CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO -- Keith and Krystin Getty are probably best known in the United States for their modern-day hymn In Christ Alone, now sung in churches and receiving airtime on radio stations across the nation.

Their mission is to bring back into the churches a new hymnody using newer, more memorable and easier, more sing-able tunes, yet without losing the meaning and theology behind the words. They have been touring this country for the past several months seeking to magnify Christ and his Cross through their musical and lyrical gifts.

In an interview with ASSIST News, Keith Getty, the Scots-Irish modern-day hymn writer said he first started writing hymns in 2000. He quipped: "The millennium bug affected my brain in a peculiar way in that it gave me a vision for the twenty-first century church that had a place for modern hymns, not just worship songs, not just traditional hymns, but also a place for modern hymns."

He explained his goals this way: "In that year I guess I developed a two-fold goal of writing some songs that content-wise taught the great faith taught, the doctrines of the faith, the great passages of scripture, but also secondly taught that every generation could sing together -- 88-year-olds and eight year olds, churches with piano and organs, churches with rock bands, but also writing songs that taught the doctrines of the faith and used folk melodies -- which also means they’re very easy to translate into newer languages so we could partner with churches in the whole Eastern European block, in the far East and into South America. They’re easy to translate into other cultures. So, really, songs that teach the faith and are part of the growth of Christianity in the twenty-first century."

Does he actually base the lyrics on existing hymns?

"No. They’re completely new hymns. The reason they’re called hymns is because of those two principles and they’re principles that are really trying to teach the great doctrines, but also the principle of writing songs that every generation can sing as opposed to writing songs that divide churches writing songs that are accessible to multi-generations."

So why do they sound so much like something that’s always been around. You hear it and you think 'I heard that before I don’t know where, but I heard that'?

"There’s two reasons: one could be the songs are stolen, but as far as I know they’re not stolen! But I think that really boils down to melody, especially folk melody style. There are influences of folk music, classical music, and the influences of traditional hymnody, but also classic song writing. So that’s my kind of inspiration, and I think you can write in a contemporary folk melodic way. I don’t care if my songs never get played on the radio and I don’t care if they’re contemporary. My goal is to write songs that I can actually sing when I go for my walk every morning that can be sung in a church with a person or a person who’s just got a piano or a guitar. Even in America today 90 percent of churches still have less than a hundred people and sociologists say the fastest-exploding growing movement inside the twenty-first century culture is the House Church. So I think the next generation is going to be something really different. I think if it applies to America it applies even more so in the rest of the English-speaking world where Christianity will thrive, or in the rest of the developing world where resources are so small."

What is he hoping to achieve with his hymn writing?