Frequently Asked Questions

You can download the sheet music for any song from its song page for free. If a song appears on multiple recordings, you’ll find the corresponding charts with the recording graphic. We’ve tried to provide chord charts, lead sheets, and piano/vocal scores in congregational and album keys. When we have them we also offer SATB arrangements, orchestrations, or ChordPro charts that you can copy and paste to Planning Center. 

Due to the increase in digital downloads, we now sell only our newer and most popular albums in CD form. You’ll find a link to buy those on their album page. Or you can check to see if one is available here.

We’re happy to transpose lead sheets and piano scores for you. Simply, contact us and let us know the song, key, and type of sheet music you need it in. We’re also working on uploading ChordPro formats of our songs that are easy to transpose in the appropriate software.

Typically, solo instrument parts recorded on our albums are improvised and not written out. Due to limited resources, we often don’t have the time to transcribe what they play. But if you’ve transcribed one and want to send it to us to post on our site, you can do that here!

If you visit this page, you can browse the themes by which we’ve categorized our 500+ songs. You can also browse by a variety of other search criteria (like Scripture, key, liturgical elements, and more) by clicking the items listed on the left side of the page.

Yep! Because the songs we sing should enable the word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16), we base them on Scripture. You can view the index of Scripture references here. Those references are also listed on each song page.
We have sheet music for a number of string, brass, and choral arrangements, as well as various orchestrations available on our site. The easiest way to find them is by searching for a specific arrangement type on our search page. We also offer full orchestrations (PDF and midi file) on our Bandcamp site.

We don’t currently offer multitracks for all of our albums. However, you should be able to find stems from our newest albums at Multitracks.com as they become available. We also encourage the use of live musicians in Sunday gatherings!

Yes! We link to them on every song page under “Buy.” You can also find them at our Bandcamp site. And if you’re wondering, accompaniment tracks are the originally recorded tracks with the vocals removed.

We are indebted to James Hammack and Peter Scrufari for their dedicated, excellent, humble, generous help in making this website for us so that we can serve more churches with our music!

Our Story

Sovereign Grace Music is an arm of Sovereign Grace Churches. In 1984 we produced our first cassette tape, Mighty God. As the number of our churches grew, we looked for a way to distribute our songs. We ended up recording 16 Song Service Tapes (catchy name, we know) that included about 8 songs each. That was followed by nine Come & Worship recordings. During that time, we also recorded three albums with Word’s HeartCry label. In the early 2000s we moved towards theme-centered albums. Since then, we’ve recorded over 30 albums. Bob Kauflin has been involved in Sovereign Grace Music since the mid-80s, and is the current Director of Sovereign Grace Music.

God gave us singing as one way of expressing our love and devotion to Him. But it’s more than that. Singing enables us to learn, rehearse, remember, and respond to the truths of who God is and what He’s done, especially in sending Jesus Christ to redeem us. One of the primary reasons God commands us to sing to him is so that his Word might fill our hearts and our minds. Colossians 3:16 says it like this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” While singing isn’t the only way we teach and admonish one another when we gather, it certainly is one of the ways God intends that to happen. It’s also clear from the Psalms that words are more critical in our praise of God than the music we use. Otherwise God would have given us an accompanying soundtrack. The emotional fire of our singing needs doctrinal fuel. That’s why theology is important in the songs we sing.

Yes. We recorded some covers back in the mid-80s, as well as on the Next 2009 Live and the Together for the Gospel Live I, IIIII, and IV albums. We don’t do them very often because we want to provide opportunities for Sovereign Grace songwriters to use their gifts. But we are overjoyed when God raises up so songwriters from other churches and ministries to serve the church with Christ-exalting songs!

Through the years, we’ve used musicians from a variety of sources. Currently we primarily use musicians and vocalists from Sovereign Grace Churches or ones that we have a strong relationship with. 

We don’t consider our music “distinctive” in the sense that nobody else is doing what we’re doing. We’re happy to be one of an increasing number of individuals, churches, bands, and ministries that want to provide songs for the church characterized by theologically-informed, Christ-exalting lyrics, singable melodies, and creative musical arrangements. Because our theological blend combines elements of Reformed and Continuationist theology, our music seems to benefit both conservative churches wanting to broaden their musical styles as well as charismatic churches looking for a greater biblical depth in their songs.

In God’s kindness, there are many artists these days who desire to produce Christ-exalting songs for the local church. Some of them are CityAlight, Keith and Kristin GettyIndelible Grace Music, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, and Sandra McCracken. 

Songs

Most of our songs are written or co-written by current or past members of Sovereign Grace Churches, or writers we have a relationship with who share our values.

Ultimately, Bob Kauflin bears that responsibility, but he draws from a multitude of counselors (songwriters, Sovereign Grace leaders, Sovereign Grace Music production team, etc.).

Most songs start at our annual songwriting retreats when we gather our for a few days of teaching, writing, and fellowship. That time typically results in about 30-40 new songs to review, edit, and craft further. Writing continues throughout the year, usually by video calls. Each retreat tends to focus on writing for one or two upcoming albums. Here’s a little glimpse into what those retreats look like.

Thanks for asking! We typically don’t give permission to change, remove, or add lyrics to our songs. We want to protect the integrity of the songwriter’s original work, as well as avoid the confusion of having multiple versions of a song in circulation. Bob Kauflin wrote a helpful post on this here. If you have any remaining questions, contact us and we’d be happy to discuss them with you.

The Permissions page should help you with that. If you still have questions after reading that, contact us.

Getting Involved

Unfortunately, we can barely find enough time to do all those things with our own music! We’d encourage you to show your songs to musicians in your local church to get their feedback.

Due to our limited time and resources, we only review and publish songs from our songwriters.

Definitely! Send us the Sibelius/Finale file (if available) and a PDF to be considered for posting on our website. If it’s an orchestration, a MIDI MP3 would be helpful. Thanks!

For our recordings, we prioritize those already serving in a local Sovereign Grace church. We’ll occasionally ask friends of Sovereign Grace Music to participate as well. If you’re currently serving musically in a Sovereign Grace church and want to be considered for a future album, send us some examples of what you do and a recommendation from your pastor! If you don’t have a lot of experience recording in a studio, we suggest investing time in that first. 

A great place to start is to get involved in your local church. Talk to your pastor or the individual in charge of the music at your church and tell them you want to grow. Here are a few great resources on what God has to say about the role of corporate worship:

And check out the Worship Matters Video Intensive or consider applying for an in-person Worship Matters Intensive in Louisville!

Visit our Permissions page to find out more info on how and when you can use our music online.

Translations

Yes! We love promoting official translations of our songs which seek to honor the songwriter’s original intent, the melody, and poetic values. As those translations become approved, we post them on our Translations page.
Yes please! Visit our Translations page to submit your translation.
We have produced a handful of Spanish albums including En Ti Esperamos, La Salvación es del SeñorEl Dios que AdoramosEres DiosAllí en la Cruz, and Sea la Gloria Solo a Ti. Our friends from Arche Church in Hamburg, Germany oversaw the production of two albums of our songs translated into Russian. You can hear/purchase them on Bandcamp: Waiting for the Day [Жду Тот День] and When I Look Upon the Cross [Когда я смотрю на крест].

We’d prefer that you run your translation by us first for approval. For the sake of clarity, we don’t want different translations floating around.

If we didn’t answer your question here, check out our About or Permissions page, or contact us.