All this talk of church planting made me revisit an idea I toss around every now and again - a basic song list for a church. A list of good songs that can be played by churches with a bare minimum of musical talent available.

My musical criteria is that they stick to basic, guitar friendly chords - for me, that means the basic block chords + Bm + F#m. The songs must also sound ok with just a guitar accompaniment, and must be in a singable range.

Here’s my list of 25 songs (enough for 1 year) -

When I Survey
Amazing Grace
How Great Thou Art
Be Thou My Vision
God has spoken by his prophets

As the deer
Shout to the Lord
In Christ Alone
Here I am to Worship
Blessed Be Your Name

Ancient Of Days
My Redeemer Lives
Lord I lift your name on high
Jesus Thank You
Never Alone

How Great Is Our God
Hungry
That’s Why We Praise Him
Christ the solid rock
rock of ages

Salvation belongs to our God
How Can This Be?
May The Mind of Christ
Before the Throne of God above
Let Your Kingdom Come

What are your thoughts? What would you add? What would you remove?

No How Deep the Father’s Love?
Has Rob Forsyth nobbled you?

Could you give us a bit more info on these songs, please Craig?

I’ve heard of Amazing Grace, no worries,
but where do these songs come from?

Is Christ the Solid Rock “My hope is built?”

Here I am to Worship
Blessed Be Your Name

My Redeemer Lives
Jesus Thank You
Never Alone

How Great Is Our God
Hungry
That’s Why We Praise Him
Christ the solid rock
Salvation belongs to our God
How Can This Be?
Let Your Kingdom Come

Hi David,

A couple of those songs that you’re unsure of are on CDs available from Emu Music …

Never Alone is off the CD Let All Creation Sing
Let Your Kingdom Come is off Sovereign Grace’s Valley of Vision

Check your e-mail for a couple of others.

Cheers,
Andrew

David McKay - 18 September 2008 01:22 AM

No How Deep the Father’s Love?
Has Rob Forsyth nobbled you?

It’s a good song - but it’s a hard song to play. The time sig switches between 6/4 and 4/4, and there are a lot of chord changes. I was after pretty basic stuff, that a novice guitarist could play.

Here I am to Worship (Tomlin)
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)

My Redeemer Lives (Hillsong)
Jesus Thank You (Sovereign Grace)
Never Alone (EMU)

How Great Is Our God (Tomlin)
Hungry (Vineyard)
That’s Why We Praise Him (Not sure)
Christ the solid rock (EMU)
Salvation belongs to our God (Not sure, famous tune)
How Can This Be? (EMU)
Let Your Kingdom Come (Sovereign Grace)

You can find lyrics and chords for most of these just by googling the title and “lyrics” or “chords”. Melodies are a bit harder if you don’t know them already…

Hi Craig
I think How Deep looks deep in print but is very simple to learn. Streets ahead of many modern Christian songs.

Craig Schwarze - 18 September 2008 08:42 AM

I was after pretty basic stuff, that a novice guitarist could play.

Craig, let’s open this up, as it’s one of my bugbears. Why simple? Why fill our music teams with average? Why not work to make music in church as good as -shudder- the preaching?

Craig, let’s open this up, as it’s one of my bugbears. Why simple? Why fill our music teams with average? Why not work to make music in church as good as -shudder- the preaching?

I’m thinking about churches that have no access to really good musos. A church that might just have a novice guitar player and not much else. There are plenty out there like that.

Those churches with top muso’s will obviously do things a lot better, and I’d encourage them to be as good as they can be.

Especially if we are going to be doing a lot of church planting, a lot of small plants will have very limited music resources availalbe.

with due respect, I think you have your syd ang blinkers on Craig. To ensure survival of a church plant these days, surely the music must be good? If so, a budget line must be added for at least a part-time music leader - I’m talking a good singer/guitarist for example who can lead 20 people in worship honouring to God

David, that just doesn’t seem at all realistic to me. Some church plants cannot even afford to pay the pastor a wage, let alone a part-time musician!

I fully agree that our larger churches should have part-time/full-time music directors - no argument. But if we say that a church plant can’t get going unless they can employ a muso, I think we’ll end up doing less planting than we are at the moment.

Craig Schwarze - 18 September 2008 01:26 PM

David, that just doesn’t seem at all realistic to me. Some church plants cannot even afford to pay the pastor a wage, let alone a part-time musician!

Craig can you clarify do you mean some church plants don’t pay a pastor at all?

I imagine most church plants done within our diocese have a full time pastor. But worldwide many churches are planted with the pastor in a “tentmaker” capacity. I think we need that kind of flexibility of approach if we are going to have a serious impact.

Craig Schwarze - 18 September 2008 01:09 PM

… a lot of small plants will have very limited music resources available.

Hi Craig ( and others ),

The last musician at one of our morning services moved to the country about three months ago - so we knew we had a problem. But we then found that some wonderful DVD resources are available with many of the above listed titles somewhere among them. Most of the DVDs have been about $10 so they are also economical for a small budget - however the latest ones are about $30. Each DVD has between 7 and 14 worship songs - and each track has scenic visuals and the lyrics can be subtitled on screen. They can be used in large church gatherings on the big screen - or on a DVD/TV in small house groups- or just on a laptop with your university or workplace study group.

There are 3 titles in the “Precious Moments” series which features the ( UK ) Keswick Convention choir leading the singing. And there must be almost 20 in the ( US ) “ iWorship” and “ iWorship@home “ series - the latest ones are about $30. Word and Koorong carry them.

well then what I am saying is that the music is lame then the tentmaker may as well pack up his tent and go home, because poor music undermines good preaching. Most young singer/guitarists I know would do a Sunday service for, say, $60 a week. If you can’t afford that in your church plant budget the go without the espresso!