Worship Music: The Relevancy Project
Posted by chris on September 2, 2010
Back in July, I read a very thought-provoking blog post by Bob Kauflin. The blog post asks “When should a worship song be retired?“. It’s a question that I pondered a little bit, but did not really confront me practically until literally 5 minutes ago.
After working through different ways of “projecting” song lyrics to congregation, I’ve decided that for the College and Careers group in my church, creating “Worship Books” – kind of like modern day hymnals, is the best way to go. It eliminates the need to set up and take down a power-point system every week. And it also gives us a portable way of doing worship if we ever went away for beach or camping trips – places where there wouldn’t be power for a computer and projection.
I began working on this “Worship Book” about an hour ago. I decided that the best way to do it was to go through CCLI’s top 100 used worship songs. I was doing fine until about 5 minutes ago when I hit a speed bump. I decided that I wanted to “retire” a song – that is, not include a few of those songs on CCLI’s list in my own book. But then I got to thinking, who am I to be making this determination? Am I simply eliminating songs that I didn’t like any more, or did I really think that the songs I was eliminating were no longer useful or relevant for corporate worship?
I pondered this dilemma for a few minutes when I realized, I really need some help with this. Hence this, “Relevancy Project”. For the next week, I am welcoming emails and comments as to what worship songs *you* think are relevant still. So listed below is CCLI’s Top 100 Worship Songs. Please take from the list the songs you think should be included in my College and Career group’s Worship Book… and then make a separate list of songs that you think should be included (please make two distinct lists: one of songs that were in CCLI’s Top 100, and one of songs that are not).
Submissions will be closed on September 10, 2010. And I will post up the songs I’ve decided to include in our “Worship Book” by September 13.
Please if at all possible, read Bob Kauflin’s blog post before doing this project. Also, if you feel comfortable doing it, please include a little blurb about yourself – your age, what you are doing in life (school, work, etc), your church denomination, and any other information like that that you think might affect your choices. I will not take this blurb in to consideration when making my choices. I am just a little interested in how people’s contexts may affect their choices in Worship Music.. This is absolutely not necessary, it is simply welcome if you feel comfortable including it!
Finally, while this project is for my College and Careers group, submissions from anyone is of course welcome. Just because you don’t fit into the age bracket normally associated with this group, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t submit. Everyone’s opinions are welcome here!
Please comment on this post if you wish to remain anonymous. Otherwise, you can email me through chris@trulygodisfirst.com.
Thank you in advanced!
CCLI’s Top 100 Songs
- Mighty To Save. By Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan
- How Great Is Our God. By Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
- Blessed Be Your Name. By Beth Redman, Matt Redman
- Here I Am To Worship. By Tim Hughes
- Everlasting God. By Brenton Brown, Ken Riley
- Revelation Song. By Jennie Lee Riddle
- Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone). By Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, John Newton
- Holy Is The Lord. By Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio
- Forever. By Chris Tomlin
- Jesus Messiah. By Chris Tomlin, Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
- Your Grace Is Enough. By Matt Maher
- Open The Eyes Of My Heart. By Paul Baloche
- You Are My King (Amazing Love). By Billy Foote
- Shout To The Lord. By Darlene Zschech
- Come Now Is The Time To Worship. By Brian Doerksen
- Hosanna (Praise Is Rising). By Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
- In Christ Alone. By Stuart Townend, Keith Getty
- From The Inside Out. By Joel Houston
- Hosanna. By Brooke Fraser
- Lord I Lift Your Name On High. By Rick Founds
- We Fall Down. By Chris Tomlin
- God Of Wonders. By Marc Byrd, Steve Hindalong
- The Heart Of Worship. By Matt Redman
- Beautiful One. By Tim Hughes
- Your Name. By Paul Baloche, Glenn Packiam
- You Never Let Go. By Matt Redman, Beth Redman
- You Are My All In All. By Dennis Jernigan
- Friend Of God. By Michael Gungor, Israel Houghton
- Trading My Sorrows. By Darrell Evans
- Breathe. By Marie Barnett
- Days Of Elijah. By Robin Mark
- You’re Worthy Of My Praise. By David Ruis
- Better Is One Day. By Matt Redman
- Sing To The King. By Billy Foote, Charles Silvester Horne
- Enough. By Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio
- The Stand. By Joel Houston
- Indescribable. By Laura Story
- How Great Thou Art. By Stuart Wesley Keene Hine
- I Give You My Heart. By Reuben Morgan
- God Of This City. By Aaron Boyd, Richard Bleakley, Ian Jordan, Andrew McCann, Peter Kernaghan, Peter Comfort
- How Deep The Father’s Love For Us. By Stuart Townend
- I Am Free. By Jon Egan
- How He Loves. By John Mark McMillan
- The Wonderful Cross. By Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin, J. D. Walt, Isaac Watts, Lowell Mason
- Happy Day. By Ben Cantelon, Tim Hughes
- Give Thanks. By Henry Smith
- Above All. By Lenny LeBlanc, Paul Baloche
- You Are Good. By Israel Houghton
- Today Is The Day. By Lincoln Brewster, Paul Baloche
- Offering. By Paul Baloche
- Draw Me Close. By Kelly Carpenter
- Sing Sing Sing. By Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Matt Gilder, Daniel Carson, Travis Nunn
- Lord Reign In Me. By Brenton Brown
- You Are Holy (Prince Of Peace). By Marc Imboden, Tammi Rhoton
- Lead Me To The Cross. By Brooke Fraser
- All Because Of Jesus. By Steve Fee
- I Love You Lord. By Laurie Klein
- I Will Rise. By Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Jesse Reeves, Matt Maher
- Glory To God Forever. By Steve Fee, Vicky Beeching
- Great Is Thy Faithfulness. By Thomas Obediah Chisholm, William Marion Runyan
- I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever. By Martin Smith
- Agnus Dei. By Michael W. Smith
- He Is Exalted. By Twila Paris
- Love The Lord. By Lincoln Brewster
- As The Deer. By Martin Nystrom
- My Savior My God. By Aaron Shust, Dorothy Dora Greenwell
- Hallelujah. By Brenton Brown, Brian Doerksen
- Marvelous Light. By Charlie Hall
- Give Us Clean Hands. By Charlie Hall
- My Savior Lives. By Jon Egan, Glenn Packiam
- Let It Rise. By Holland Davis
- He Knows My Name. By Tommy Walker
- Majestic. By Lincoln Brewster
- O Praise Him. By David Crowder
- How Can I Keep From Singing. By Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Matt Redman
- Awesome Is The Lord Most High. By Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Cary Pierce, Jon Abel
- Hungry. By Kathryn Scott
- Amazed. By Jared Anderson
- Awesome God. By Rich Mullins
- Shine Jesus Shine. By Graham Kendrick
- My Redeemer Lives. By Reuben Morgan
- Not To Us. By Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin
- Everyday. By Joel Houston
- Salvation Is Here. By Joel Houston
- Majesty. By Jack Hayford
- Made Me Glad. By Miriam Webster
- Sanctuary. By John W. Thompson, Randy Scruggs
- Our God Saves. By Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
- Healer. By Mike Guglielmucci
- Grace Like Rain. By Todd Agnew, Chris Collins, Edwin O. Excell, John Newton
- Emmanuel. By Bob McGee
- All Who Are Thirsty. By Brenton Brown, Glenn Robertson
- Worthy Is The Lamb. By Darlene Zschech
- Because Of Your Love. By Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
- Let God Arise. By Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
- Came To My Rescue. By Joel Davies, Marty Sampson, Dylan Thomas
- I Exalt Thee. By Pete Sanchez Jr.
- In The Secret. By Andy Park
- Unchanging. By Chris Tomlin
- Take My Life. By Scott Underwood

