Why Our Teenagers Need to Learn Old Hymns

Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church. They train people for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.

- J. C. Ryle

 If you want to get Christians debating, just throw out an opinion related to music in the church. Suddenly, lines are drawn based on upbringing, what is acceptable, what is not, the use of certain instruments, choirs, praise teams, who should sing, who shouldn’t sing, what singers should or should not wear on stage, lyrics, writers’ theology, and more.

Throughout my life debate and disagreement regarding Christian music has been occurring. Whether it be hymns, the advent of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), the modern praise and worship boon, or more, the lines have been drawn, continue to be drawn, and the perpetual debate continues.

Why? Because theology matters and thus, music about biblical teaching matters.

Sadly, over the past few decades many have begun to believe, and maybe inadvertently been taught, that the singing and musical portions of our weekly services are unimportant or insignificant. This explains why some are perpetually late to the worship gatherings and join the church family either while the singing together is happening or shortly thereafter. Perhaps they just believe it is a service prelude rather than part of the service? Maybe singing together is viewed like the trailers for a movie – just filler until the main show begins? (And if the worship service is a show or perceived as such, we have other problems to address.)

Many in the church may be viewing singing together in a worship service simply as an experience. The fear, as Matt Merker states is that the contemporary worship movement has too often trained people to seek a caffeine jolt of emotional bliss.[1] Some attempting to be funny have called modern songs “Seven-Eleven Songs” referencing that they seem to only include seven words sung eleven times, over and over. Funny. Not true for all, but not exactly untrue overall.

Don’t get me wrong, I love some of the modern Christian songs. I was all in with 1990s era CCM and still listen to the “oldies” on my Spotify playlist. I like som of the more recent songs getting airplay now as well. Yet, I am of the age where I remember having a printed Baptist Hymnal in the pew racks and a sign board on the wall in the front of the church listing the hymns we would sing that day. That old book had hundreds of songs, though as I recall, it seemed we only sang about twenty of them in church. This may be due to the capabilities of our pianists and organists.

Those old hymns are the ones seared into my memory and at funerals where many of them are revisited. When I hear them, I mentally go back to the old church services where our minister of music would raise his right hand, state that we would sing the first, second, and last verse of a hymn. (Apparently, songs with more than three verses were just too long for Baptists.)

While I would sing along, I did not often think much about the words of the hymns. It was not until I was older and started to read some of these old songs that I discovered the treasure hidden within the lyrics. I discovered that many old hymns had lyrics that were cemented in Scripture and each lyric built upon the previous providing a mini-sermon of sorts (thus, revealing that we should never have skipped those third verses.)

The hymns are not inerrant nor immutable (unless the lyrics are word-for-word from Scripture) and I am not holding them up as such. The truth is that some old hymns are not good. Just because they’re old does not make them good. Some new hymns and worship songs are incredible. Thus, just because a song is new does not make it shallow. Yet…some are.

I believe there is much to learn from those who have come before.

This is the genesis of what I am soon teaching our students here at First Baptist Church. I am going to be leading our teenagers on Wednesdays through a series titled “Ancient Modern: Hymns & Stories.”

Surely, some are saying “Teenagers don’t care about that.” They may be right. In fact, I know some adults who don’t care about that either. Yet, that does not impact our plans.

Our student ministry is comprised of teenagers who are in various stages of maturity, not unlike every single youth group in existence. These hybrid children/adults are part of our church family. When they gather on Wednesdays they play games. They spend much of the time on their phones (some of them, anyway.) They wear shorts when it is forty degrees outside, but with a hoodie, so it’s okay. They also wear hoodies and sweatshirts when it is one-hundred degrees outside. They are teenagers.

Those who are believers and members of our church are NOT the church of tomorrow, but the church of today.

Thus, even while having fun and revealing their immaturity at times, the need for solid, biblical teaching does not get pushed to the back burner. Low expectations are often met and end up leaving us wanting. Our expectations are rising and if we continue to treat our teenagers as children, they will remain that way—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

In our gatherings, we are seeking to challenge them intellectually and spiritually and that why we are entering this series on old hymns. The good doctrine found in many older songs and ancient hymns must not be lost to this generation. It would be foolish to ignore the truths those who have gone before have learned.

So we begin our study in the lyrics and words of the old hymns. We look to the writers and ask questions about what was happening in their respective lives that led to such songs. We seek to find information about the theology of the writers and their walk with Christ, if it is known. We look to the lyrics critically and examine them, always seeking to find if and where they align with Scripture. Why? So that we have a generation of believers who do not declare a song to be worshipful without understanding what is actually being sung.

Seriously, just because a song has a good beat and leads one to have an emotional reaction does not mean it is a solid hymn or song of worship. I mean, I can get emotional when Celine Dion sings “My Heart Will Go On” but that song does not honor God at all. And give me any song from Boston’s debut album and I’m all in, but that does not mean it’s worshipful. The discerning ear will recognize that even some songs marketed as Christian are more pop music than hymnal worthy.

The first week we will be looking at the biblical truths within the hymn “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” We will discover quickly that this old hymn has a great history, but it is not a song about lost people deciding to become Christians. That’s how I remember it growing up, but that is not what the intent of the writer was and truthfully, that is not even biblical.

So, will this be fun for our students? I don’t know. But it will be right and helpful.

We may even have a few adults sneak into the room.

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[1] Merker, Matt. “How Contemporary Worship Music Is Shaping US-for Better or Worse.” The Gospel Coalition, 6 Feb. 2019, www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/singing-congregation-contemporary-worship/.