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We’re big fans of music in our family, not least because I’m a Music graduate and my husband has always been an avid music-listener – both live and recorded.
In fact, I often moan at him because he has to have music on in the background All.The.Time. The other night when we were trying to learn a complicated new game (7 Wonders Duel, if you’re interested), I swear the hubs spent an hour just choosing the right soundtrack and trying to get the appropriate technology to work.
Meanwhile, I was getting my head around cities and wonders and cards and armies and progress tokens, and READER, I COULD HAVE THROTTLED HIM but, fearing the end of our marriage, I managed to bite my tongue and let him faff.
Anyway, it stands to reason that our kids have also inherited a love of listening to music, and this has only increased as they’ve got older.
I remember how our very out-of-date pop music knowledge got a real kick up the backside when Mister started school. We’d been happily pootling along with our mix of alternative folksy bands and a good smattering of vintage classics, while our pop collection meanwhile had ground to a halt around the mid 2000s with Keane and Lily Allen. Mister updated us with all the tunes he was learning from school friends and events – suddenly our lives were infiltrated with Meghan Trainor and Bruno Mars.
And yup, that makes us sound Old. We are.
I’m happy to report, though, that these days, with all our kids in school and showing an interest in what’s trending, we are kept roughly up-to-date. Between the four of them, we hear plenty of Taylor Swift, Lewis Capaldi and George Ezra, and even discovered we like some of them too.
And isn’t that just the best? Finding music that all of us genuinely appreciate and want to listen to? Any shared family experience which brings us together is a good thing, and music is one of the simplest ways we can unite and make memories together.
So it stands to reason, then, that as a Christian family, we’d be on the look out for some great family worship songs to share with our kids, alongside the secular stuff. If our children are going to stuff their brains full of song lyrics, it’d be great for some of those to be from the Bible.
While there’s a place for the ‘let’s jump up and down and wiggle our bums for Jesus’ repertoire, what I’m more keen to get hold of are some of the best worship albums that all of us can enjoy – not just our kids.
Christian songs which can be enjoyed from parent to child. Tunes which become family sing-songs in long car journeys. Upbeat family songs which we break out into at appropriate (or not-so-appropriate) moments in every day life. Worship albums which become firm favourites for years on end.
So, without further ado, here are my top ideas for the best Christian music for families which won’t make you cringe!
Sparkle.Pop.Rampage – Rend Collective
“My Lighthouse”, sung in churches up and down the country, has justifiably made Rend Collective one of the most popular bands around in the UK right now, but if you haven’t come across the rest of their family worship songs, you’re missing a trick.
This album is full of upbeat family songs – perfect for long car drives! Some of their stuff is Christian pop music as opposed to worship music (i.e. you wouldn’t necessarily sing all their songs in a church setting), but that’s great as it shows our kids that it’s not only OK but really healthy to sing about life with Jesus and what it means to us, without needing to use jargon or special words. And it surrounds our kids with positive Biblical values, rather than the sometimes-questionable lyrics of secular pop songs.
Our favourites on this album are the catchy sing-along ‘King of Me’, pop-dance anthems ‘Feels Good’ and ‘Fun’, and the tuneful, laid-back groove of ‘Rise Up and Shine’.
Buy Sparkle.Pop.Rampage on CD.
Listen on YouTube.
Download from Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music or Google Play.
Your Word – DumbRocks
[Disclaimer: we were sent a free copy of this album to review. All views are mine.]
DumbRocks is a brand-new outfit; this album was released in December 2019, and I hope there are plenty more. We’ve had it on in the car for the last few weeks, and it’s become one of our top family worship albums. DesertDad even plays it when there are no kids around – it’s that good.
The name came about because of Jesus’ words in Luke 19:40 that if we ever stop praising God, the rocks would do it instead – so this album is an attempt to keep the rocks dumb. Clever, huh? (Maybe a bit too clever – I had to Google it to find out. But still – I like it.)
Lyrically, Every.Single.Song here is taken from Scripture – I think we all know we should be memorising the Bible, but I find it really, really hard to do, so learning a few songs with Bible verses is a massive help to our learning, and to our kids’.
AND it makes the lyrics super memorable, because most of the songs focus on just one or two verses from the Bible. I like this simplicity.
And musically – woah! Off the scale. The album starts off bluesy and acoustic, a little bit hillbilly – very unlike most ‘kids’ Christian albums (and therefore highly appealing to parents) – but by the end of the album we’ve been treated to a veritable feast of musical styles, from the funk/blues of ‘This is how we know’ to the boogie-woogie feel of ‘Don’t it make you wonder’ to the ballad ‘Words that say so much’. A real treat for children and adults alike.
Buy this album on CD.
Listen on YouTube.
Download from your Amazon, Spotify or Google Play.
Let Praise Resound – RESOUND worship
A few months ago, songwriter Keith Getty spoke out about the worrying trend in contemporary worship songs to focus on the here and now, rather than eternity, and to base their lyrics in emotions rather than the steadfast, unchanging words of the Bible.
Of course we need both: emotions and solid truths, encouragement for right now and an eternal perspective – and ‘Let Praise Resound’ gives us this broad range. I’ve loved and sung Resound songs for years, and really rate the way they’re not afraid to cover the themes and Bible passages that other songwriters avoid.
Whilst not aimed specifically at families, this album is great for all ages. It’s a live album, so has a real energy and excitement to it and every single song is a quality tune – from the anthemic title track ‘Let Praise Resound’ to the more reflective songs ‘O Faithful Lord’. They’re all in sensible keys for singing along (massive ‘Hooray’ from all musoes), and the breadth of topics and Bible passages covered make it a really useful tool for sharing the breadth of faith with our kids as they naturally pick up the words.
The powerful ‘Lord, You hear the cry’ is a prayer for social justice, helping our children to see that our faith must lead to intercession and action. ‘Jesus you have called us’ covers the culturally-challenging message from Matthew 16 about denying ourselves and taking up our cross. ‘Christ was raised’ puts into context the hard things we and our children go through: “Christ is raised, so our struggles have a purpose, he’s alive, so our work is not in vain”.
This is one of the best worship albums I’ve heard in a long time, and definitely worth a spin if you haven’t come across these guys!
Buy this album on CD.
Listen on YouTube
Download from Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music or Google Play.
All Through History – Worship for Everyone/Nick and Becky Drake
Worship for Everyone has been around for years now. Nick and Becky Drake are purveyors of some brilliant and well-loved children’s worship songs with actions. (All through History, Faith as Tiny as a Seed and City on a Hill have all been penned by these guys!)
But their vision has always been to create songs which the whole church can sing, family worship songs which don’t make adults squirm. So it stands to reason that their albums will make great family listening for the home too! The soundtrack to our road-trips last summer was God is Here, but we have several of their albums, and they’re all brilliant.
We recommend All through History as an awesome place to start, as it’s a compilation of their very best family worship songs. The insanely memorable ‘City on a Hill’ will get stuck in your head with its simple but empowering words, while ‘Pray at all Times’ has a rockier edge and is popular with our kids. They also love the tuneful ‘Our God’s generous’ (mainly because of the wonderful Scottish accent near the end…listen and you’ll see what I mean!) while ‘Creator God’ is bouncy and instantly likeable.
Buy this album on CD.
Listen on YouTube
Download from Amazon, Spotify or Google Play.
Come Alive – Bethel Kids
Missy (8) was given this album last year and it’s totally her cup of tea. That’s not to say it isn’t ours too – the boys really enjoy it when they get a chance to listen – but she loves it so much it tends to stay in her room and no one else gets a look-in!
Bethel have taken a load of their most popular songs, and re-recorded them in child-friendly arrangements, laid over dance tracks, and sung by kids. It sounds awful, but it really isn’t. (And if you don’t believe me, you can always check out their stunning YouTube videos first.)
What makes this album so great is its similarity to the other music our kids (well, mine at least) are listening to. I think Missy loves it because it’s not too dissimilar to the dance-based Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus that she enjoys. Kudos to Bethel for making something which kids aren’t embarrassed to play in front of their friends.
And lest you think that this is just for kids, let me assure you that it’s a highly appealing album for parents too – the songs are, after all, just new arrangements of popular Bethel worship songs that many of us enjoy singing in our churches.
Buy this album on CD.
Listen on YouTube.
Download from Amazon, Spotify or Apple Music.
All Together Now – Awesome Cutlery
[Disclaimer: we were sent a free copy of this album to review. All views are mine.]
This is the second album by Awesome Cutlery, released December 2019, and it truly is awesome. If you’ve never heard of Awesome Cutlery, or you enjoyed their debut and haven’t given this latest one a spin, you’re in for a treat.
Firstly, it appeals to all six of us – so, again, no cringe factor for us grown-ups. Secondly, in between the upbeat family songs, it features bits of dialogue between Captain Awesome, a wonderful-but-slow superhero, and Cutlery Boy, his sidekick and the brains of the duo. These are laugh-out-loud funny – yep, even for adults – and link the songs together, while explaining some of the concepts.
Awesome Cutlery’s family worship songs are fun to listen to, but if I were to make a criticism (oh, go on then…), a few of the songs might be a little wordy to learn easily. They’ve been packed full of Biblical truth, which is obviously great – but maybe sometimes a little too full, at the expense of lyrical beauty and catchiness.
It’s a minor complaint, however, because the positive vibes of both songs and talky bits make this a superb worship album to enjoy with mixed ages. And, if I’m honest, the humour alone is worth the money. Check it out!
Buy this album on CD.
Listen on YouTube.
Download from Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music or Google Play.
Those are our top songs and hymns for family worship! I hope it’s given you some fresh ideas.
What does your family love listening to? Do you tend to listen to secular or Christian music, or a mixture? Has this inspired you to try a new Christian album? Let me know in the comments!
Don’t miss:
>>10 Best Family Devotional Resources
>>How can I Parent my Children for Faith?
>>Is Church just another Extra-Curricular Activity?
[…] out our Favourite Family Worship Albums (the ones which don’t make us […]