Key figures in church music in 20th century
___ Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey. Moody, a prominent evangelist and namesake of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, was a major influence on Baptist worship at the turn of the century. Sankey was Moody's singer for evangelistic crusades, and his name became synonymous with the gospel song tradition.
___Robert H. Coleman. A layman, Coleman served as an associate to George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. He not only was one of the individuals in Texas Baptist life who could be called a "music minister," but was most noted as a publisher of hymnals. Between 1909 and 1939, he published 33 collections of hymns.
___I.E. Reynolds. Raised in rural Alabama, Reynolds came
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ROBERT COLEMAN
(Photo: Texas Baptist Historical Collection)
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I.E. REYNOLDS
(Photo: Southwestern Seminary)
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under the influence of Dwight L. Moody during an 1894 revival in Birmingham, Ala. He later attended Moody Bible Institute before launching a career of his own as an evangelistic singer. L.R. Scarborough brought him on the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1915 as music director and ultimately as director of the gospel music department. Reynolds was a strident advocate for "better" music in Baptist churches, a viewpoint he extolled in 40 articles published in the Baptist Standard from 1915 to 1945. His advocacy also led to creation of a church music department at the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board.
___B.B. McKinney. Southern Baptists' most prolific and best-known hymn writer of this century, McKinney taught in the School of Sacred Music at Southwestern Seminary from 1919 to 1931, then moved to Nashville, Tenn., to launch the Sunday School Board's church music department. He frequently led music at crusades and summer assemblies, most notably at Falls Creek in southern
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B.B. MCKINNEY
(Photo: Southwestern Seminary)
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Oklahoma. He was editor of the 1940 Broadman Hymnal, the first hymnal to create a common worship culture among Southern Baptists. McKinney also wrote 149 gospel hymns and songs and composed the music for 114 texts written by others. His best-known songs include "The Nail-Scarred Hand," "Let Others See Jesus in You," "Speak to My Heart" and "Wherever He Leads I'll Go."
___William J. Reynolds. Considered Southern Baptists' foremost authority on hymnody, he became the first Baptist elected president of the Hymn Society of America. He also has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Reynolds led the Sunday School Board's church music department nearly 20 years and was editor of the 1975 Baptist Hymnal. He was responsible for introducing the first contemporary Christian music into the Baptist Hymnal and led the Sunday School Board to publish the first youth musicals that shaped a generation of baby boomers. He has taught at Southwestern Seminary 20 years.
__Other contemporaries. Perhaps because it's too early to gauge their long-term impact, singling out a few of the individuals who have been prominent in the contemporary Christian music scene was too daunting for the historians interviewed for this report. Composers such as Ralph Carmichael, Kurt Kaiser and Bill and Gloria Gaither were mentioned by some as examples of those whose influence helped bring contemporary Christian music and praise choruses into Baptist congregations.
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