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Robert Feduccia on the CCLI Song Select Liturgy Section

Churches around the world seek permission to use contemporary worship music from Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc., or CCLI. Late in 2018, CCLI Song Select quietly introduced a liturgical section to help churches select contemporary music that fits the classic ordo, the four-fold pattern of worship. Robert Feduccia explains why.

May 21, 2024 | 5 min read
Brian Hehn on an Ecumenical CCLI Top Songs List

CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc.) hugely influences what many congregations sing, so the United Methodist Church began vetting CCLI Top 100 songs in 2015. Since then, song leader Brian Hehn has been encouraging other denominations to vet these popular contemporary worship songs so he can eventually create an ecumenically approved list of CCLI Top 100 songs.

May 21, 2024 | 6 min read
Seven Tips for Choosing Contemporary Worship Songs

Does your worshiping community sing contemporary worship songs from the CCLI Top 100 list? If so, maybe you wonder how these songs are forming worshipers’ views of God and the life God calls us to. Worship leaders and contemporary worship experts offer seven tips for evaluating your song choices and filling in gaps.

May 21, 2024 | 11 min read

Salmos 100 y 23: Llamado a la adoración y una expresión de plena confianza

En el libro de los Salmos encontramos un modelo que muestra cómo los creyentes antiguos caminaron en el camino de la vida sorteando las muchas circunstancias de la vida.

May 3, 2024 | 18 min read
Susheila Williams: Using the Arts to Express Tamil Christianity in India

Susheila Williams, a scholar, painter, and music enthusiast, draws on her native language and culture to express Tamil Christianity in India. She uses her education, privilege, and biblical faith to improve the lives of women, especially those who are most marginalized.

May 2, 2024 | 9 min read
Traditional Keerthanai Concert with English Translations

This Manamahizh Keerthani Kuzhu concert in India includes Tamil-language Christian keerthanai praise and devotional songs sung in the traditional manner. Group members sang in Tamil but translated the lyrics into English.

May 2, 2024

Tamil Christians Revive Keerthanai Music

Christians in South India are reviving keerthanais, poems of Christian praise and devotion sung in the Tamil language. They are working to bring this cultural expression back into church worship

May 2, 2024 | 12 min read
Rosemary Apol-Hoezee on Dementia and Worship

Chaplains have been using the Evening Star worship manual in memory care facilities for almost twenty years. The second edition incorporates new research on dementia to create a worship model that is even better at engaging people who live with dementia.

April 29, 2024 | 6 min read
Rosemary Apol-Hoezee on Dementia and Inclusion

People who’ve served and attended churches faithfully often feel isolated when their cognition declines—and so do their caregivers. Your congregation can take simple steps to become more dementia friendly.

April 29, 2024 | 5 min read

Latest Round of CICW Grants to Fund 37 Worship and Preaching Renewal Projects

Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grants fund new projects for worshiping communities and teacher-scholars.

April 25, 2024 | 2 min read
Daniel I. Block on God’s Grace in Ezekiel

Although Ezekiel’s strange visions and often shocking images perplex readers, Old Testament scholar Daniel I. Block explains why the book of Ezekiel is worth reading. The judgment, grace, and love God spoke through Ezekiel to Israel also apply to the church today.

April 18, 2024 | 7 min read
Cunado el camino se torna difícil: El sufrimiento y la presencia de Dios

En medio, entre el salmo uno y el 150, se encuentra la vida con toda su complejidad. Es un camino con altas y bajas, con obstáculos y desviaciones, con trampas y peligros. Eso es lo que encontramos en los demás salmos. Es un camino tortuoso, difícil, plagado de sufrimientos, luchas, enemigos, triunfos, pecados, confesiones, tentaciones, súplicas desesperadas, gratitud y alabanza por la respuesta divina. Son salmos que a menudo expresan las múltiples y diversas experiencias del individuo como también experiencias de toda la comunidad, de la nación. Son salmos que tocan realidades sociales, económicas, políticas, toda la vida desde la perspectiva de la fe.

April 5, 2024 | 8 min read