Keith & Kristyn Getty: Leading a Generation in Worship & God’s INCREDIBLE Plan | Kirk Cameron on TBN

Grammy-nominated musicians, Keith and Kristyn Getty, join Kirk Cameron to delve into their inspiring story and following the call to write the hymns of this generation. They discuss seeking God’s will for their lives and their passion for worshiping the Lord through music. Don’t miss this insightful interview here on Takeaways with Kirk Cameron on TBN!

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That’s so amazing about the gospel and about the truth of the scriptures that they just keep gathering us in.
In in terms of discovering god’s, well, I don’t think it’s necessarily as complicated think.
I think it’s what has god put in our hands. What is ahead of us?
How can we please his kingdom? And then and then follow his loss.
Keith and Kristin Getty are Gramy Norman recording artists from Northern Ireland who have revolutionized the hymn genre with songs such as in Christ alone and Christ our hope in life and death.
Their songs are sung by over a 100,000,000 people around the globe every year, and they’ve written or co published 38 out of the top 500 CCLI songs in the US and UK.
I wanna know at the very beginning of your, uh, of your how you became the dynamic duo, Kristen and Keith Geddy.
Oh my goodness.
Well, she she turns up at my she turns up at the middle office, which was next door to our home.
And do you know why we did that? Because my uncle John Lennox here I know you’ve spoken to before.
He talked to me and said, Chris, in the notice you like singing, you like music.
I know someone called Keith Getty. You need to meet him.
And he phoned Keith and asked if he would meet me. So I was 18. He was 24.
So Doctor Lenox, the matchmaker is what happens.
So John Lenox, That really helped me because I’ve I guess from 18 to 21 and really beyond that, I wanted to I wanted to please Christ, but I wanted to please Christ if Christianity was true.
If Christianity wasn’t sure, I wanted to do what I wanted.
And, uh, he really engaged my mind to help me look at things and study things and help me become more convinced in the world of confusion that we live, that the Christ who was prophesied, who was born, who taught who lived, who died, who rose, and who will return one day was actually the hope for the world.
And, uh, so I was trying to respond to that.
And as a musician, he’d encourage me to go into music when most of my friends were becoming pastors.
And he says, I think there’ll be something more for you there.
And so I was just turning my head to trying to write to write hymns.
Um, I began but began to think about it and, uh, suddenly this beautiful girl who was only eighteen years old turns up on my house looking for advice or and and, uh, and, uh,
anyway, he said, do you wanna write songs so that you’re trying to write
a song? This makes the song, like, such an awful meet cute. It really does. But I
had never written songs before. I was about to start an English major. So I
love words. Right? So I had to ask you to write songs.
So we start we started writing songs for a Children’s choir. It’s actually the first thing that we ever did.
Sure. And we were great friends for several years. And then
Unfortunately, so.
And then we got married. And it was our 1st year of marriage that we started we sat back a little bit.
We went we moved from Ireland to Switzerland, and we sat back and we thought, what is it that we we really wanted to be together?
We didn’t want to have be going 2 different directions with work.
And we thought, well, what what can you do? What can I do?
How can we sort of weave that together? And some friends and good council helped us sort of do that.
Hold everything together.
Yeah. And then it’s just so I I like to sing, and I like to write in case I think think writing HIMS is the most useful thing that we could do.
And I thought, okay. And so that’s where he started.
And you really you really had a a a love for music when you were when you were young when you were a child.
Right? And you came from a line of teachers with your father being a bible teacher and you’re
Right. If you’re
uncle John Lenox, and he’s a brilliant teacher. Do you think that that is is that really preparing you for
when you met together? I think I think there was something to do.
I think it was to definitely You know, the lord uses all of our backgrounds.
Nothing has to be wasted.
However, all the functional bits and all the dysfunctional bits, the lord can use.
And, you know, even if I remember the first time we came to California, I remember, um, being being approached by a Christian leader who we both know, and they just said, I wanna talk to you.
And I didn’t know anyone’s gonna talk about He goes, have you ever thought how fortunate you are to be from Ireland because the music of Ireland and the music of Scotland extension, is is the easiest folk music to sing in groups?
He goes, I think that’s part of the reason you’re able to write hymns for churches because your folk music that you grew up with sings so well and rung a group of people.
And so, you know, I think I’ve learned that.
I’ve heard for anybody out there, you know, you know, in in terms of discovering god’s world, I don’t think it’s necessarily as complicated as we think.
I think it’s what has god put in our hands. What is ahead of us?
How can we place his kingdom? And then and then follow his law.
So I mean, I had begun to work in music, and all I saw around me was broken marriages everywhere.
So I thought, okay. What is the most useful thing I can get to serve god’s kingdom?
And the need to build deep believers for what the next 2 generations is going to be is absolutely paramount.
And we didn’t have modern homes. And then secondly, let’s create rules that protect your marriage above everything else. Jutamine.
And so that our process was just let’s just work this out and Let’s go for walks and talk about it and let’s There
was a bit a bit of a plan that way, but it’s just it’s me, it’s just how it has has grown and developed, and it has been from those two places.
That’s a sense of usefulness in trying to bring all your gift things together, um, and then a a protection of the core things.
Yeah. With our with our marriage and walk with the lord and seeking people who can support us and encourage us in that.
As you look at the church today and you see so much worship music in And when people go to a church today, uh, before they go, they’ll ask someone, well, how’s the worship?
And they’re really referring to the music.
And you see the contrast between what we often here sung in church today, uh, which sometimes can tend to be either shallow or very me focused rather than deep and god focused.
Um, what what do you see as the differences between, let’s say, a a hymn and a worship song?
Can are they one in the same or are other distinctions?
Well, they’re all just songs of praise to god, and and I’m not here to criticize or condemn anybody else’s work.
Um, but but the, you know, the the Bible is very clear that you know, we we we we when we meet together, you know, we meet with thankfulness, but we let the word of Christ dwellness, richly.
And so what what that means is we need to be singing songs that help us have a deep understanding of the lord, that have a deep understanding of our own humanity and frailty but a deep understanding of the gospel in all its truth and all its reality and in all its forgiveness and hope for the future and for heaven.
And so, you know, you know, I would encourage everybody out there, uh, to choose well, you know, the songs that you sing in your church, choose songs that you can carry for lifetimes that
you can
pass on and, uh, and, uh, uh, and take it seriously.
I think something incredible happens when we saying, yes, it is an expression of praise to the lord and to honor him, but there’s something about what it means to be church.
It means to be together. And so I think when we’re talking about what is the What is the sound of worship music?
What should that be? Well, it’s the sound of the congregation singing together.
And that is a witness to the world, a witness to the next generation looking on And so we often ask ourselves the question, you know, how are people singing?
And what are they singing as opposed to? Is it a good vibe? Is it a good sign?
What, you know, how does feel. It’s more are the people singing?
And are they singing stuff that’s going to build them up and keep them for the next week months, years?
Think that’s where our hearts go for 2 first.
Are there particular old hymns that have ministered to you in specific times in your life.
Mhmm.
Are there specific lyrics and parts of those hens that have really meant the world to you during a difficult time helped you to make
Oh, thousands of thousands of them. I mean, no.
I mean, I I always start the Psalms, being being from a Presbyterian background, you know, the Psalms are so honest because you get the whole picture of the god of the Bible.
You realize that God is holy that he is awesome.
He has no toleration for sin and sinful people, but that he’s also a shepherd and a friend and someone who delights in our praises and someone who’s longing to forgive and to forgive again.
And perhaps, you know, if you’re out there and you’re feeling he can’t forgive me again, read the Psalms, read how read how read how read how read how raw our humanity is and read read how beautiful, Christ Love is.
And then sing it. Yeah. I think there’s a number of songs.
There’s the one whom I love to sing all the time.
It’s called when I when I survey the one just crossed, but to a melody that’s slightly different to what sang in the here in the States.
Yeah.
It’s better.
It’s better. But my great grandmother sang it soon.
I was little, and I can just I can’t think of what, like, one but I just know the song and the sense of focusing in in the gospel and, um, reshuffling my brain as to understanding what the main thing is.
That’s what that song does when I say, wear the wondrous cross and forbid it, lord, that I should boast and wear the whole realm of nature, mine.
It just rebal you know, it just takes my It’s so quickly do we slide away?
So quickly do we get distracted? So prone we are to fear and to just just slipping away.
And so that that song has helped me several times wherever I am.
And that’s what’s so amazing about the gospel and about the truth of the scriptures that they just keep gathering us in and then the relief of that.
That’s what that it is. The the the just continues to.
Yeah. And I think, you know, we’re obviously, you know, hens are our life and we’re working on him on the minute, but if you’re out there and you’re thinking, what do I want my family sing and listen to what I want my church to sing, what I want to lead in my next worship event that I have delayed.
The great thing about singing hymns like when I survey, and these old hymns is that you’re giving something that they can carry with them for the rest of the lives.
I sang songs about looking at Jesus when I was a teenager, and they were sweet songs.
They were emotional, but I don’t sing them now. But I still sing when I survive the wondrous cross.
And so you’re giving someone some something something they can carry for life that that truly goes deep and reminds us that These, you know, forbid at lord that I should boast is something that believers were singing 250 years ago.
It was it was hard for them too. Do you know what I mean?
And so we Well, it it joined us to previous generations in a in a in a way that is beautiful and reminds us that, you know, with so much deconstruction talk at the minute.
The general implication is that Christianity is something that’s been made up for our generation, but, actually, it’s been around for a very long time.
So that that could be helpful as well.
There’s such value in the hymns and the way that it stretches across generations and it imparts such deep theological truths what do you see as the unique value of congregational singing?
There’s so much individualism within, uh, contemporary Christian muse this artist and that song and this performance, but you put great value on singing together.
Yeah. That I think it’s a picture of heaven.
Isn’t it of course, people are saying together, that is the hope.
And so on earth, whether it’s four people whispering him around the table, in North Vietnam because they’re quaking for their lives.
Whether it’s us singing with our girls before they go to sleep at night, whether it’s a congregation or people downtown or an old country church or singing in French or Spanish or or whatever other language it is, you know, it is this beautiful expression of god’s people.
And so when you’re thinking about your church’s worship, the first question we should should ask, isn’t what was the music like, isn’t what was the production like, isn’t what was the leader like, but how did god’s people sing?
Because that is the most that is the that is the crucial fundamental. That is the goal.
Is there a difference between singing and worshiping? Sometimes those two terms are conflated.
Well, you you you you can worship without singing, but but for for Christians, we sing to we sing as as worship.
So, um, I I don’t mind the I don’t mind the phrase worship. I don’t mind the phrase worship.
Space, but singing’s got a very special place in the Christian life.
Singing, I think, is, uh, I’m told is the 2nd most common command in scripture.
Second most second most used command of scripture. So it’s obviously something that’s very important to god.
It’s not it’s not just something Christians do to help the marketing of their church or for the emotional people in the church who are musical, but it’s actually for all of us.
So whether whether you’re a data that he likes to watch sport and can’t sing in tune, or whether you’re married to an artist, it really it really doesn’t matter.
We all we all sing. And, um, because because god has commanded us to, because he’s created us to do it, However, however, different our varying our talents are, but most of all, because Christ is is so worthy of our our deepest praise.
When people go to church, they say, well, I don’t wanna miss the worship.
You know, don’t get don’t don’t be late, or you’ll miss the worship.
Um, but we know that worship is so much more than singing.
From your perspective as him writers and singers, what does it mean to live a life of worship? Mhmm.
Well, it’s all of our lives given as a living sacrifice to the lord, and that’s that’s hard to do.
And he gives us these gifts of singing and of prayer of his word of Christian community of occasions throughout the year that are particularly special to help keep folding us in and gathering us in to help encourage that walk.
And so these are just simple yet beautiful gifts that he’s given for us to do that, but it is all of life.
And, you know, I sing in Christ alone. That’d be more than anybody else in the planet has ever started.
But the the the no guilt and life, no fear, and death, you know, I every time I sing it, it feels fresh to me because I’m battling with all the things that it speaks into all the time.
And and so it’s been a helpful, um, helpful voice in my heart.
You know, we don’t sing these things because or write them because you figured it all out, but rather we’re working it out into these songs and then joining with others to sing them that they may be more true of us.
And ultimately, not just thinking about ourselves, but just delighting in the fact that though we are we struggle, though we can be faithless.
He is always faithful. He is always constant.
And so how important to remind ourselves of that so we don’t lose heart and don’t give up?