In church music, the old is new again

Hymns’ demise greatly exaggerated as youngest Christians taking ancient songs to heart.

By Ben Hines

TEXAN Correspondent

ABILENE–In church music, circa 2004, the old is new again. And the line between “old time religion” and modern worship styles is getting harder to distinguish, as today’s youngest worshippers are finding great meaning in hymns sometimes centuries old.

Hymns that five years ago were found mostly in traditional church services are gaining widespread use among the youngest generation in worship settings both inside and outside of church. The songs beloved by Baptists and other Christians for centuries are the trend in “modern” musical worship–though pipe organs have given way to electric drums and rhythmic guitar riffs.

Music leaders across the country are now incorporating hymns as major fare for audiences of youth and college students, and a new all-hymns collegiate worship CD indicates that the trend toward hymnody is only growing. The release of “Passion: Ancient and Modern Hymns–Live Songs of Our Faith,” by Passion Conferences, represents a significant step in this trend, particularly because the Roswell, Ga.-based ministry has been the leading edge of musical worship for several years.

The CD contains 14 hymns, 13 of which are 100 years or older. These include songs very familiar to traditional worshippers, such as “How Great Thou Art,” “Worship the King,” and “Doxology,” as well as one hymn that dates to the fourth century. At the same time, the artists have set the hymns in a more modern musical arrangement.

Phil Briggs, nationally known authority on collegiate ministry and chair of the Department of Collegiate Ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has seen the incorporation of hymns in modern worship for a few years, sung right alongside more recently authored confessions.

“It is not neglecting one or the other,” Briggs said, “but a blending” of tradition and newer worship. He said a new mainstream worship CD like “Hymns” could be a major step in this trend, particularly given the popularity of the Passion Conferences ministry. Passion “has such a reputation of quality stuff and trend-setting that I think it will be well-received,” Briggs said.

The chance to present older songs of Christendom was a welcome experience for Chris Tomlin, prominent worship artist and worship pastor at The Austin Stone Community Church, an SBTC-affiliated church in Austin. Tomlin performed four songs on the “Hymns” CD, including a rendition of “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”

“As far back as I can remember, singing ‘All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name’ has been a favorite hymn of mine,” he related. “It was one of the top 10 favorite songs in the church I grew up in. I love the reverence and grandness that this song evokes in me.”

Louie Giglio, founder and director of Passion Conferences, said the trend brings students back to an appreciation of hymns through a method he described as “wrapping the rich tradition and heritage of music of the church in the modern musical skin of our time.” He looks with disdain on the tendency to discard tradition simply for the sake of progress, he said.

“Somewhere along the way, tradition became a casualty in the explosion of contemporary worship that has swept the church around the globe in recent decades. Yet, we would be fools to discard the rich treasures that have guided the church through ages past just because they are old.”

Charlie Hall, a lead worshipper for Passion Conferences, described returning to these same traditional roots in an interview with Baptist Press. After growing up in a Baptist church and regularly singing hymns, Hall had moved away from such tradition, believing it to be a hindrance to authentic devotion to God. Recently, however, he realized the beauty of these songs and how much the audiences he led in worship were missing by not being familiar with the hymns of the faith.

Briggs said it is hymns’ theological content that has drawn students and their leaders to use them in worship. “Through hymnody we regain some of our theological moorings,” he says. “We have taught more theology through hymnody than anything else.”

Hall recognizes this value, as well. “The songs that have come down the pike–including some of the things I’ve written–haven’t had much theology,” he said. He believes hymns, on the other hand, have much to teach. “The majority of them are rich in theology. Studying God should cause your heart to burst in worship. That is my goal with those songs.”

A key part now of Hall’s walk with Christ is reading through hymnals, including two that he received from his grandmother. And that relevance to his own life comes out in the many services he leads, such as at last summer’s Collegiate Week at LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center and at Oklahoma City’s Bridgeway Church, where he serves as worship pastor. For instance, he said ” ‘The Solid Rock’ has become one of my greatest confessions in my life over the last few years,” after having had to face several trials in that time. The song is also one of three Hall performed on the “Hymns” CD.

By using hymns in these contexts, Hall said he hopes to deepen the experience of Christianity.

“The people who are older in faith, who grew up in church, feel a deep connection in that worship,” he noted. “Most [younger students] have grown up without hymns, so I’m teaching them to them. What they’re getting is the depth of the faith. This thing goes way back. We are part of the big story.”

In this way, Giglio and Hall both hope the growing use of hymns in modern worship will strengthen ties between older and younger Christians, Giglio said.

“Modern worshippers have tended to discard these ancient confessions of worship because they are old, while traditional worshippers have failed to embrace modern confessions because they feel they are shallow and void. With this [CD] project, we wanted to create a common ground where worshippers, traditional and modern, can join in worship.”

Briggs said he agrees that familiarity with hymns can connect generations of worshippers.