the gospel in a nutshell, and for that Patrick needs to be proud of this effort. A worship album that I will listen to for a long time; everyone else better jump on this bandwagon very quickly! What say all of you? Check out Patrick’s worshipful music; and be amazed at how good he is as a singer and as a songwriter!

We’ve domesticated our faith so much that we’ve taken the wild adventure out of it. This whole past season of my life has been marked by stepping out in wild faith. I think the Lord was like, ‘You thought this song was for other people, but this song is for you, buddy.’ I’m asking God to guide my steps, and I’ll just keep taking ‘em.

Psalm 23 always gets used as a comforting Scripture at funerals when I think it’s just such a comforting verse for life. This Good Shepherd promises to walk alongside us every single step of the way—providing for us, protecting us, telling us to rest, leading us by still waters. God’s track record has proven He’s a good and faithful shepherd, so I’m going to keep following, step by step. I’m going to trust Him, so lead on, Good Shepherd.

I am so proud. Each song is an Ebenezer, a soundtrack to a season, a reminder of who God is and who He says I am. The crux of this song, ‘Easy to Praise,’ is joy. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is a deeply rooted state of being that God invites us into as Christ-followers. The chorus talks about what Jesus did for us on the cross. When you start to think about the weight of that, and that invitation of the deepening of joy, what else can you say but ‘Hallelujah’? God truly has made it easy to praise.