In a previous post, I noted the top songs sung in churches. I got the information from CCLI, but CCLI does not track songs in the public domain. As a consequence, my list missed many of the great hymns of the church.
I am grateful for the work of LifeWayWorship.com. They were able to provide me a ranking of sales of the top 25 hymns sung in the church. The period covered contains cumulative sales for the past four years.
- How Great Thou Art
- Great Is Thy Faithfulness
- Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
- Holy, Holy, Holy
- Jesus Paid It All
- Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
- Crown Him with Many Crowns
- It Is Well with My Soul
- To God Be the Glory
- The Solid Rock
- Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
- I Stand Amazed in the Presence
- Victory in Jesus
- Nothing but the Blood
- Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound
- Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
- At the Cross
- Revive Us Again
- Be Thou My Vision
- Because He Lives
- Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
- A Mighty Fortress is Our God
- For A Thousand Tongues To Sing
- America, the Beautiful
“How Great Thou Art” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” are still under copyright, so CCLI tracks them and they rank #26 and #53 respectively on their list of all songs sung in church.
To create this list, we combined the sales from a traditional arrangement and a contemporary arrangement for each hymn. I encourage you to visit LifeWayWorship.com. It’s a great resource for all churches.
So what do you think of this list?
As a pastor in a traditional church setting, I’d say this is a pretty accurate list. However, for me #25 is out of place. Personally, I cringe when Worship Services include patriotic songs whose words more accurately worship America, rather then God. There’s a place for those songs, even at a church for specific events, but not worship. That’s reserved for God.
I totally agree with you Paul
Pretty interesting that “How Great Thou Art” is number one. Last week I climbed to the top of LOOK ROCK in the Smoky Mountains here in East Tennessee. With a 360 degree panoramic view stretching out before me as far as the horizon would let the eye rove, I sang softly, reverently and in awe of God’s creative work. “How Great Thou Art” was the only hymn that seemed appropriate for the experience, and I remembered almost every word to all 4 verses!
In Christian love, Curtis
That’s a great story Curtis.
I agree with you sir Paul.
I’m a little late to the party but thanks, Thom, for the list. I am compiling a top 40 list of worship songs for the congregation to sing over the course of 10 weeks at the church. Having Lifeway’s list allows me to program many hymns (albeit contemporary versions) into the worship, as we do each week.
Glad to help!
Thank you so much for this list. I am a contemporary praise and worship leader and largely use fairly current songs with some hymns from different denominations. Each deniminations seems to call a different subset of songs “hymns” and that gets confusing. This list you’ve compiled looks like if has a lot that either are common to many hymn books, or at least somewhat in the mainstream American culture.
I’ve just started leading worship on the streets of DC among homeless folk and am stumped as to what may be familiar to them. Not getting a lot of suggestions from them so far, but this is a new part of the ministry. I think this list will help. I want to blend what is familiar in with what is new. While so many recently written songs address where these folk are right now, and do show so much of Who the Lord is, it is difficult for people to enter into worship when the songs are totally new.
So — the plan is widely known hymns + contemporary praise and worship songs + — do you have a list of “gospel songs” that would be widely known? Kind of like those sung in the Church of God in Christ?
These are all my favorites from when a was a young man growing up in church. Would you happen to know of a CD or musical compilation with most of your Top 25 songs on it. What source or resource would you recommend?
Because He Lives © 1971 William J. Gaither, Inc. All rights controlled by Gaither Copyright Management.