YouthWorks Core Songs

I love taking youth on mission trips with YouthWorks. They are an organization that really "gets" mission trips.

However, I am often a bit frustrated because the youth that I bring tend to come from the same background that I do: we sing hymns in worship. (We sing really, really good hymns in worship, mind you.) We know a ton of great music. Almost none of that music features prominently in YouthWorks's nightly "Club". Instead, we get a lot of stuff that it seems like every other group knows. My kids don't. They get frustrated. They feel left out. I feel terrible watching them struggling to not feel left out.

With that in mind, I have gone through the "core songs" that are supposed to be known by all YouthWorks staff. Each staff, of course, will decide for themselves which songs to sing at their sites. But these are the songs they're all supposed to know. If we know these songs, too, then I can tell the staff "here is a list of songs that you know that we know, too". I am planning on teaching some of these, or at least playing them in the car on the trip to our site, because, why not? Since I had to compile a list anyway, I thought I would share in case someone else finds it useful.

Disclaimers: All of these songs have been performed by lots and lots of different artists. In general, I have preferenced versions where you can hear the words and melody clearly and that seem to be approximately the same tune/rhythm that one might expect to hear played at a YouthWorks site. However, there is also a preference for musicians/groups I can sing along with, and for tracks that cost only $0.99 on iTunes. And also sometimes I just make stuff up.

1. Be Still and Know* - iTunes Spotify
2. Blessed Be Your Name - iTunes Spotify
3. Come Thou Fount (hymn) - iTunes Spotify
4. Create in Me**
5. Every Move I Make - iTunes Spotify
6. How Great is Our God - iTunes Spotify
7. How He Loves - iTunes Spotify
8. Light the Fire - iTunes Spotify
9. Mighty to Save - iTunes Spotify
10. My All in All - iTunes Spotify
11. My Jesus, I Love Thee (hymn) - iTunes Spotify
12. You Never Let Go - iTunes Spotify
13. Prince of Peace - iTunes Spotify (note: most recordings of this song use a slightly different rhythm than what is commonly played--the iTunes link is the only version I could find that used this rhythm)
14. Refiner's Fire* - iTunes Spotify

There are a few more tracks on the Spotify playlist, because it's free.

*I have never actually heard these songs used at a YouthWorks site. (My sister, who has been on more trips than I have, confirms.) Also, they are slow.

**There are at least 42 different versions of "Create in Me", and I could not even begin to guess which one is intended. It might be this one (iTunes link). Otherwise, no clue.