Phil Wickham – The Jesus Way (Single)

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Release Date: May 19th 2023

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

Phil WickhamThe Jesus Way (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

  1. The Jesus Way

Phil Wickham has always been one of my favourite worship artists, over the past decade or so. Since 2003 when he unveiled his debut album Give You the World, Phil has given to us powerful singles after powerful singles- ‘Grace’, ‘Divine Romance’, ‘After Your Heart’, ‘Safe’, ‘I’ll Always Love You’, ‘At Your Name’, ‘This is Amazing Grace’, ‘Glory’, ‘Living Hope’, ‘My All In All’, ‘Your Love Awakens Me’, ‘Battle Belongs’, ‘It’s Always Been You’, ‘Hymn of Heaven’ and ‘Till I Found You’, to name a few. In a general sense, Phil has always had a knack at giving to us, great albums, period. From albums like his most recent full length studio album, 2021’s Hymn of Heaven (alongside 2022’s Hymn of Heaven (Acoustic), an acoustic re-recording of Phil’s powerful 2021 album), to the album that got me into the fandom of Phil (Response), as well as his chart-topping The Ascension and 2018’s Living Hope, Phil’s powerful and distinct voice cuts through all the cookie-cutter CCM that seems to seep through; and brings it home to be a reminder that great music artists still exist within the realms of CCM.

Phil’s always been an artist that we have covered heavily on our site, and most recently, we reviewed both his Christmas single ‘Behold’, as well as his January 2023 single ‘This is Our God’ and his April 2023 single ‘Sunday Is Coming’. Now at the end of May, we see Phil unveil something new and exciting, unique, powerful, and enjoyable- Phil’s new song ‘The Jesus Way’, just like his two previous singles this year, has become one of my favourite songs of 2023 thus far. A song that encourages us all to live ‘the Jesus way’ in all facets of our everyday life, Phil showcases this song as one where we as listeners and declarors of Christ being our Saviour, to have an anthem where we, alongside Phil, draw a ‘line’ in the sand, and declare that we as Christians live like Christ in the facets of life that maybe in the past, we held back from Him, for one reason or another. ‘The Jesus Way’ can hopefully encourage us all to surrender all aspects of life to Him, not just the parts that we want God to see, as we change our lives and live out more ‘sold out’ for Him, in the midst of culture that is showing us to do the exact opposite. It’s a song that is unifying. It’s a song that is encouraging. But it’s also a song that ought to be convicting and confronting. We hopefully are called to realign and re-shift our lives, as we see the parts that He is calling us to surrender to Him. And hopefully, through Phil’s song, we can. ‘The Jesus Way’ itself, give us comfort and hope, as Phil uses this song to remind us of how true and right and perfect His ways are, above our own. Phil is very much a gifted and powerful singer-songwriter to today’s generation, as Chris Tomlin was (and maybe still is?) to the generation of yesterday- Phil continues to assert himself to become a great worship artist alternative, for anyone who wants to listen to something else, other than Bethel, Elevation Worship or Hillsong. Well done Phil for such a powerful worship song, and together with both ‘This is Our God’ and ‘Sunday is Coming’, these three songs by Phil, are sure to anchor quite possibly one of the most anticipated CCM/worship albums of 2023 thus far.

‘…I think this song has already had the biggest impact on my life personally of any song I’ve ever written. It has blessed me, and it has certainly challenged me. This song is a line in the sand song. A declaration of who I follow and what that means though I fail and fall short of the goal often and rely so desperately on His grace through it all. I can not wait to sing this with the church. To stand together for love, grace, forgiveness, humility, and righteousness in a world where it feels like those beautiful qualities are in increasingly short supply. This song comes out May 19th and I invite all on the path of following Jesus to join me in singing it as both a declaration of who we are and a prayer for who we want to be…’

Score: 5/5

RIYL: Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, Philippa Hanna, Rend Collective

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