please, not another hymns project. well…

March 27, 2008

Stuck in a moment

I used to write music a lot. Even post-Nashville, I was writing on a fairly frequent basis. But slowly by surely, the vigor for songwriting has been absorbed by many things, including this blog.

But there have been moments over the past few years where that ‘loving feeling’ has returned and I’ve been inspired to put together a concept album of some kind. I’m in the middle of one of those moments right now.

This ain’t your grandma’s hymns

I am so grateful for the resurgence of hymns. They ain’t your grandma’s hymns for sure, but a necessary reintroduction into the repertoire of churches all over the world. And I’ve seen a continuum over the last decade of where the reawakening has taken us.

First, for example, you have Passion and Caedmon’s Call musically updating hymns that we all know and love and at times, adding a new chorus that brings into the current praise and worship realm. They aren’t musically that radical.

Second, you have folks like Mars Hill Church who are updating hymns we all know and love but they are so radically progressive musically, they don’t sound like the same hymns. But they are…

Third, you have Sojourn, Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Music doing some of this as well, but also going back into the ‘vault’ and reclaiming lesser known hymns and updating the music.

Fourth, you have folks like Stuart Townend and Keith Getty who are differentiating themselves from the praise and worship industry by writing what many consider modern day hymns. New lyrics, new tunes, all hearkening back to that vintage art form.

Overindulging ourselves with vanilla

As with any rebirth of any kind, there is always the possibility of overexposure. Some great things start out innocently and then become monsters that are almost unmanageable. CCM is a good example of this…

I’ve seen a proliferation of the repackaged hymns idea - the hymn’s original lyrics and melody with updated music - for some time now. To be honest, I’m growing weary. How many arrangements of Amazing Grace can we come up with? Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying we are over satiated with the worth of hymns. I think we’ve overindulged ourselves a bit with the endless vanilla repackaging of those hymns.

Theology married to context

If you listen long enough to people talk about the church reclaiming the arts, you hear the value of indigenous art sprouting up from within the community of artists in a church. But the reality is that we are light years away from this being a common thread that is woven through the church. I’m afraid with the recontexted hymn, we are actually not being as creative as God has called us to be.

I believe the next great wave of church music will be the fourth group I mentioned above. Those of the Townend/Getty ilk. Individuals who are writing brand new lyrics with overtly strong theological moorings married to the contextualized sounds of community a church is situated in. How beautiful would it be if the very thing that the contemporary worship movement abandoned for the sake of accessibility became the catalyst to birth an indigenous music crusade?

Unsticking the moment

So it’s time to start writing again. Specifically, new hymns with new lyrics and melodies that read like old hymns but sound like something that lives in the 21st century. That’s the plan. I don’t know much beyond that at this point other than I need to go dust off my old hymnology books and study me some Newton. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the project…

Posted in CCM, art, church, community, emerging church, examining, history, hymns, independent music, music, songwriting, worship