Confession: I’m a perfectionist. My mother still points out the teeth marks in my legos—casualties of childhood frustration. And now, as a full-time student, full-time father, and part-time music minister, I often find my creative endeavors paralyzed by perfectionism and busyness.  So when I began fooling around with some recordings on my IPhone this summer I quickly shelved the project because it was never quite perfect. I did, however, play a few tunes for my sixteen-month old son whose simple response changed things for me—“more,” he said. He loved the songs. It was all the permission I needed to pursue creativity for the pure joy of it. It’s a joy that is mingled with divine fellowship as we feel the Lord’s pleasure when we create.

After a summer unencumbered by perfectionism, I’ve compiled nearly a dozen songs—the majority are hymn arrangements we use in our congregation—Church of the Cross, Boston (CotC). I’m calling these “song sketches” because they’re not perfect. Most of them were recorded hastily during my son’s nap or after he went to bed. Like an artist’s “study” for her real masterpiece, I hope these reflect some of the melodies I hear in my head.

More than that, I hope these songs might be useful for your own congregation. They have proven a valuable part of our song corpus at CotC and I am including the chord sheets below if you would like to use them.

***If the songs are loading slow you can also click here.***

Chords:
1. Light of Those Whose Dreary Dwelling
2. Lo He Comes With Clouds
3. By Thy Mercy
4. Arise My Soul, Arise
5. There is a Redeemer
6. Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
7. Come Holy Ghost Our Souls Inspire
8. Gloria
9. And Can it Be?
10. O For A Thousand...(Happy Medley)
11. All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord
12. Post Communion Prayer
13. God of Grace