The topic of church music is a very touchy one. You don't want to offend people but everyone's going to have a different opinion on what constitutes a good, or suitable, song for singing at church.
I have very strong opinions on this front. As someone who likes to get caught up and moved by music I'm quite particular and if a song isn't grabbing me then I get bored quickly. Unfortunately this happens quite a lot (sorry guys and gals).
I'm sure there are great biblical truths behind the songs we sing at church but it feels like hard work with most of them.
There would be probably five or so songs that get regular plays at church that inspire me, move me or affect me and make me want to worship the Lord. They are: Amazing Grace (I think everyone would agree this is timeless), None Can Compare, In Christ Alone, Jesus Your Blood And Righteousness, and there was a newish one that I can't recall the name of. Oh, well I'll think of it some time. That's not a long list is it?
Fortunately, I don't get all my Christian music from church, I have a collection of my own. Admittedly there's a bit of Hillsong in there but even they can produce ordinary music.
My favourite P&W songs are as follows, in no particular order. I'm not sure that they are all suitable for performance in church but I'm already living with that now.
Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
Walk By Faith - Jeremy Camp
Shout To The Lord - Hillsong/Darlene Zschech
In The Light - DC Talk
Learning To Trust - David Meece
Holy Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
More Than Life - Hillsong
In Your Presence - Jeremy Camp
I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever - Sonicflood (the version I have)
I Want To Know You - Sonicflood (ditto)
Everyday - Hillsong
In Your Presence - Jeremy Camp
You're The One - Chris Tomlin
How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin
Nothing Else I Need - Jeremy Camp
There Is Nothing Like - Hillsong
Hallelujah - Hillsong
Like I said, there's a bit of Hillsong in there, and a bit of Tomlin and Camp, but as I have said previously I feel they are the benchmark for P&W music as far as I am concerned.
By listing this, I don't assume for a second that any of these songs will appear on our playlist, although I think it is a huge shame that Shout To The Lord is no longer sung.
5 comments:
That's helpful Ray, very interesting to read. What did you think of the new song "Jesus, thank you" that you did last night?
We still do 'Shout to the Lord' at our church :)
Why has it been struck from your songlist?
The two songs that affect me most are:
Amazing Love (don't know who it's by, but it's awesome).
It is You - Newsboys (on their Thrive album)
We don't sing It is You at church, but I'm hoping to introduce it soon. It's a really great song.
In the Light doesn't normally work too well as a sing-along (for want of a better word) because of it's rhythm etc, but it is still a great song :)
Good list!
Come to think of it Amazing Love isn't bad. There are probably a few that I have forgotten.
Craig, the new song last night was ok but it didn't blow me away.
Jeremy, no problem mate, any time. If you want you can contact me through the Telegraph and I think my hotmail address is on my SydAng profile.
I thought you were already evil! Not true Joe, you're `my favourite fictional character'.
Come on, you gotta know where that quote is from!
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