Hymn writer Keith Getty's finished task

Contemporary hymn writer Keith Getty has composed many worship songs, but hymns emphasizing global missions always eluded him. Now the 41-year-old, Irish-born singer-songwriter—whose 2001 composition “In Christ Alone” (co-written with Stuart Townend) tops church copyright licensing charts and became a Billboard album of the year in 2008—has found his mission song.

When “Facing a Task Unfinished” is released Feb. 21, Getty will unite a centuries-old hymn with up-to-the-minute global crowd-sourcing to add momentum to what he hopes will become a new favorite in churches worldwide.

“I discovered it 20 years ago. Despite its old tune, it was a popular song in Britain among high school and college groups,” Getty told me by phone from Nashville, Tenn., where he and his wife Kristyn, who provides lead vocals to Getty’s keyboard accompaniment, now live.

In the 1920s, China Inland Mission worker Frank Houghton originally wrote the hymn as a call for 200 missionaries to go into the heart of China at the height of persecution. Spurred by the hymn and the work of China Inland Mission founder Hudson Taylor, by 1931 more than 200 Christian workers had set sail for China, planting seeds of the gospel that today undeniably have fueled one of the fastest growing churches in the world.

“I have always been interested in China, in how a progressive culture that tried to squeeze Christianity out of the public square has instead watched it become a dominant religion—from under a million believers to now 80 million or more,” Getty said.

With persecution again on the rise in the 21st century, Getty said it was time to revisit and revise Houghton’s work. Set traditionally to the Samuel Wesley tune Aurelia (think “The Church’s One Foundation”), the hymn had fallen out of modern use. The original setting once appeared in at least five hymnals through the 1970s—including the Moravian Book of Worship and InterVarsity Fellowship’s Christian Praise hymnbook from the 1950s.

The revived version has been fitted by Getty with a new chorus using the traditional Houghton lyric but adding the lines: “We go to all the world / With kingdom hope unfurled / No other name has power to save / But Jesus Christ The Lord.”

Releasing it now, in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of OMF International, the successor organization to China Inland Mission, Getty explained, allows him also to revive the hymn’s copyright and give it fresh life—and a fresh revenue stream. Song sheets can be downloaded for free at the Gettys’ website, but song and album sales will be donated to OMF.

Via their website, the Gettys also launched a worldwide campaign for churches to sing the song together on Sunday, Feb. 21. More than 2,440 churches—from Argentina to Uzbekistan—have signed on for the event.

Getty told me he hopes “Facing the Task Unfinished” revives interest in missions, in seeing the “emotional tug” of music put to renewed interest in the church around the world, and in supporting those facing martyrdom.

“When I sing this song all the stupidity in my life stops feeling important,” Kristyn Getty said.

Beyond the Feb. 21 launch, the Gettys plan to release an album by the same name in June and at the same time to launch a tour emphasizing missions. In 2017, the Gettys plan to host their first-ever church music conference, to be held in Nashville.

Listen to Kristen Eicher’s report on “Facing a Task Unfinished” on The World and Everything in It.