Congregational Songs

Showing 37–48 of 297 results

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (STUTTGART)
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[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/stuttgart-come_thou_long_expected-piano.mp3"][/audio]

The Advent text “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” is sung to several tunes. STUTTGART, first published in Christian F. Witt’s 1715 Psalmodia Sacra, makes a great opening hymn for an Advent service.

Piano accompaniment for congregational singing, with a C instrument descant thrown in for free!
Comfort, Come Again
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https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/comfort_come_again.mp3

Amid all the “sleeping baby Jesus” songs of the season, we often forget that Jesus had a bumpy start to his life on earth: born away from home, his family was soon on the run again, this time to a foreign country. Though the “slaughter of the innocents” and the “flight into Egypt” rarely make it into our Christmas imagination, I’ve been thinking that they may serve an important role for our congregations. Let’s face it: lots of us approach Christmas with dread and depression. We’re far from home, missing loved ones, mourning babies that were never born, or are just so sickened by the reality of the world around us that we have a hard time putting our hearts into a Norman Rockwell Christmas.

With this in mind, I penned “Comfort, Come Again.” It’s a prayer that draws on the themes of Matthew 2 and recasts them in a way that they could be prayed and sung for either the characters of the biblical narrative or those of us today who are going through similar griefs and trials.

This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
Deeper than the Sea
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[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/deeper_than_the_sea-praise.mp3"][/audio]
This rendition of Psalm 36:5-9 is an expansive folk-rock song of praise to the Creator whose love surpasses the grandeur of all creation. There are two versions of the song. First, it is available as a free leadsheet for congregation singing. Next, it is arranged for choir, piano, and congregation, with chord symbols so it can be accompanied by guitar and bass to get that “folk choir” kind of sound. It is a simple arrangement that will only take one rehearsal to learn, but it is by no means simplistic. The choral arrangement is published by GIA. (You can purchase the song at GIA or view a sample online.) If your church follows the lectionary, this scripture passage comes up on the second week of Epiphany in year C, and in Holy Week every year.
DETROIT (What Adam’s Disobedience Cost)
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[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/DETROIT-piano.mp3"][/audio]

This Just Add People piano arrangement gives this early American tune a robust, earthy harmonic setting that can also be played effectively with guitar or folk band. The 8.6.8.6 tune can be used with any hymn text set to DETROIT, including:
Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive
In Labor All Creation Groans
Behold the Goodness of Our Lord (Psalm 133)
What Adam’s Disobedience Cost
Do Not I Love Thee, O My Lord?

Piano accompaniment for congregational singing.
DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING
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[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DIDNTSEETHATCOMING.mp3"][/audio]
This falls somewhere between regal and rustic— something that would be at home in a cathedral or a Sacred Harp sing. It is an unusual hymn tune: the melody slides from an E minor/pentatonic into a G minor/pentatonic scale in the second phrase. The harmonies, too, sneak off halfway through, sprint in all directions, then slip back home in the last two measures. But for all its darting about, the song is still surprisingly singable— both the melody and the inner voices.

It first appeared in print with Isaac Watts’ “Your Glory, Lord, Is Great” (#41 In Melody and Songs“).

This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write your own lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please let me know how you’ve used it.
DIX (For the Beauty of the Earth) – instrumental introduction
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https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/dix_psalm_67.mp3

A simple orchestral introduction to the hymn tune DIX, adaptable to any four-part ensemble. DIX is most often used with the texts “For the Beauty of the Earth” and “As with Gladness Men of Old.” (This is a different arrangement from the Just Add People product for the same tune. Find that piano arrangement here.)

Four-part instrumental arrangement, with parts for instruments in C, Bb, Eb, and F.
DOUBLE WIDE
$0.00 – $25.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/how_wide.mp3

I wrote this tune for a text by Herman Stuempfle and a few months later I came across a second text by the same author to fit this tune. The tune has a mysterious, intimate, jazzy feel, but is still very much singable by a congregation. For all you text writers, the tune’s meter is 6.6.8.6.6.6.
Eternal Family
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[audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/eternal_family.mp3"][/audio]
My understanding of God and faith has been profoundly affected by the book Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace by James B. Torrance. I try to pack as much of his vision-expanding Trinitarian theology as I can in the four verses of this song.
Ever-Tender Shepherd
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http://musicblog.gregscheer.com/ever-tender_shepherd-4.mp3

“Ever-Tender Shepherd” is a musical “collect prayer”–a prayer which petitions God based on God’s attributes. In this case, attributes of Jesus are connected to the needs of the world. We ask Christ, the Shepherd, to gather scattered refugees, for example. This seemed a good way to address the needs of the world without taking sides or naming issues so specifically that the song would be obsolete by the time it was used. I’m especially fond of the third verse. But who am I to play favorites?

This hymn is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
Everlasting to Everlasting
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Download leadsheets for all the songs in the cantata here, or find an individual psalm below:
Psalm 113: From the Rising of the Sun
Psalm 114: Tremble Before the Lord
Psalm 115: For the Glory of Your Name
Psalm 116: Be at Rest
Psalm 117: All You Nations
Psalm 118: Everlasting to Everlasting
Faith, First and Last
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Paul introduces and summarizes the subject of the book of Romans in chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. “Faith, First and Last” stays close to his words to allow for a sung affirmation. It’s included in the collection Singing the New Testament.

This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.
Faithful Stewards
$0.00 – $5.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/faithful_stewards.mp3

This children’s song is based on 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (“servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries”). It instills the idea that we are not only called to be stewards of money but of all the gifts God has given us.