Hymn Writers Keith and Kristyn Getty Say God ‘Created Us’ to Sing
By Movieguide® Contributor
Hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty are sharing their thoughts on the power of using music to worship.
“We started writing songs for children’s choirs,” Kristyn said while reflecting on the couple’s start in music during a conversation with Kirk Cameron. “And we were great friends for several years, and then we got married. And it was our first year of marriage that…[we thought] writing hymns is the most useful thing we could do.”
The Gettys have gone on to record 26 albums and were nominated for a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album for the 2021 project “Confessio – Irish American Roots.” The couple has also established Getty Music, an organization “with a view to the year 2050 in the hope that individuals, families, and churches would celebrate the beauty of Christ-centered hymnody,” their website reads.
While reflecting on the importance of music in the church, Keith explained, “We let the word of Christ dwell on us richly, and so what that means is we need to be singing songs that help us have a deep understanding of the Lord—that have a deep understanding of our own humanity and frailty—but a deep understanding of the gospel in all its truth and all its reality and all its forgiveness and hope for the future and for heaven.”
Kristyn added that “something incredible happens when we sing.”
“Yes, it is an expression of praise to the Lord and to honor Him, but there’s something about what it means to be in church and means to be together,” she continued. “So, when I think when we’re talking about ‘What is the sound of worship music? What should that be?’ Well, it’s the sound of the congregation singing together.”
Keith said, “That’s the picture of heaven itself, isn’t it? Of God’s people singing together. That is the hope. We all sing because God has commanded us to, because he’s created us to do it…because Christ is so worthy of our deepest praise.”
In an interview with the Baptist Press, Keith explained how he uses his musical gifts to glorify God.
“For someone like me who wasn’t gifted in the same ways as my friends who are pastors, discipleship through music uses the gifts that I do have,” he said. “Every so often, I write a tune that’s memorable and helps let the Word of Christ dwell richly in people as they meet together and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the couple’s thoughts on the importance of worship music for children:
Musician Keith Getty spoke about why worship music is a key element for children’s faith development during a recent interview with the Christian Post.
“[It goes] right back to the Shabbat, in the Old Testament, ‘Read these truths in your children’s hearts,’” Getty shared. “And through Christian history, teaching our children to sing is important.”
“Obviously, the mediazation [sic], the globalization of culture, has taken away something of that pattern of families singing hymns together…If we go back 100 years, the American Sunday school movement that pretty much everybody who’s been to churches experienced actually began a singing school…You would go to church on a Sunday, and you’d learn to study the Bible and pray and sing,” he explained.
“Music binds the community together, and thus singing to our children, surrounding them with the music of our faith, should be an everyday way that we encourage the faith development of our young ones,” the article explained.
More than simply building community, though, music allows children to learn more about their faith.
“We think less [today] about singing as being a way to learn our faith,” Getty continued. “I think that’s a concern because the Bible is 20% poetry and songs for a reason.”
“If we’re in a generation where we’re singing less and the songs have less truth, then we have to presume that we’re going to have a lot less of the Bible dwelling richly in us,” he continued.
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