If you want beautiful feet, forget about the $50 pedicure, just get your feet dirty for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many of us have tragically mutilated Christ's command to go and make disciples of all nations to let's sit back and wait for people to come to us.  As far as missions are concern, "go" is an indispensable word; substitute it with any other verb and it will completely eradicate Christ's great commission.  Cesar and Claudia Castellanos were two people who heeded Christ's call to just go.  They left their comfortable life in Miami, Florida travelled over 1,500 miles to start a church of only eight members in Bogota, Colombia.  Following Christ, as the Castellanos experienced, was costly.  One day en route to their young daughter's birthday celebration, two men on motorcycles fired shots directly at the Castellanos, hitting Cesar five times and Claudia once, just barely missing her heart.  As a result Cesar was in a coma for 10 days and he lost so much blood the doctors weren't sure he'd ever recover.  Yet, in God's providence, not only did God bring the Castellanos through, God richly blessed their church.  Thirty years later, the church MCI (Mision Carismatica Internacional) grew  from eight worshippers to seventy thousand souls.  Out of MCI comes the Soulfire Revolution.

Soulfire Revolution consists of the daughter of the Castellanos Lorena who sings lead in this worship band.  And the team also includes Lorena's husband Julian Gamba (bass), Paola Sanchez (drums) and husband Jose Anthony Catacoli (lead guitar), plus Lorena's brother-in-law Richard Harding (lead vocals and guitar). Signed to Capitol Christian Music Group, Soulfire Revolution are releasing one album in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish).  "Revival" is the English counterpart and it is poised to be a great blast of a modern worship record.  Soulfire Revolution has allied with the biggest cylinders of the current music scene such as Jesus Culture's Kim Walker-Smith, Delirious' Martin Smith, TobyMac and mutli-award winning songwriter Jason Ingram.  The album is helmed by The Myriad frontman and longtime Jesus Culture producer Jeremy Edwardson in his northern California studios.

The major reason attributive to the success of "Revival" is that it is never static.  Never exhausting one style, the MCI worship team fluidly transits between traditional worship to dance to rap to contemporary pop.   Taking a lesson from Hillsong United, "Glorious" combines the cinematic unfolding of the song's melodic line with an ethereal balladry feel that makes this ode to Christ's resurrection power a piece of worship art.  Also, "Count the Stars" (featuring Martin Smith of Delirious) is easily one of the most melodious piece of worship balladry released this year.  While on the Jason Ingram co-write "Place of Surrender" the gears are shift back to those gorgeous hymn-like worship ballads that are so fitting for congregational singing.  Their cover of Worship Central's "Spirit Break Out" is by no means Xeroxed.  Rather, it even features a rap section reverently done by TobyMac.  "We Sing," on the other hand, is a ball of fun.  Percolating beats with a punch dance vibe, "We Sing" is testimonial of the fact that worshipping Jesus can be heaps of joy.

The title cut "Revival" theologically nails it: revival is more than just about hyped out emotions.  Rather, it's about God dwelling amongst his people. As a result, our emotions thoughts, hearts and actions are all transformed.  Soulfire Revolution has eloquently captured it here on this title cut and Kim Walker-Smith's commanding vocal presence is just a pure anointment.  However, if one could observe a wrinkle to the record, it is that "Revival" sounds very much like a polished North American worship product.  Given that the members of Soul Revolution are missionaries in Columbia, one would wish  they had brought in more of the sounds of their foreign turf to make "Revival" a step more flavorful.  Nevertheless, "Revival" is a punchy, slick and well-produced record stacked with lots of songs that could resource the church in her worship.