A Primer On Rising And Falling Worship Songs In The CCLI Top 100

For Christian song writers, music publishers and worship leaders, CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) provides a strong indicator to the kinds of worship songs that churches are singing around the world. Every year, new songs rise into our repertoires, creating an interesting shuffle in the list of top worship songs. If we are looking specifically at the Top 100 Worship Songs, as reported by the latest CCLI bi-annual reporting, there are only 100 spots. That means, if a song comes into the list, a song has to move out of the list. Some songs have incredible staying power, while others lose their momentum. Some songs are for a season, while others have a deep strength to continue ministering to churches with their message and melodies. We have put together a comparison of the recent CCLI Top 100 Songs, assessing the movement of songs in this list to the previous reporting period.

Top Worship Songs On The Rise

Out of all 100 songs, there are two that deserve notable attention. The first, What A Beautiful Name, debuted on the list at number two, right behind This Is Amazing Grace.  The second, No Longer Slaves, also debuted on the list just a few spots behind at number 12. These are two incredible songs from Hillsong and Bethel, making their mark in 2017.  What is most interesting is that both of these songs come directly from churches, rather than typical Christian recording artists. From the church and for the church is certainly a rising theme in modern worship circles. Here is a list of the top rising worship songs in CCLI worth noting.

What A Beautiful Name (Live)

Hillsong Worship (Let There Be Light)

Keys: Bb, C, D, E, Eb, G

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No Longer Slaves (Spontaneous)(Live)

Bethel Music (We Will Not Be Shaken)

Keys: A, Ab, B, Bb, C, G

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Your Love Awakens Me

Phil Wickham (Children Of God)

Keys: A, Ab, B, Bb, C, G

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King Of My Heart

Bethel Music (Starlight)

Keys: A, Bb, G

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Jesus We Love You

Bethel Music (We Will Not Be Shaken)

Keys: A, Ab, B, Bb, G

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My Lighthouse

Rend Collective (The Art Of Celebration)

Keys: B, Bb, C

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Top Stable Worship Songs

Next to the new songs on the block are those top worship songs that clearly have staying power. These are the top worship songs that the world has been singing for years, and they are still standing strong.

1. Sing To The King (New Life Worship)
2. At Your Name (Phil Wickham)
3. Lay Me Down (Chris Tomlin)
4. I Love You Lord (Laurie Klein)
5. Fierce (Jesus Culture, Chris Quilala)
6. Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) (Casting Crowns)
7. This I Believe (The Creed) (Hillsong Worship)
8. In Christ Alone (Kristian Stanfill, Passion)
9. This Is Amazing Grace (Phil Wickham)
10. Good Good Father (Chris Tomlin)
11. 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) (Matt Redman, Passion)
12. Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) (Hillsong UNITED, TAYA)
13. Cornerstone (Hillsong Worship)
14. Lord I Need You (Matt Maher)
15. Your Great Name (Natalie Grant)
16. Holy Spirit (Francesca Battistelli)
17. Alive (Hillsong Young & Free)
18. How Great Thou Art (Paul Baloche)
19. How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin)
20. Build Your Kingdom Here (Rend Collective)
21. Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
22. Mighty To Save (Hillsong Worship)
23. Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture)
24. Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin)

Songs That Got Bumped Off The List

And finally, it is time to pay homage to the older songs that had to give way for all the great new songs. These are the ones that got bumped off the CCLI Top 100 song list.

1. Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Lincoln Brewster)
2. Great I Am (New Life Worship)
3. Only King Forever (Elevation Worship)
4. We Believe (Newsboys)
5. Unstoppable God (Elevation Worship)
6. Even So Come (Passion, Chris Tomlin)
7. God Is Able (Hillsong Worship)
8. Victory In Jesus (Travis Cottrell)
9. Break Every Chain (Will Reagan, United Pursuit)
10. You Make Me Brave (Amanda Lindsey Cook, Bethel Music)
11. Always (Kristian Stanfill, Passion)
12. You Never Let Go (Matt Redman, Passion)
13. Set A Fire (Will Reagan, United Pursuit)
14. I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)
15. One Day (When We All Get To Heaven) (Matt Redman)
16. We Fall Down (Chris Tomlin, Passion)
17. Overcome (Jeremy Camp)
18. I'll Fly Away (Instrumental) (Brad Henderson)
19. Glory To God Forever (FEE Band)
20. Lay Me Down (Chris Tomlin)
21. Sing To The King (New Life Worship)
22. I Love You Lord (Laurie Klein)
23. Fierce (Jesus Culture, Chris Quilala)
24. At Your Name (Phil Wickham)

Top PraiseCharts Songs Not Trending In CCLI (Yet)

The CCLI Top 100 is always a few months behind.  You might find it interesting to see a list of the top songs in PraiseCharts not yet trending on the most recent CCLI Top 100 list.  Here they are:

1. Glorious Day (Passion, Kristian Stanfill)
2. It Is Well (Kristene DiMarco, Bethel Music)
3. Jesus Paid It All (Kristian Stanfill, Passion)
4. Resurrecting (Live) (Elevation Worship)
5. Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) (Hillsong Worship)
6. O Come To The Altar (Elevation Worship)

Top CCLI Songs Not Trending In PraiseCharts

On the other hand, there are a of songs being reported by CCLI that don't get much traction in PraiseCharts any longer.  This may be a sign that these songs will soon drop off the CCLI Top 100 list.  Here they are:

1. Great Are You Lord (All Sons & Daughters)
2. Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) (Paul Baloche)
3. Indescribable (Chris Tomlin, Passion)
4. One Thing Remains (Kristian Stanfill, Passion)
5. Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman)
6. How Deep The Father's Love For Us (Stuart Townend)
7. Happy Day (Tim Hughes)
8. Come As You Are (David Crowder)
9. You Are My King (Amazing Love) (Christy Nockels)
10. Shout To The Lord (Hillsong Worship)
11. Holy Is The Lord (Chris Tomlin, Passion)
12. Here I Am To Worship (Chris Tomlin, Passion)
13. Revelation Song (Kari Jobe)
14. When You Walk Into The Room (Bryan & Katie Torwalt)
15. Forever (Chris Tomlin)
16. Your Name (Paul Baloche)
17. Nothing Is Impossible (Planetshakers)
18. My Redeemer Lives (Hillsong Worship)
19. Jesus All For Jesus (Robin Mark)
20. You Are My All In All (Dennis Jernigan)
21. Refiner's Fire (Brian Doerksen)
22. Hosanna (Hillsong UNITED)
23. Better Is One Day (Re-Recorded) (Matt Redman)
24. Agnus Dei (Michael W. Smith)
25. Our God Saves (Paul Baloche)
26. I Give You My Heart (Hillsong Worship)
27. As The Deer (Martin Nystrom)
28. The Same Love (Paul Baloche)
29. Shine Jesus Shine (Graham Kendrick)
30. Above All (Lenny LeBlanc)
31. The Wonderful Cross (Chris Tomlin)
32. All Who Are Thirsty (Brenton Brown)
33. Faithful One (Brian Doerksen)
34. Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) (Brian Doerksen)
35. I Exalt Thee (Pete Sanchez)
36. Trading My Sorrows (Darrell Evans)
37. Hope Of The Nations (Brian Doerksen)
38. God Of Wonders (Paul Baloche)
39. There Is A Redeemer (Keith Green)
40. Lord I Lift Your Name On High (Paul Baloche)
41. Hark The Herald (with King Of Heaven) (Paul Baloche)
42. Days of Elijah (Robin Mark)
43. Here For You (Matt Redman)
44. Open The Eyes Of My Heart (Paul Baloche)
45. Everlasting God (Lincoln Brewster)

What Is The Difference Between CCLI, SongSelect and PraiseCharts?

At PraiseCharts, we have great admiration for the services that CCLI and SongSelect provide. Often, we are asked what is the difference between CCLI, SongSelect and PraiseCharts. Here is a brief answer to that question. PraiseCharts is focused on providing downloadable print and audio resources to help your musicians play together with excellence and confidence. For the most part, we are not a publisher that owns the rights to worship songs. We don’t have a vested interest in any one catalog of songs. We work together with all the major publishers, creating a platform that represents as many of their songs as we can. We provide chord charts, lead sheets, orchestrations, and variety of multi tracks.

The bottom line is, PraiseCharts is focussed on providing advanced music resources for musicians. CCLI, apart from SongSelect, is not a resource company. CCLI helps churches obtain copyright permission to perform and reproduce certain resources of certain songs in the context of congregational worship. As a by-product, churches report their song use activity to CCLI, which is what makes their Top 100 list so revealing. SongSelect is a branch of CCLI that provides basic music resources for worship leaders. Many churches use their lead sheets and chord charts as their only resource. Others use the service as a means of song discovery and research.

In genreal, SongSelect has not been as focused on creating arrangements that reflect specific recordings, measure for measure. This is where PraiseCharts is distinct. In SongSelect, you’ll only ever find one version of every song. In PraiseCharts, you’ll find multiple versions of the top songs, because their are multiple recordings from multiple albums. The resources from PraiseCharts give you a foundation to work from with the recording as a starting place, measure for measure. Then, we take the best of the best songs and create music for a wide range of instruments, so that you can lead worship with a small band, small ensemble, or even a full orchestra. Wherever you get your music, let everything that has breath praise the Lord!