RedGage

With each passing year, there's a unique changing of the guard per say, in the encouraging and inspirational world of Christian music. Even if it's purely coincidence, somehow most the year's Christian music hits have a similar theme to them. Is it coincidence or divine intervention? One thing is for sure, the theme for the year will be reflected each year in the Wow Hits collection.WOW Hits HistoryThe Wow Hits CD collection is an annual representation of all the #1 hits of the previous year. Thus theWOW Hits 2010 is actually a collection of 2009 Christian music hits, and so on and so on. The release of the annual collection began in 1995 with WOW 1996, produced and released through a collaboration from three of the top Christian music recording companies at that time: Sparrow Records, WORD Records and Reunion Records. Over the years a few name changes have been made. Sparrow Records is now EMI Christian Music Group. Word Record is now WORD Entertainment and Reunion Records is now under the Sony name, Provident Label. The Wow series was changed to the Wow Hits beginning with the 2001 collection in December 2000.The WOW 1996 - 2000 CDs were the first in a series of WOW collections:

• WOW 1996 - God Is In Control, Go Light Your World, Shine, Home Run, The Great Divide
• WOW 1997 - Lord Of The Dance
• WOW 1998 - Circle of Friends, Carry You
• WOW 1999 - Testify To Love
• WOW 2000 - Speechless, Breathe, Revive Us

WOW Hits began in 2001 and this series has been the most successful series of WOW collections to date:

• WOW HITS 2001 - Dive, God You Are My God
• WOW HITS 2002 - Witness
• WOW HITS 2003 - Above All
• WOW HITS 2004 - He Reigns, Nothing Compares, Phenomenon
• WOW HITS 2005 - Amazing Love, You Raised Me Up, Come To Jesus, Never Alone,
• WOW HITS 2006 - Voice of Truth
• WOW HITS 2007 - Life Song, How Great Is Our God, Dead Man ( Carry Me)
• WOW HITS 2008 - Made To Worship, Praise You In The Storm,
• WOW HITS 2009 - God With Us, Let It Fade, Cinderella, How You Live, Mighty To Save,
• WOW HITS 2010

There are other WOW series available: WOW Essentials, WOW Worship, WOW Gospel and WOW Christmas. How ever, WOW Hits remains the #1 selling CD in the WOW collections. Christian music fans look forward to the annual release each year before Christmas.WOW HITS 2010This year's collection revolved around a unique, unplanned theme of God's healing through His infinite love, grace and mercy. Without intending to do so, most every artist featured wrote a #1 hit song that reflected the Bible verses in Ephesians 2:4-6, (NIV) " But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavely realms in Christ Jesus." Take a look at the songs included on the WOW HITS 2010 two CD set. Do they not all convey a similar message of being a new creature in Christ?

• The Motions by Matthew West
• There Will Be A Day by Jeremy Camp
• Slow Fade by Casting Crowns
• I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin
• I Will Not Be Moved by Natalie Grant
• In The Hands of God by Newsboys
• Wait and See by Brandon Heath
• A New Hallelujah by Michael W. Smith
• Yours by Steven Curtis Chapman
• My Deliverer by Mandisa
• How He Loves by David Crowder Band
• What Life Would Be Like by Big Daddy Weave
• He Is by Mark Schultz
• Savior, Please - Josh Wilson
• You're Not Shaken by Phil Stacy
• City On Our Knees by tobyMac
• Free To Be Me by Francesca Battistelli
• Revelation by Third Day
• By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North
• The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole
• Keys To The Kingdom by Group1Crew
• Beautiful Ending by Barlowgirl
• Whatever You're Doing by Sanctus Real
• The Meaning of Life by Hawk Nelson
• Never Be The Same by Red
• Two Hands by Jars of Clay
• All Along by Remedy Drive
• Forever by Fireflight
• Forgiven and Loved by Jimmy Needham
• The Words I Would Say by Sidewalk Prophets

Thoughts for 2010Many of the above artists are up and coming in the Christian music industry. This is the first year for artists like Francesca Battistelli and Josh Wilson. Others have been around and seem to have #1 hits with each new release: tobyMac, Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin. A few are bands that continue to climb the charts toward the top: Newsboys, Tenth Avenue North and Third Day. All of them have one common goal: to impact the world for Christ through their music.Many Christian fans are not financially able to buy the latest new releases from their favorite artists. It is also becoming more difficult to afford concert tickets even in the smaller towns. The WOW Hits collection released every year gives fans an affordable option to buying several CDs or attending concert. Of all the CDs released each year, the WOW HITS CD should be the one at the top of the wish list.