Music in church has been called the "vocabulary of American religion." Some say it is a "soundtrack" to churchgoers’ spiritual lives. Music also reminds people of family, teaches them about church beliefs, and makes them feel closer to their Maker.
Evangelical Protestant hymns, written in the 18th and 19th centuries, usually consisted of anywhere from three to seven verses. Some had choruses, others didn’t. Many of them were written by pastors.
During the 1800s, gospel hymns became popular. They had multipart harmonies and words describing Jesus’ power to uplift. Then in the 1970s "praise music" became popular in evangelical and Pentecostal churches. This music had lyrics repeated over and over with the accompaniment of soft rock: guitar, drums, and bass.
Mainline Protestant churches, from Lutheran to Methodist, started to schedule pop-influenced praise music in an effort to bolster declining membership rolls, to attract worshippers with more contemporary sounds.
The more traditional hymns have been downgraded in a majority of churches, and many worshippers know nothing but praise music. Still there are those who yearn for the return of "old songs."
For the past three years, a 64-year-old music minister, Rev. Paul Ferrin, has been holding "Old Fashioned Hymn Sings" at churches across the country. His goal is to bring such music back to life. This year he has 20 gatherings scheduled, and 12 have already been slated for 2003. Ferrin’s very first one took place in 1999 at Radiant Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Ferrin doesn’t expect that hymns will replace praise music completely. What he would like to see is a balance between the two, to preserve a few traditional favorites in the modern service. Some churches already do this; Ferrin would like to see their numbers grow. He said, "We have a tendency to do this in life in general–the new things come in, and we don’t retain the old."
Selections at Ferris’ productions range from "Blessed Assurance," "Kneel At the Cross," "I’ll Fly Away" and "Like A River Glorious" to songs about sin and salvation, grace and the Gospel, the pearly gates, and blood-stained crosses. Attendance is often in the hundreds.
Recently after a hymn sing, Ferrin said, "Isn’t this marvelous? This has got to be a glimpse of what heaven is going to be."