Simple Kingdom Songs
Simple Kingdom Songs is a selection of worship songs written by Ingrid and myself over the years. All our songs have free PDF leadsheets with melody, lyrics and guitar chords and free PDF lyrics-only sheets which you can download. Our songs also include an embedded SoundCloud link so you can listen to a recording of each song. Some of these songs are included in chapter 4 of our free book Simple Kingdom: Worship where they are used to illustrate various aspects of the craft of worship songwriting.
PLEASE NOTE that most of my SoundCloud recordings are "rough cuts" done at home using guitar and/or keyboard, so don't expect studio quality recordings. And don't expect a professional-sounding performance either, because I'm an old dude now whose voice has gotten creaky with age. And even after several decades of leading worship in home fellowships, I'm still just a novice guitar player. But hey, that's the point of simple worship, isn't it? Anyone who can play three chords on a guitar can lead worship in a housegroup or house church!
Anyways, we hope you are blessed by these songs, and may the Lord capture your heart again through simple and intimate worship songs. Stay tuned as we'll be adding more simple worship songs to our website soon. You can email us if you would like to be notified whenever there are new songs here. And you can also listen to all our worship songs simply by visiting our SoundCloud stream Simple Kingdom Songs.
NEW! - Songs added on 23 Nov 2023:
Christ Child Holy - a Christmas carol
Inspired by the Germanic "Christkind" this beautiful Christmas carol by Ingrid celebrates the birth and coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus.
Come And See - a Christmas carol
This is another wonderful Christmas carol that Ingrid wrote several years ago. The music has a Celtic lilt to it while the lyrics echo memory of the three wise men who came from afar to worship him who had been born king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-2). And to behold his face is what we who follow Jesus long for in our hearts!
Favored by God - a Christmas carol
I've re-recorded this song with voice and guitar. Note that while Ingrid's lyrics are wonderful, the music God gave us for her song might sound generic to some listeners. But maybe that's for the best, because sometimes fancy or elaborate music can draw the worshipper's attention away from the simple truth of what the words of the song expresses. Just something to keep in mind as you write your worship songs. See Chapter 4 in our book Simple Kingdom: Worship for the backstory behind how this wonderful song came to be.
Songs added on 26 August 2023:
Help Me To Walk The Way You Walk
This song, which is a disciple's prayer, makes effective use of repetition in both melody and lyrics which makes it easy to learn. And pitching it in a minor key (E minor) makes the song powerful in expression.
Forevermore and Evermore
This simple "Jesus song" makes effective use of repetition both with the melody and the lyrics, which makes it easy to sing and to commit to memory. When I shared my song with Andy Park some years ago, he responded with "Good solid Biblical lyrics!" and offered some suggestions concerning the melody and chording which I accepted and incorporated into the song.
The Lord's Love
An intimate love song to the Lord Jesus, written during a difficult time in our life when Ingrid and I were helping a struggling church plant while simultaneously starting up a business -- not something I would advice others to attempt!
You Whisper
A love song to Jesus, simple and intimate. From way back in our early years but still relevant for today.
Father I Love You
One of the blessings of the early Vineyard was a renewed understanding of the fatherhood of God. This simple love song to the Father greatly impacted those who sang it in our home fellowships in the 80s.
Songs added on 21 June 2023:
(These songs are also included in our free book Simple Kingdom:Worship to demostrate various aspects of the craft of worship songwriting.)
Because You Are Beautiful
This short song makes effective use of repetition, which makes it easy to learn how to sing it. When I include it in a worship set, I usually sing it twice and then finish by signing "Because you Jesus, I will seek your face etc."
Gentle Touch
This song is an example of a pattern song and is quite intimate in the manner it expresses our love for Jesus. I composed it back in the early days of our connection with the Vineyard Movement, and the song expresses the feeling of "first love" that I felt after first encountering Vineyard worship and the teachings of John Wimber.
Help Me Say "Jesus"
Try singing Bob Cull's song Open Our [My] Eyes, Lord a few times, then sing the above as a finale. I think it works!
I Belong to You
Very few songs I've written have a bridge; this one works very well, I think. Whenever I lead worship with this song, I sing it through first as above. Then I sing it through again, but I lengthen the ending like this:
I belong to you
Master, I belong to you
Savior, I belong to you
Jesus, I belong to you
Jesus in You
Ingrid wrote this simple verselet in the mid-80s when we first started homegroups where we modeled and taught about worship, healing, and other things we were learning from the Vineyard. If you were using this song as part of a worship set, you would probably preface and/or follow it with other short songs in the same key (C) such as Change My Heart Oh God, Come Right Now, It's Your Blood, and so on.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
I included this song a few times in my set when I led worship in our very first homegroups, but the song never quite seemed to take with the group. I think this might have been because the song really needs a group of about thirty or more people singing, and the lead acoustic guitar needs some additional musical support like an electric bass, a honky-tonk piano, and a tambourine. Maybe someday :-)
Like a River in the Night
Another fairly recent song by Ingrid, sweet and intimate and very easy to learn. Ingrid shares that "This song came to me in the night during a time when we were very busy writing books for Microsoft. It was a challenging time in our life together. I think the Holy Spirit gave it to me to encourage me, to show that His presence was still with us during this difficult time."
Merciful Father
Ingrid's song here is a good example of a pattern song since you can easily add more verses e.g. Worthy are you, Awesome are you, and so on.
When You Breathe on Me
Can a worship song express too much intimacy? I don't know, but this is one song that I've never had the courage to use when leading worship; I've only sung it during my private times of personal worship. But even though I wrote it many, many years ago, when I try to sing it today I get all choked up because of the truth the song expresses.
