(Photo : Scott and Becky Parker's "When God Dreams" )

We live in a self-absorbed society.  Quite appallingly this is most transparent in our Christian songs; a large swath of our songs today has a cadence bent towards the self.  We want God to fulfill our dreams; we plead for God to mend our brokenness; we longed God to enlarge our influence; we cry for God to answer our prayers.  Though there is Bible precedence that God does heal, answer, restore and blesses the broken, our worship songs are so one-sided that it becomes all about us, our ambitions and how we can live better.  God becomes gagged.  If God is indeed the sole object of true worship, why do we sing about our dreams and not His?  Why don't we sing more about what makes His heart pulsates rather than what makes us happy?  Why don't we pray for God's influence to be advanced rather than ours?  Scott and Becky Parker's debut record of all new material "When God Dreams" doesn't tread on such egoistical tangent of the self.  They rightly put the focus back on God.  Maybe by the fact that the Parkers were once missionaries in South America, their experience has corrected them from wearing the glasses of our deeply Western self-prospering theology.  

"When God Dreams" features 10 of Scott and Becky Parker's own compositions with the inclusion of John Newton's "Amazing Grace" and a newly revamped version of the hymn "Abide in Me." Musically, their worship style predominantly stays clear from the scaffold of electric guitars and towering drums. Rather, they have opted for the recourse that less is more.  "Heartbeat of the Universe," featuring Scott Parker on vocals, is a symbiosis of Paul Baloche's soft rock worship and a hook-laden melody undergirding an anthem of praise to the Creator of the universe coming as a child to save us.  Wife Becky Parker lets her beautiful soprano shine on the title cut "When God Dreams."  With many sermons and songs exalting Jesus to further our dreams, it is refreshing to hear the Parkers sing about what God actually dreams about. Becky Parker gets to excel again on the Twila Paris-like ballad "Beloved" and she makes the love of Jesus sounds so infectious on the string-laden "Never Been Loved Liked That."   

Though this is a studio album, the countrified "For You" has an engaging live feel that shows that Scott Parker can belt a tune with versatility.  If there is any tooth to pick, it's in the uneven handedness of the production.  "Alone Exalted," has a gorgeous melody that looks forward to the day where the nations would worship Jesus on the new Jerusalem.  But imbuing such a majestic message is an anemic acoustic-balladry backing that just fails to fuel the excitement of the lyrics.  On the other extreme is the modern rock-ish "All Who Call Upon Your Name."  The raging electric guitar, the heavy percussion and Scott Parker's echoic vocals sounds stands like a soared thumb relative to the tenor of the rest of the songs.

Two hymns are tagged towards the end of the album.  "Amazing Grace," the penultimate track, is brilliantly saved from the dirge-like feel often suffered in the hands of a lesser artist.  And Scott Parker is to be congratulated for crafting a thoughtful folk-like tune to the hymn "Abide in Me."  At the risk of sounding irreverent, Parker's version sounds even better than the original.  On the whole, "When God Dreams" is a breadth of fresh air.  In a culture whose eyes are on the "I"s, the Parkers rightly remind us that we are not the center of the universe.  God is.  And until when God is exalted as our center, then we can be able to see His dream unfold ----  a dream far richer, better and more encompassing than the exaltation of the myopic self.