Year end  data gathered by Faithlife Proclaim, Faithlife’s church presentation software which allows churches to provide song lyrics and Bible verses on their platforms. Churches sang over 7,000 songs together about 2.2 million times in more than 568,000 services, the data showed. 

“Way Maker” reached its peak popularity on Proclaim the weekend of March 22, 2020, as the COVID-19 death toll in the United States began to rise. Coming in second in the most popular songs list was “Build My Life” by Pat Barrett (the top song in 2019), followed by “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” by Matt Redman.

Other songs that provided comfort to churchgoers before the U.S. went into lockdown due to the pandemic included the hymns “It is Well with My Soul” and “’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” as well as newer songs, “His Mercy Is More” by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa. “Goodness of God” by Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson, “King of Kings” by Hillsong Worship, and “See a Victory” by Elevation Worship were also among the top songs in the report.

Leading up to Easter as COVID-19 lockdowns continued and infections increased in New York City and northern states, topics of ​”fear, prayer, faith, suffering, comfort, grief, stress, and church ​were all trending.”

Following the death of George Floyd in police custody and the social unrest and summer riots that followed in cities across the nation, the topics of “government, justice, freedom, anger, ​and ​judgment” peaked. By September, “church fellowship, service, church leadership, work, and ​election” were among the trending words, as well as “peace and ​hope.” Peace and hope had the highest sermon trend of the year with peak popularity in December.

The insight was gathered from 60,000 sermons posted to ​Faithlife Sermons.