Planning 91

Vetting CCLI 91 Songs for Faith Formation

Several denominations have created or are creating rubrics for vetting CCLI Top 100 contemporary worship songs. Vetting sparks conversations that help worship leaders make faithful decisions about which songs to put on congregations’ lips.

May 21, 2024 | 10 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
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

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
Cory B. Willson on the Faith/Work/91 Ecosystem

Theological conversations about faith, work, and worship take on new meaning when they start with the needs, questions, and experiences of workers.

March 11, 2024 | 7 min read
Lindsay Wieland Capel on Disability and Universal Design

Many ideas for welcoming and including people with disabilities are remarkably simple. These changes turn out to be good for everyone in church worship and congregational life.

February 21, 2024 | 5 min read

Lindsay Wieland Capel on Recognizing and Overcoming Ableism in Churches

Many congregations don’t realize that the way they arrange their space, talk in worship, or define giftedness and leadership speaks volumes to people with different bodies and minds. The message is: “We don’t see you as a welcomed and valued member of Christ’s body.”

February 21, 2024 | 7 min read
91 for Workers: Come as You Are

91 for Workers offers songs, prayers, liturgies, and visual art to help congregants begin to experience God’s presence in new ways in their daily living.

February 21, 2024 | 9 min read

Sarah Kathleen Johnson and Andrew Wymer on 91 and Power

Sarah Kathleen Johnson and Andrew Wymer, two Free Church scholars in worship and liturgical studies, break new ground in “91 and Power”, a book edited with other scholars in this tradition, and celebrate what these insights offer for ecumenical conversation and learning around liturgical authority.

December 18, 2023