When is a best of not a best of?

Answer: when it’s a collection of the work of one of the world’s leading worship songwriters. Like Matt Redman. Anyone who thinks that the very best of Matt has already been written, recorded and sung in churches around the world is clearly mistaken. Matt continues to write songs that impact the church worldwide.

That’s not to say that The Ultimate Collection is short on strong songs. From Let Everything That Has Breath to Once Again, including I Will Offer Up My Life and Better Is One Day – Matt has spent his teens, twenties and early thirties writing the sort of worship songs that connect with Christians on the deepest of levels. Honest, engaging and connected to the very heart of a compassionate, loving Father God, Matt’s songs have given the church strength and hope, brought us back to the heart of worship and reminded us that, no matter what the storms life throws at us, he never lets go.

Matt’s songs have always come from the heart – whether they be the earliest reflections on a childhood where he ‘didn’t have much luck with fathers’ to the trials and troubles that often accompany the transition to adult – and parenthood. Think Blessed Be Your Name, You Never Let Go and you get the picture; the power to connect faith and experience means that his songs are sung all over the world, and he has received numerous awards and accolades for his work (among them the 2009 ASCAP Award for Christian songwriter of the year).

This may well be the Ultimate Collection, but only so far. Five years from now and we’ll all be glad of a whole new raft of songs from the man whose heart has warmed the church and brought us closer to God.

Matt Redman's Ultimate Collection will be released on 15 March.