Songwriter pens songs for ancient-future worship

By Buzz Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, Sept. 18, 2004

In a genre that’s filled with teenagers penning songs of praise using rap, techno and pop-style music, Todd Agnew’s "Grace Like Rain" brings us back to a different time.

You could say it’s somewhat ancient-future worship music. It is music that sometimes melds rock, blues and soul with the gospel and classic Christianity — with definite homage to "Amazing Grace."

In a telephone interview Thursday from his home in Memphis, the 33-year-old Agnew said being true to the doctrines of classical Christianity is important, "which is why when people listen through this record — or the next record — you’ll not only find statements of doctrine, but you will also find hymns."

Agnew said hymns are not only a valuable part of the church’s heritage, but are also a means of teaching doctrine.

"And that’s one thing we’re starting to lose as (worship) music’s becoming popular," he said. "Because you find a lot of songs written by 20-year-olds, as opposed to hymns written by 60-year-old pastors. It’s not that they’re less honest or less genuine, but they’re just people who are not as far along in their walk."

Agnew says even at 33 years, he still feels he has a long way to go before writing a classic hymn, and is careful to pen songs that are true to the faith.

"I try to be very careful that we don’t say something wrong. We were just about to record one of the songs and I looked at it and said, ‘You know, I don’t think that’s theologically correct.’ What I said was, ‘He saved me so He could know me.’ I said, ‘That’s not true. He knew me before I was ever born.’"

Agnew, who has a Native American background, was adopted by Christian parents and remembers being saturated in the music of the church. — including songs such as "Amazing Grace." However, he said the habitual singing of the classic songs became so rote as to cause them to lose their power. He found that it was only in "breaking down those songs" that he rediscovered the "depth and value of their meaning."

It was through such a rediscovery that "Grace Like Rain," the title cut from last year’s album, poured down onto contemporary Christian hot singles lists.

"‘Grace Like Rain’ started with my friend Chris Collins walking into the office one day, telling me he had put a new tune to ‘Amazing Grace.’ My first reaction was, of course, ‘You can’t do that. It’s ‘Amazing Grace.’ But, as I heard it, I realized there was something special there. I wrote the chorus to it as a celebration of grace in our lives."

Agnew said he introduced it to the band used it in worship the next week, realizing there was "something special on our hands."

Not surprisingly, Worship Leader Magazine last year named Agnew the Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

Unlike some scenarios where a pop Christian song makes its way into worship, Agnew said the entire "Grace Like Rain" project was a compilation of songs that began first as worship music.

"Before we recorded the album, we had played every single one of those songs in our worship service," he said. "We recorded it as a worship album. Those were our worship songs. They may be differently stylistically than some people’s, but that’s what they were to us."

Even as "Grace Like Rain" sat atop the charts for four weeks, Agnew said leading worship remained a priority for his group.

"We still feel that’s what we’re called to do," he said. "We took off from tour this summer and still did eight youth camps ."

In leading youth camps and Bible studies, Agnew said they found teens able to engage in music that is more complex than the average praise and worship music found in churches today.

"I guess the thing that we’ve found is this generation is really just saturated with music. Kids today can pick up any tune in usually just a couple of listens to the CD," he explained. "For years and years, worship leaders just wrote really simple songs that people could learn quickly and sing. But kids nowadays can learn just about anything. And so it frees us up with our musical creativity.

"So, that’s really all we’ve tried to do. We’ve tried to stay true to that heart of worship, to what God has designed worship to be, but also begin to celebrate his character of creativity and create the kind of music that we love.

"In my case, that’s lots of kinds of music."

And sometimes it’s an ancient hymn like "Amazing Grace" given new skin.

"We have a powerful heritage in the church," Agnew said. "We are tied to generations of worshipers who have honored God with their lives. Hymns are a part of that legacy. The new tune has taken the hymn out of the habit of the church and has brought these powerful words back to life for me and for many others."

The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.