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Josh Sadlon’s imagination was captured by a denomination’s turn of phrase. The musician and worship music producer, who had attended and served at influential megachurches including Saddleback and Hillsong London, thought the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) had a great way of stating its mission-forward identity: All of Jesus for all the world.
Ultimately, that’s what drew him into the denomination.
“I’d never been a big denomination person,” Sadlon said. “But the theme ‘All of Jesus for all the world’—there was just something about that. I can get on board with that. That’s me.”
Putting the theological commitment into a worship song was harder. But Sadlon was happy to help a group of CMA musicians and songwriters—including Dove Award–winning artist Aaron Shust—try as part of a project to produce music that explicitly foregrounds CMA distinctives.
Here’s what they came up with:
May our hands no more withhold
Perfect love that we behold
May it go beyond the comfort of our walls
All of Jesus, all of Jesus
All of Jesus for all the world
For all the world
I will go tell the world
Of all the love I’ve ever known
Jesus, Jesus
I long to share my Jesus
Jesus, Jesus
For all the world needs Jesus
“All of Jesus (For All the World)” and “All the World Needs Jesus” were two of six songs the newly formed Alliance Worship collective composed during a Colorado mountain retreat and introduced to the CMA’s 1,800 American congregations at its biannual council gathering in 2021. The group introduced some more songs this year and is working on a second album, Alliance Worship, Vol. 2, scheduled for release early in 2024.
“These are songs where we actually get to sing our theology and sing our mission,” Sadlon said. “They were songs written to worship to.”
Alliance leadership is hoping this will be the ...