#ccli

As a songwriter, you’ve probably wondered: How do I protect my songs? The good news is that copyright is simpler than most people realize. In fact, your music is protected the moment you create it. Let’s walk through the easiest ways to make sure your songs are safe and legally yours. 1. Copyright Is Automatic The moment you write a song—whether that’s lyrics on a page, chords on a chart, or a…

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. – Colossians 3:16.

The CCLI Top 100 – a list of the top songs sung in churches – was released this week. It is based on reporting data from a broad cross-section of small to large US churches across all denominations. These are the songs that God hears us sing.

After looking it over, I started to wonder: What does the role of singing have to do in shaping the church? Colossians 3:16 gives us at least three reasons.

1. Singing allows the word of Christ to richly dwell in us.

Songs stick with us. They stay in our hearts and minds. They saturate our lives. And when our songs are written with words that accurately reflect the Word of God, to show the beauty and worth of Christ – we can rest in their truth.

2. Singing assists us in teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom.

When we sing, we don’t just sing to ourselves. Yes, we are singing to God – but we are also singing to each other. And singing does not have to stay in the context of corporate worship. We can sing in small groups, we can sing in Bible study, and we can sing in our homes. We can easily encourage each other when we have songs in our hearts to sing.

3. Singing affects our hearts to rightfully respond to God in thankfulness.

Singing encourages us to express our emotions. For the Christian, our hearts should be filled with thankfulness as we find ourselves flooded with grace. Singing helps us recalibrate the compass of our hearts, pointing north toward our kind and gracious God.

The Power of Music and the Praise of Our God

With these three reasons in mind, we should carefully consider the songs we sing at church. Just because a song is on the CCLI Top 100 – it doesn’t mean that it’s the best song to sing or even that we should be singing it at all. We must have wisdom and discernment in choosing music.

But all of this deep thinking about singing doesn’t make it dry or dull. What it does is make me pause at the power of music, and it makes my heart glad at our God and King – who loves to hear his children sing.

Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! – Psalm 47:6.

CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) offers copyright licensing of songs and other resource materials for use in Christian worship. They help with the reproduction of words of songs for church worship use.

Top 20

Their list of top songs is updated every six months. Here are the Top 20 CCLI Songs reported by U.S. churches. Released on June 1, 2019.

Who You Say I Am (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)

What A Beautiful Name (Ben Fielding, Brooke Ligertwood)

Reckless Love (Caleb Culver, Cory Asbury, Ran Jackson)

This Is Amazing Grace (Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro, Phil Wickham)

Great Are You Lord (David Leonard, Jason Ingram, Leslie Jordan)

Build My Life (Brett Younker, Karl Martin, Kirby Kaple, Matt Redman, Pat Barrett)

Living Hope (Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham)

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) (Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman)

The Lion And The Lamb (Brenton Brown, Brian Johnson, Leeland Mooring)

Good Good Father (Anthony Brown, Pat Barrett)

O Come To The Altar (Chris Brown, Mack Brock, Steven Furtick, Wade Joye)

Glorious Day (Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Kristian Stanfill, Sean Curran)

King Of My Heart (John Mark McMillan, Sarah McMillan)

Lord I Need You (Christy Nockels, Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, Kristian Stanfill, Matt Maher)

Cornerstone (Edward Mote, Eric Liljero, Jonas Myrin, Reuben Morgan, William Batchelder Bradbury)

How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves)

Do It Again (Chris Brown, Mack Brock, Matt Redman, Steven Furtick)

Holy Spirit (Bryan Torwalt, Katie Torwalt)

In Christ Alone (Keith Getty, Stuart Townend)

Christmas is here! And with the start of December, nobody can deny that it is now appropriate and correct to play Christmas music. 

CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc.) helps with song licensing and reproduction in church worship services. Here are the CCLI Top 20 Christmas Songs as reported from their database:

O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles) – C. Frederick Oakeley, John Francis Wade

Joy To The World (Antioch) – George Frideric Handel, Isaac Watts

Silent Night (Stille Nacht) – Franz Xaver Gruber, John Freeman Young, Joseph Mohr

Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy) – Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Matt Gilder, George Frideric Handel, Isaac Watts

Hark The Herald Angels Sing (Mendelssohn) – Charles Wesley, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

O Holy Night – Adolphe Charles Adam, John Sullivan Dwight, Placide Cappeau

O Come O Come Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel) – John Mason Neale, Thomas Helmore

Go Tell It On The Mountain – John W. Work Jr.

Angels We Have Heard On High (Gloria) – Edward Shippen Barnes, James Chadwick

The First Noel 

Away In A Manger (Mueller) – James Ramsey Murray, John Thomas McFarland, Martin Luther

Mary Did You Know – Buddy Greene, Mark Lowry

What Child Is This (Greensleeves) – William Chatterton Dix

O Little Town Of Bethlehem (Saint Louis) – Lewis Henry Redner, Phillips Brooks

Noel (sung by Lauren Daigle) – Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Matt Redman

O Holy Night – Bart Millard, Adolphe Charles Adam, John Sullivan Dwight, Placide Cappeau

He Shall Reign Forevermore – Chris Tomlin, Matt Maher

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear (Carol) – Edmund Hamilton Sears, Richard Storrs Willis

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Hyfrydol) – Charles Wesley, Rowland Hugh Prichard

In terms of worship style, any debate over separation from culture is pointless nonsense.  Unless we are all gathering in first century BCE Jewish synagogues and speaking Hebrew, all of our worship styles are contextualized to our culture.  That is not to say that those styles are invalid or that traditions of the past do not have value.  It is just important to be humble enough to realize that…