print: GOSPEL MUSIC REVIEW: My Destiny (Stephen Hurd) | September, 2006 on BlackGospel.com

My Destiny / Stephen Hurd
(Integrity Gospel)

September, 2006 on BlackGospel.com - Review by Jennifer Belot

The title “Prince of Praise” is one that has already been loosely attributed to a few Praise & Worship leader artists, but allow me to make the case for a viable contender to the title. Minister Stephen Hurd has been at it for nearly two decades and in that time has more than qualified himself for the running. Now on his fourth praise album entitled, My Destiny, he is poised to remind the industry and listeners why his ministry has endured all these years.

From the onset, Minister Stephen Hurd’s music has been dedicated to the worship of our God and King. The Maryland native studied music at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts at Howard University College of Fine Arts and has since then used his academic knowledge to further the work of the Kingdom. Consecrated to the ministry in 1988, he served on ministry teams with anointed evangelists the likes of which include Reverend Jackie McCullough, Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Dr. John Kenny and Bishop Paul Morton.

In the early nineties, the industry took notice of his talent when he recorded his first song “Calvary” with the late Reverend Donald Vails, for whom he was serving as musical director at the time. In August of 1994, the industry once again began took notice as the GMWA Mass Choir recorded Hurd’s “Philippians 4:13 (Stand)” and “Lord & King” two years later.

That same year, Hurd obeyed the calling of the Spirit and developed a Levitical Ministry now known as the 15-voice Corporate Worship. The music flowed like water from the garden of Eden and in 1999, Stephen A Hurd and Corporate Worship released their self-entitled, critically acclaimed debut album. In November of 2001, their sophomore project in the overflow was released. Now, I must take a moment to say that therein lies my introduction to Stephen Hurd’s ministry and, I was awestruck. Then a novice in the industry, I had never been exposed to such an unadulterated, undiluted form of Praise & Worship, and dare I say, I was an instant fan. After a 3-year hiatus, Hurd returned in 2004 with a call to worship. That project, recorded live in DC was Hurd’s first project under Alabama-based Integrity Gospel.

My Destiny, due out Oct. 3^rd, simply continues a tradition that Hurd calls “The posture of praise”.

A Great Praise (The War Cry) is overwrought with instrumentality as the voices of the Corporate Worship singers chant in quiet assurance “Arise sing a great praise”. As the worship leader encourages resonant hallelujahs representative of the war cry of praise, the instruments launch into their own instrumental praise, to be reiterated once again in Steven Ford & Jonathan DuBose’s Zamar Celebration.

The Glory Chant is a musical homage to Afro-Cuban rhythms and contrasts nicely with the contemporary worship of the song that follows it. Todah is an updated and more melodious version of its more raucous counterpart found in Hurd’s sophomore album, In The Overflow.

The easy and joyful Jesus You’re Wonderful, coupled with the reverent canticles Why I Came and The Glory of the Lord are your quintessential Praise & Worship hymns with their requisite repetitive lyrical content coupled with strategically effortless key changes. Perfect for a multicultural Praise & Worship gathering, it is praise without the confines of cultural identification. It is simply universal praise unto God.

Morning Medley is a prayer of choruses to be used in morning worship when the words escape us and all we can do is hum a familiar ditty. My grandmother used to say that to sing is to pray twice, and this medley is the prime example of this as the words manifestly call forth the presence of God culminating in the traditional hymn Draw Me Nearer then streaming seamlessly into Healed by the Power of His Word.

From the beauteous introduction “Not just a melody, or just a harmony… greater than a symphony, you are my love song” My Love Song is corporate worship in the privacy of eyes closed in prayer, with the classical tones of My Jesus I Love Thee interspersed throughout.

The title track Destiny is the only track from the album that is less of a corporate worship song and more of a personal testimony from the Levite as he engages in a private conversation with God. “What’s the plan that you have for me, the place you’ve called me to be… what’s the plight that you’ve called me to, the thing I’m set aside to do…reveal to me the mysteries and the plan you have for me… Destiny.”

I was literally brought to tears in the extravagant reverence of Revelations 19:1 the Biblical words of which say “And after these things I heard a voice of much people in the heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor and power, unto the Lord our God.” A song I used to hear sung by the church choir when I was younger, the awesome hallelujahs in cannon sung by the First Baptist Church Combined Choir is one of those chorale songs that (at the chance of sounding contrived) truly ushers worshippers into the presence of God.

There is something familiar about the whole album and I can only chalk it up to the presence of God in prayer. It’s almost as though Minister Hurd and Corporate Worship are our partners in prayer as we indulge in a private spiritual visitation. If that is so, then Minister Hurd has fulfilled his spiritual vision which states that “…Worship is to practice the presence of God that denotes a form of intimacy… required in a relationship between the worshipper and God the King

I began this review by stating the case for Minister Stephen Hurd as a candidate to the title of Prince of Praise and not undeservedly so. However, his mandate finds him too humble to accept manmade accolades of the sort for he seeks to be but a servant to The Most High as his motto found in 2 Timothy 2:21 attests; “Sanctified and useful to the Master, prepared for every good work”. To be a servant of the King, that's true destiny.