Choosing and teaching a hymn to a congregation as a "Hymn of the Month" is an effective method to keep the congregation's song evolving. Each Sunday in July we will learn and sing "In Christ Alone". In August we will have another hymn. -PSL
“In Christ Alone My Hope Is Found” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
“In Christ Alone” (2001) is one of the most popular Christian songs in this century. Northern Irishman Keith Getty (b. 1974) and Englishman Stuart Townsend (b. 1963) are worship leaders and song writers who have collaborated to produce some of the most well-known and vibrant hymns of this era. This hymn appears in thirteen hymnals according to Hymnary.org. It was ranked as the number one song in the UK CCLI listing by 2006 and remains in the top 25 hymns (No. 19 as of August 12, 2019 in the USA CCLI rankings).
Stuart Townend offers the following account of the song’s origins:
[“In Christ alone”] grew first out of an excitement to write hymns that would help twenty-first century Christians sing, know, and embrace the incredible truths of the Lord in fresh language, and second out of a frustration with the lack of depth in the songs that were being sung in many churches (in this sense, it was a kind of “protest” music).
Getty and Townsend tend to use the language of “hymn” rather than “song” to describe their work. As Keith Getty notes, “. . . I was happy to adopt [the term “hymn”] since traditional hymns tend to follow the more historic patterns of church music from the Old Testament to New Testament to church history. It’s in this tradition where we find understanding our faith through congregational singing and passing songs down from generation to generation both attractive and a huge need” Getty also laments, “It’s been several hundred years since Christian worship was as shallow as it is today.”
-History of Hymns