Getty and his wife, Kristyn, who perform together and tour with their four kids and an Irish-themed band, are back in Nashville, Tennessee, after nine months on lockdown in Northern Island, where they have a home. “If we’re going to build a generation of people who think deep thoughts about God, who have rich prayer lives, and who are the culture-makers of the next generation, we need to be teaching them songs with theological depth,” he said in a 2016 interview about his approach to hymn writing. He believes they are the type of songs Christians need in a complicated and ever-changing world.
It was the first of a series of modern hymns he’s helped write, combining singable melodies with theological reflection. Getty has sometimes called “In Christ Alone” a “rebel song”-a kind of protest against the more contemporary worship songs that sound more like pop music than traditional hymns. However, we hope you will support our work with your prayers and financial gifts. Getty has described Townend’s lyrics for the song as “absolutely brilliant,” capturing the story of Christian faith in a powerful and lovely way.Īccess to MinistryWatch content is free. The song originally started with the line “My hope is found in Christ alone.” Getty suggested switching the verse around to start with “In Christ alone.” After some hesitation, Townend did so, and the song came to life. He eventually called Getty and the two talked about writing a musical version of a church creed that would recount the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Then he popped in the CD and immediately changed his mind. “He said he’d send me a CD with some of his song ideas…It arrived and I wasn’t expecting anything.” “We got together, we had a coffee, nothing particularly eventful happened,” Townend recalled.
In a 2016 interview recounting the origins of “In Christ Alone,” Townend said there was nothing memorable about his meeting with Getty. The song also launched a new era of modern hymn writing.Īll of which came as a surprise to the tune’s authors. That melody became the basis for “In Christ Alone,” which was released in 2001 and has become one of the most popular songs in Protestant churches, according to the Christian Copyright Licensing International, which tracks songs sung in churches.
So he sent a recording of the melody on a CD to Stuart Townend, an English songwriter he’d met a few months earlier at a church conference, in hopes Townend might be able to turn the melody into a serviceable hymn. This isn’t great, he thought at the time.īut it was the best he could come up with. The melody that changed Keith Getty’s life was first scratched out on the back of an electric bill in a humble flat in Northern Ireland.
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