The Unquenchable Worshipper (by Matt Redman)

I don't know how long I've been aware of Matt Redman; he's a well-known contemporary Christian song-writer and worship leader in the UK, living with his family near the south coast. Nor do I remember how I first heard of this book, or how it ended up on my wishlist. All I know is that I spotted it, used, at an excellent price on play.com and ordered it along with a few other items a while ago.

'The Unquenchable Worshipper' is a short book written in 2001, although it's not the kind of book that will go out of date. The subtitle is 'Coming back to the heart of worship', a line from one of Matt Redmond's better-known songs. The book has just ten chapters, none of them more than ten pages long,  so it was quite an easy read; I could have finished it in an hour or two if I had read it in one sitting.

Each brief chapter looks at different aspects of worship and what is meant by the word, with titles such as 'the undivided worshipper', 'the unveiled worshipper', and so on. The author writes from his heart, recounting some of the struggles he has experienced over the years, and also describing some of the changes he has seen in his life, despite always feeling that he has a long way to go.

In each chapter he looks briefly at some Biblical examples of worship, which include singing sometimes, but also a variety of other expressions. He does this in the context of what he means by each of the different adjectives to describe worship, so it's not heavy teaching, but general reference.

There wasn't anything particularly new to me, but overall I thought the book was quite encouraging and inspiring, in a low-key kind of way. Interestingly, while it no longer appears to be in print in the UK, it's available currently both in paperback and Kindle form in the US.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews