10000 Reasons

Top Worship Songs at WCC in 2014

worshipPrompted by a blog post from a worship leader a couple of years ago, I listed the top songs we used in our worship services.  I created a list for 2012 and 2013 so I thought it would be interesting to see what that list looked for 2014.

There are some songs that our congregation really responds to and you can tell by the volume of the singing.  We try to introduce new songs that will enhance our services and fit our congregation.  I can remember one we introduced a couple of years ago that we used twice and decided it just didn’t fit us.  There was nothing wrong with the song; it simply wasn’t a good match for our congregation.

While looking through the songs we sang, the song we used the most was God With Us.  It was a song our choir did in a Christmas program and really seemed to fit our congregation, both as a Christmas song and throughout the year.

The other top songs were 10,000 Reasons, Christ Is Enough, Glory to God Forever, Lord I Need You and This is Amazing Grace.

There were three songs we sang for the first time on 2014: This is Amazing Grace, Keep Making Me and My Heart is Yours.  We did also use Oceans and Beautiful Things, but they were presented as a special number rather than for congregational singing.

Here is the rest of the list (in alphabetical order).  They made up the regular rotation of songs, but don’t include all the songs we did.

  1. At Your Name (Yahweh, Yahweh)
  2. Awesome is the Lord Most High
  3. Change My Heart, Oh God
  4. Cornerstone
  5. Draw Me Close
  6. Enough
  7. Everlasting God
  8. Forever
  9. Here I am to Worship
  10. Holy is the Lord
  11. Jesus Messiah
  12. Keep Making Me
  13. Let Everything That Has Breath
  14. My Heart is Yours
  15. Not to Us
  16. Our God
  17. Shout to the Lord
  18. Step By Step
  19. Unchanging
  20. We Fall Down
  21. Worthy is the Lamb
  22. You Are My All in All
  23. Your Grace is Enough

Music selection is subjective – everyone has different tastes and preferences.  It’s always a challenge to find those songs that help lead a specific group of people to sing out in worship.  As we move through this year, we will continue to look for songs that will accomplish that purpose.

10,000 Reasons & Psalm 103

10,000 Reasons is a pretty well-known worship song and has been used in a variety of venues.  Just this summer I’ve sung it with our congregation, with about 900 high school students at a CIY MOVE Conference and with about 100 junior students at our week of summer camp.  We used it as part of our song set yesterday in our morning service and it seems to really connect with groups of all ages.

Before we sang it yesterday, we played about the first two minutes of this video where Matt Redman (who helped write the song) talks about the story behind the song.  Since I’m not a song writer, I find it interesting to hear about the process writers go through.  I like what he shares as it gives the back-story to the song we love to sing and points to Psalm 103 and what it says about worship.

Redman also gives a good reminder that God is always giving us reasons to worship Him.  Whether we are young or old, on the mountaintop or in a valley, loving life or struggling to get through the week, God provides numerous reasons to worship him.  A good reminder not only for our Sunday worship sets, but for how we live Monday through Friday.