Love Broke Through

Signature crystal vocals, poignant lyrics, truth-driven story telling, and powerful worship songs.
As Jennifer Shaw prepares to release her new CD, LOVE BROKE THROUGH, which has already garnered a # 3 song on the national worship radio charts, she is still amazed at the directional change in her musical aspirations. Most praise & worship artists do not begin their careers singing as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, or performing arias from Puccini operas such as La Rondine and La Boheme. But then Jennifer never really meant to become a Christian singer, let alone a worship leader for a church. She was simply giving her dying father a Christmas gift.
The songs on LOVE BROKE THROUGH certainly reflect the mountain of intense moments in Jennifer’s life and the lessons learned in the midst of it all. The CD’s first top radio hit, “Your Great Name,” was a no-brainer addition to the album after Jennifer heard the song. “The lyrics spoke to me so much of what we had been through, and what we had learned – that everything of value that’s done, and everything that’s possible, is possible through the name of Jesus.”
Many of the songs that Jennifer penned for the CD were inspired not only by her years of despair but with her encounters on various mission trips, especially the title cut. “I was talking to a young man from Ruthin, Wales –an area that is very dark. It’s a coal town where the jobs have left and there is very little hope. The suicide rate here in the US among young people is about 1 in 2000, but in Ruthin it is 1 in 50. He was telling me how he met the Lord, and his face was just shining with the love and hope of God. It was just an incredible contrast and transformation.”
“Asante sana, Jesu” is a song that came to Jennifer during her trip to Africa. “I was leading worship at a church in Nairobi, and they opened the service with the people singing those words which mean, ‘Thank you so much, Jesus.’ When we were in Kenya, we saw some of the most difficult living situations, and yet the Christians there had such joy. We met one local pastor and sat in his dung hut with chickens hopping in and out of the door, and he was telling me all the amazing things God has done; how he had started 10 churches of 500 people meeting under trees. I was so inspired by him, and his faith and trust in God that I wrote this song for him and the other Kenyan Christians we were privileged to meet.”
Produced by renowned Lifeway songwriter and producer Paul Marino, LOVE BROKE THROUGH features six songs co-written by Jennifer. But the CD’s final cut is a classical benediction that Jennifer ends every concert with — “E’en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come.” The song gave Jennifer a chance to dust off her operatic vocals and stretch to the ethereal melodies she first fell in love with as a child.
“Honestly, this whole thing of having a music ministry never occurred to us,” Jennifer admits. “The idea of me trying to be a contemporary singer was so ludicrous, but it was fun, and dad liked it. I wanted him to have a gift, and never thought people would hear it outside our church. It became such an encouragement to us during the darkest days, but now I see God giving us a brand new ministry, and growing it like crazy.
“Our entire focus is different now. Before, I wanted to follow Christ and live a nice, comfortable, respectable life with some accolades thrown in there to remind me that I was special. Now, all I want is for people to see Christ. I feel a definite urgency and impatience with wasting time on things that don’t really matter. Christ matters. And that’s it.”