'Amazing Grace' hits high note with Texans
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___If there's a song in the air in Texas Baptist churches, it's most likely to be "Amazing Grace."
___The hymn penned by John Newton in the late 18th century was the top pick of Baptist Standard readers in a poll of favorite congregational songs.
___Two-third
s of all respondents to the survey named "Amazing Grace" among their top 10 choices. It got 388 votes among the 580 people participating in the survey by using forms printed twice in the Standard and available on the Standard's website.
___Along with their votes, many Texas Baptists wrote notes expressing strong opinions about their likes and dislikes in church music.
___"Some of the songs of today wouldn't move a grasshopper, they are so unrelated to worship," one senior adult wrote on the margins of a ballot. "They make me want to run outside for fresh air."
___Others wrote of the agony they felt in having to choose only 10 favorite songs. "This is impossible!" one man wrote. "I knocked out the first five in a few minutes. Then I started through the Baptist Hymnal. Land-a-mercy! I found at least another hundred that I really liked."
___The diversity of those choices showed up clearly in the survey results. From the 580 respondents came suggestions of 554 favorite congregational songs. That means every ballot, on average, contained one unique selection.
___Votes were received for everything from "A Child of the King" to "You Are Worthy." Suggestions included old-time gospel hymns and contemporary praise and worship choruses. They also included the supremely sacred to the occasional secular tune; one person voted for the Bette Midler tune "Wind Beneath My Wings."
___But on the whole, the balloting favored songs well-established in various editions of the "Baptist Hymnal" or older "Broadman Hymnal."
___The most contemporary song to make the top 10 was "Because He Lives," written by Bill and Gloria Gaither in 1971.
___Other newer songs that made a showing in the survey included "Glorify Thy Name," "He Touched Me," "Holy Ground," "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High," "Majesty," "Shout to the Lord," "Shine, Jesus, Shine," "Sweet, Sweet Spirit," "The King is Coming," "There's Something About that Name" and "Worthy of Worship."
___But none of the newer songs held a candle to the old-time favorites, some of which uniformly were endorsed by the young and old alike.
___"Amazing Grace," for example, was the top pick of the under-18 crowd as well as the 71-and-above crowd. It was, in fact, the top pick of all age categories, propelling it to the No. 1 spot in the survey.
___"The Old Rugged Cross" made a strong showing among all age brackets, landing it in the No. 4 spot overall.
___A few in the top 10 were embraced more enthusiastically by older respondents. For example, "Blessed Assurance" was named by 24 percent of those over 71 but only 5 percent of those under 18. Likewise, "How Great Thou Art" found its greatest following among the oldest respondents, as did "What A Friend We Have in Jesus."
___"Great is Thy Faithfulness," on the other hand, was embraced best by those in the 51 to 70 age bracket.
___In general, the older age groups exhibited more cohesiveness in their overall selections, while respondents under the age of 50 scattered their votes more diversely.
___That's not to say the older respondents weren't iconoclastic as well as the youngsters, though. Both "The Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" and "Thy Word" got one vote, each from opposite ends of the age spectrum.
___The survey revealed the personal passion with which many Texas Baptists consider the topic of church music.
___"Hymn words are very important to me," one woman wrote. "Though I love some of the traditional hymns, I now flinch when the language is not inclusive. Once aware, you can't go back, nor would I want to."
___"My list will not make your list, but these are the hymns I've sung all my life," an Austin man wrote. "I could probably sing all stanzas of most of these."
___"I am in hopes some day that the song, 'I Won't Have to Cross Jordan Alone' will be sung and become popular again," a San Antonio woman wrote. She's got a wide river to cross, however, as her hymn garnered only one vote--hers.
___Many people wrote notes about their frustration with changing music styles in their churches.
___"Today, too many choruses are 7-11 songs," one man wrote. "You sing seven words 11 times."
___"I wish our song director would compromise for us 'old folks,'" another person wrote. "I wish you could swing the churches back to the old songs."
The Baptist Standard
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
|