Category: Congregational Songs

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Arrangement Choir Church Commissions Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Rejoice in All Your Works @ Calvin Graduation

I was commissioned by Calvin College to arrange Wendell Kimbrough’s fabulous song “Rejoice in All Your Works (Psalm 104)” for their 2018 graduation ceremony. The song is arranged for choir, wind ensemble, praise band, and 5,000 singers.

It was a lot of notes. (Which means a lot of work and a lot of time.) But it was worth it to hear the Van Noord arena reverberate with the sound of praise coming from joyful graduates and their grateful families.

An octavo of the choral anthem (with more modest instrumental forces) will be published by GIA in the coming year.

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Church Commissions Congregational Songs Live

Prayer of Jonah at the Calvin Worship Symposium

If you missed Western Seminary’s performance of my “Prayer of Jonah,” just click below. The song starts at 20:57, but the whole service is well worth watching.

Oh, if you happen to be looking for a scripture song accompanied by 5 electric basses (and really, who isn’t?) just contact me for the music.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Retuned hymn

The Song of Moses and the Lamb

The sermon at Fuller this week comes from the story of Moses’ birth and adoption by Pharoah’s daughter (Exodus 2:1-10), exploring Moses as a foreshadowing of Christ. As I looked for appropriate songs to sing, I came across a once-popular hymn by William Hammond called, “Awake and Sing the Song.” This hymnic rabbit trail led to the original 1745 publication of Hammond’s poem that featured no less than 14 verses! The rabbit trail continued to Revelation 15:2-4 in which the harp-wielding saints sing the “song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.” Pure worship planning gold.

The Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb (1425-29)

Naturally, I felt the need to write a new tune for it–it’s who I am. I knew the text called for a tune as rough as a sea chanty, as epic as a murder ballad, and as joyously raucous as a shape-note hymn. What I came up with is a pentatonic melody that is equal parts “What Wondrous Love” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” I’m quite pleased with it. (And that’s not always the case after singing a dozen takes of a new melody while recording a demo.) I was also pleased that I was able to work in my favorite phrase from the original hymn, “we, his miracles of grace.”

The one remaining question: does it need a chorus? Musically, it feels complete without it, but thematically we are being called to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, but we never do. The actual song appears in Rev 15:3-4:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

I have a chorus drafted. If enough people request it, I’ll add it.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Quirky

I’ve Got Joy!

This Sunday at Fuller Ave, Nate was preaching from 2 Corinthians 13:11: “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice!” The service was all about joy, so we decided the praise set should be a rambunctious Sunday School Singalong.

A scene of pure joy from my favorite boys.

On a long bike ride the day before the service I got to singing a little ditty inspired by NRBQ’s “Down in My Heart.” Nothing deep, just a tune full of joy. I was enjoying it so much that I stopped on the side of the road and sang it into my cellphone just in case I forgot it!

The next day I introduced it to the congregation. It fit beautifully alongside “This Is the Day,” “Rejoice in the Lord Always,” and “I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy (Down in My Heart).”

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Church Congregational Songs

Renewed: Lord God, Now Let Your Servants Depart in Peace

Last year, I hosted a video series, Renewed, which introduced new congregational songs. Here is the episode focused on my song, “Lord God, Now Let Your Servants Depart in Peace.”

You can also access this on the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s site, which includes links to various resources: https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/renewed-lord-god-now-let-your-servants-depart-in-peace/

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hymn tunes

The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound (Adam M. L. Tice)

Fuller Ave CRC is in the middle of a sermon series called “Love Your Neighbor.” What better hymn could be sung than Adam Tice’s “The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound”?:

Adam M. L. Tice

The church of Christ cannot be bound
by walls of wood or stone.
Where charity and love are found–
there can the church be known. 

It is sung to a variety of tunes. My favorite is the rousing MCKEE (In Christ There Is No East or West). But since the sermon series runs for ten weeks Pastor Nate and I decided to use a different tune each week.

Enter my new tune, BRIDESMAID.* Though I rocked it out in the above demo, it was conceived as a simple folk song in the tradition of 60s protest songs like “The Times They Are A Changin” or “If I Had a Hammer.” Send me an email if you want the leadsheet. I’ll check with Adam to see if it’s alright to distribute.

*Why BRIDESMAID, you wonder? This is actually the second tune I’ve written for this text. I decided to retire the first. “Always the bridesmaid and never the bride.” And with that, I shall get cleaned up for Matt and Larissa’s wedding, where I’m sure both bride and bridesmaid will be perfect!

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Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Psalm 114: The Hills and Mountains Tremble

As my country–and many others–discuss the growing number of refugees, it’s important to remember that the Bible has much to say on the subject. Ruth, Israel, and Jesus were all refugees. The Old Testament continually reminds Israel to be kind to foreigners, because they were once refugees. The New Testament focuses more on our adoption by God, though we were once strangers.

Psalm 114 tells of the miracle of God rescuing Israel from Egypt and turning them into the living sanctuary of God. My hope is that singing stories like Psalm 114 will help us frame our current conversations more biblically. Here are all the resources you need for this musical version of Psalm 114.

The Choral Scholars sing a quick demo: MP3
The leadsheet: PDF
The piano accompaniment: email me
A related song, Tremble Before the Lord: demo, sleep deprivation remix
Lyrics:

  1. When God delivered Israel from Egypt’s tyranny,
    the sanctuary of the Lord was built from refugees.
    We, too, are weary wanderers, just pilgrims on our way.
    And God still builds a temple from the bricks of human faith.

The hills and mountains tremble,
the rivers stand in awe,
for in this pilgrim people
is the presence of the Lord.

2. O sea, why do you shrink away, receding at his voice?
O hills why do you spring to life to dance and sing for joy?
We all rejoice at God’s good works, like mountains, hills and seas,
and celebrate each heart renewed, each slave and prisoner freed. (refrain)

3. The presence of the Lord, it shakes the earth with joy and fear.
The waters flood where rocks once stood and fresh new springs appear.
The presence of the Lord still shakes all kingdoms of this globe,
and living water still flows out from God’s celestial throne. (refrain)

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Church Congregational Songs Live Retuned hymn

O One with God the Father @ Church of the Servant

From this blog, you may get the impression that my compositional life has been dormant. On the contrary! I have been so busy composing new music that I haven’t had time to document my musical activities here. Over the next few days, I will try to catch up on the backlog of recordings that have never quite made it to my blog.

First up is this recording of “O One with God the Father.” You’ll remember the song first made its appearance in this blog in 2018. A few months later, my friends at Church of the Servant (my “alma mater” church) sang it in one of their services.

One of the tests of a congregational song is whether it can thrive outside its original context. In the church where a song is written, the people may be emotionally attached to the song because they know the writer, or they may have extra help learning the song. When a song is sung at a new church, it is just a song. That’s when you find out if it “has legs.” It sounds to me like this new song worked pretty well at COS. Maybe it has a future!

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Church Congregational Songs Live

“Feed Us, Lord” in Denver

You never know if a song is going to travel. I’ve written hundreds of songs, but there’s just no predicting which one will grab people’s attention or even get the opportunity to be heard at all. I guess it’s a little like fishing.

“Feed Us, Lord” is a little communion chorus I wrote a number of years ago. Think of it as Taizé meets praise ballad–it’s simple and repetitive enough to be sung during communion.

If I remember correctly, I submitted it to the “cattle call” for the United Methodist Worship and Song hymnal. These preliminary calls for submissions regularly receive 2,000 – 5,000 songs that the poor committee members have to sift through. I would like to think they chose my song because of its superior craftsmanship and theological acumen, but I’m pretty sure it was actually for two very practical reasons: 1. There aren’t a lot of contemporary(ish) songs for the Lord’s Supper. 2. It only takes up a half page.

From there it was picked up by the Presbyterian Glory to God hymnal. And from there it ended up in a YouTube video of Central Presbyterian Church of Denver’s communion.

This, my friends, his how a song travels.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hymn tunes

GILLIGAN/Transfiguration

Update: For sheet music or to adopt this orphan tune, head over to gregscheer.com.

You probably know Harry Plantinga and me as the duo who co-founded Hymnary.org. As of a month ago, though, we are also a musical duo–a veritable hymnological Lennon and McCartney.

Harry wrote a Transfiguration hymn based on Luke 9:28-36 that needed a tune. I suggested my tune GILLIGAN (published in the hymnal In Melody and Song and also available at my website). After the text and tune pairing was finalized, he decided to use it as a test case for a new hymn presentation software he’s developing with Hymnary.org. You can try this “scroll-view” prototype here: https://rh.hymnary.org/history/v0.1.html (press “m” on your keyboard to start the demo) or click on the link below to read the full text.

Transfiguration