Churches revive traditional hymns

By Eric Gorski ~ The Gazette

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Other than the occasional "Amazing Grace," the hymn is dead at many Protestant churches these days.

As church music evolved to fit the times, the hymn book has been tucked away in favor of pop-influenced praise songs whose lyrics are projected on big screens.

A 64-year-old music minister picked up a microphone at Radiant Church in Colorado Springs and brought the old songs back to life on a recent Friday night, if only for two hours.

The Rev. Paul Ferrin began holding these "Old Fashioned Hymn Sings" three years ago. Now he has quit his job as national music director for the Assemblies of God denomination to stage the revivals across the country.

The churches aren't always equipped.

At Radiant Church, there is no organ. So Ferrin and his wife, Marjorie, borrowed an old Hammond from a couple in town.

The 500 people who took up hymn books Friday shouted out requests for "Blessed Assurance," "Kneel at the Cross" and "I'll Fly Away," songs about sin and salvation, grace and the Gospel, pearly gates and blood-stained crosses.

Does this mean hymns are making a comeback? Will hymn sings become a retro phenomenon? Probably not, experts say.

The audience, after all, was "almost all white hair," as one participant put it.

But the success of Ferrin's roadshow speaks to a desire to at least preserve a few traditional favorites in the new church music canon.

"We miss singing the old hymns," said Ruth Kenyon, 68. "I feel more worshipful singing them. It just seems they have more of a message."

To many people of faith, music is more than a soundtrack to their spiritual lives. It can remind them of family, teach them about church beliefs or make them feel closer to God. Music has been called "the vocabulary of American religion." The early evangelical Protestant hymns, penned in the 18th and 19th centuries, typically run three to seven verses, sometimes with no refrain. Often written by pastors, they are heavy on church doctrine.

That style gave way in the mid-1800s to gospel hymns with multipart harmonies and testimonial lyrics about Jesus' power to transform.

Popular praise

"Praise music" became popular in evangelical and Pentecostal churches in the 1970s. This is church music stripped down to the chorus. The lyrics are repeated over and over to soft rock played on guitar backed by drums and bass. They're like love songs to Jesus.

"The pattern is very clear: The music keeps up with popular music tastes or it doesn't work," said Stephen Marini, chairman of the religion department at Wellesley College and author of the forthcoming book "Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music and Public Culture." To many evangelicals, praise music is the only church music they've known.

Many mainline Protestant churches, from Methodists to Lutherans, have adopted praise songs in an effort to reduce declining membership rolls. Some churches mix hymns and praise songs.

Ferrin, who grew up Baptist, staged his first hymn sing at Radiant when the interim pastor invited him to plan a Thanksgiving service.

The hymn sings take place each spring and fall at Radiant.

Ferrin will have 20 nationwide this year. A dozen hymn sings are scheduled for 2003.

Ferrin doesn't expect hymns will replace praise music. But he doesn't see why the two can't coexist.

"We have a tendency to do this in life in general -- the new things come in, and we don't retain the old," Ferrin said. "I just feel like a balance is so very important."

Brandan Vargo, 25, a college student and one of the few young people at Friday's hymn sing, sees hymns as a way to unite people of different ages and faiths.

"I personally like the contemporary music, but if you have a mix of the contemporary and the old hymns, it's a church everyone can go to," Vargo said.