Listening In preview: Keith Getty

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: Christmas hymns.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Singer-songwriter Keith Getty may be best known for the hymn “In Christ Alone.”

But this time of year, Keith and his wife Kristyn are probably most recognized for their Irish Christmas concerts going on around the country.

REICHARD: On this week’s Listening In, host Warren Smith talks to Keith Getty about the importance of music in the life of the church.

Let’s listen now to a bit of their conversation.

WARREN SMITH: It seems like there’s a unique opportunity during this time of year to take the message of Christmas even into the secular culture.

KEITH GETTY: Oh, and it’s, it’s a challenge at multiple levels, Warren. And you know, great art is the greatest apologetic for anything. Do you know what I mean? So I’m saying to Christians in their homes, fill your home up with the great carols of the faith. If you take the great carols of the faith, and fill your home up with them, your home, your children are going to understand the gospel. You know what I mean? If you, if you fill your churches with the great carol’s of the faith, the great Christmas hymns of the faith, then the old generation are going to be united with the young generation. The pastors, the pastoral teaching ministry is going to be united with the music ministry. And those who have faith will have a unique connection to those who are yet to believe. You know? And so I’m encouraging people, you know, really dig deep into these carols this season. Plow from the riches. They are a gift to our generation. This is composers like Handel, like Mendelssohn, like Gustav Holst. These guys wrote the melodies to these things. These are the masterworks of the Christian gift. So I encourage people at that level as well to just to plunge in, whether it’s on your iPhone in your home as you’re cooking a Turkey or planning for visitors to come. Or whether it’s first thing in the morning if you happen to get woken up early before little daughters under the age of 8 or in your churches as well. These are a gift to us.

(Photo/Keith and Kristyn Getty)

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