bold<\/strong>), and at most 10 of them in the past two years.<\/p>\nIt’s tempting for some Christians to wonder if they’re missing out by not singing the songs that everyone else is singing, as if the wisdom of the crowds solely determined what was essential for growth as a Christian.<\/p>\n
No – what we need the most in our songs are words and melodies to “let the word of Christ dwell richly in us, teaching and admonishing one another…” (Col 3:16). If it comes from well-crafted songs from the top 25, that’s fantastic. But if it comes from from less-popular songs, from hearing the Bible read and explained, and from sharing how God’s working in our lives – that’s fantastic too, and we’re not missing out at all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
————————–<\/p>\n
Here are some things that the CCLI top 25 list doesn’t<\/strong> tell us, but I wish we could have more insight on:<\/p>\n\n- What kind of church uses all (or most) of the top 25 – a Hillsong-influenced one? A church that uses exclusively contemporary music? A church whose members are predominantly from a younger demographic?<\/li>\n
- How often are Christians singing public domain songs (e.g. traditional hymns)? Which ones have endured and which ones are not as well-known anymore? Why?<\/li>\n
- Are there songs, themes not on the list that Christians should be singing about more? Are there themes over-represented in the songs that NZ churches sing most frequently?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on looking at this list?<\/p>\n
Do you sing most of the songs on it or only a few?<\/p>\n
————————–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CCLI (the copyright administration company that most churches deal with) have released the top 25 worship songs that churches reported using between April – September 2012. On their website there are lists for the US, UK, Australia and NZ. Comparing between them will reveal some interesting differences (e.g. the UK list has UK-based songwriters … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “CCLI’s latest Top 25 List released – what it tells (and doesn’t tell) us”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,16,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chongsworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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