Worship Songs
It has been suggested that through the 1960s to today, worship songs have been popular because they are in touch with the culture and ethos of the day. To worship God is to “give God his worth” says Andrew Maries. Graham Kendrick sees worship as involving a commitment to living sacrifice; this is a whole body reality. Mike Pilavachi speaks of worship as “our highest priority”.
Festivals and Conferences are held across the country and across all the churches. Conferences such as New Wine and Spring Harvest Conference are ecumenical and there are influences from churches in other countries, eg. Hillsong. New collections of songs are evolving, with new composers and events, such as Worship Central (organised by Holy Trinity Brompton).
Coming live in October 2011 is a new resource for worship in schools called Worship Workshop which will provide a song bank of 100 contemporary and traditional songs with music, echo tracks, downloadable words and sheet music.
This is a useful website run by the organist and composer Richard Irwin. Richard is Director of Music at Holy Cross, Chiseldon and Lay Chair of the Marlborough Deanery. The website contains a huge number of hymn tunes and worship songs that have been recorded and prepared for use in worship. They are all free to download and also may be bought in CD format ready to play. You are able to index your choice by using the first line, tune, composer, lyricist or metre.
Worship
