"Watch the Children Pray 2006" is a tribute to vocalist David Wayne, who died on May 10, 2005 from complications following a car crash.

[2][3] AllMusic Greg Prato reviewed the album positively and commented that it is "unmistakably" Metal Church, in spite of the fact that only Kurdt Vanderhoof is the only remaining founding member of the band who performs on the record.

[4] Keith Bergman of Blabbermouth.net had the same feeling, as the production "seems designed to recall past glories", but praised A Light in the Dark for being "more cohesive, more like a band effort, and not coincidentally, the most consistent album since the band's heyday with late frontman David Wayne.

"[5] Rock Hard reviewer called it a "good, in the most positive sense, old-fashioned metal album with a balanced mix of proven power riffs, beautiful melodies and some sing-along choruses", though it did not approach qualitatively the band's early classics.

wrote that "Metal Church are proving themselves to be a dependable metal institution", but criticized the album for being too long, for having "too many mid-tempo blah rockers" and for the "sense of melodrama that dogs down" many songs.