Joshua Hawk

As a worship leader and long time church musician, one of my favorite music resources is SongSelect. SongSelect is a service by Christian Copyright Licensing International that provides sheet music for over 100,000 Christian songs commonly used in modern corporate worship. The thing I like about SongSelect is the accuracy of the sheet music and the convenience of downloading music PDFs to my iPad. I consider SongSelect an indispensable resource but admittedly what I knew about SongSelect was limited to the benefits I received from it as a musician. To be brutally honest, I was ignorant of the workings of CCLI that take place behind the scenes; that is until now.

Recently I completed a correspondence course through Global University on the topic of church administration, finance and law. One of the sections of the text book highlighted copyright laws and briefly touched on CCLI. What I read about CCLI was interesting and eye opening nonetheless. Unfortunately, many young song leaders today know very little about how CCLI works so as an experienced song leader, it is only appropriate to share my newly acquired knowledge with fellow song leaders alike. Here is what song leaders should know about SongSelect by CCLI.

1. CCLI protects churches from copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is defined as the unauthorized reproduction, publication, distribution or performance of another’s work including books, articles, speeches and songs. Every individual and entity are subject to copyright laws in the U.S. Churches are no exception. Because churches use music as an integral part of the service itself, churches are liable to violate copyright laws and get DMCA’d if the proper channels are not taken. This is where CCLI comes into play.

Under Section 302 in the Copyright Act of 1976, copyrighted works last the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. After a copyright owner has been deceased for more than 70 years, their work pass into public domain which means the work is no longer protected under copyright laws. So what does this mean for churches? Because hymns were written more than a hundred years ago, many of them have passed into public domain which means churches can sing them without violating copyright laws; however, because the worship culture has largely transitioned from hymns to modern contemporary music, music that is very much protected under the Copyright Act of 1976, proper channels must be taken. When a church purchases an annual license from CCLI, they are permitted to use copyrighted songs under the provision of fair use, religious display, nonprofit performance and authorization from the copyright owner. A comprehensive list of copyright coverage can be found at https://us.ccli.com/copyright-license/.

2. CCLI is a broker for song writers

Not only does CCLI protect churches from copyright infringement but it protects the works of the copyright owner. CCLI keeps a record of resources collected under every church license and distributes royalties to the copyright owner when their works are used by churches. In other words, song writers get paid for their work. How do these song writers get paid? With the money your church uses to purchase the annual CCLI license! More information can be found at https://us.ccli.com/our-partners/artist-and-songwriters/.

3. Song leaders must choose better songs

These next two points are not requirements nor features of CCLI but merely an admonition for song leaders to take better care in their song selection process. The previous point lends itself to precaution because resources pulled from SongSelect is an indirect way of channeling financial support to other ministries.

I know a lot of worship leaders and some of the songs they choose are quite concerning. To be frank, many modern worship songs elicit very little worship of God because most of them have lyrics that are heavily romanticized or focus on Christian identity.

If there’s one thing I have learned over the years, it’s that song leaders must be vigilant about lyrics when selecting songs for corporate worship. Song leaders from twenty years ago understood that just because a song was in the hymnal or was played on K-LOVE never meant the song had correct theology nor was it appropriate in a corporate worship setting. This well-known fact is something song leaders of today have forgotten. Choose songs with sound theology so the authors of these songs are rewarded monetarily by CCLI; ignore the songs with bad or questionable lyrics so the authors of these songs make the necessary adjustments in their song writing.

4. Song leaders must do research about song writers and their affiliated churches

In the past, Christians could name who wrote Amazing Grace and There is a Fountain Filled With Blood but beyond that Christians really couldn’t tell you much about the song writer. To be fair it honestly doesn’t matter what kind of theology John Newton or William Cowper personally held because their songs are now public domain and their songs have great lyrics; however, because modern songs are protected by copyright laws, it is important more than ever before to have information about the authors of contemporary worship music.

As I mentioned in the second point, song writers get paid by CCLI when their songs are played by other church bands. It’s a wonderful thing that song writers get paid for their work but I’m convinced a lot of Christians do not realize that most popular worship bands are not their own entities. Bands like Bethel Music, Elevation Worship and Hillsong United are owned by their affiliated churches. Everything from the name, logo, merchandise and the music they produce are the property of their affiliated churches. This means when you buy a CD from one of these groups or sing one of their songs in corporate worship, the entity that makes the money is their church.

As much as the modern church loves worship, the modern worship culture is not without its problems. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of modern worship songs that aren’t good and shouldn’t be used in corporate worship but not all of them are bad. This goes with saying that just because some of them are good doesn’t necessarily mean we should go ahead and use them in our churches without additional screening. There are a lot of churches out there that teach heresies such as grave soaking, Progressive Christianity and evolution as a creation of God. Believe it or not, some of your favorite big name worship bands just might be affiliated with churches who teach these awful doctrines. I’ve done my research and could call these churches out by name but I highly recommend you take this journey for yourself. Do your own research. You might be shocked at what you discover. Do not be deceived nor be the reason your church is financially supporting the ministries of churches that need correction; not more money.