Religious movements are often fueled (or at least sustained) by song. The Wesleyan revival, for example, was propelled in part by the prolific hymn writing of Charles Wesley, who is credited with writing somewhere between 6,500 and 9,000 hymns. Let that number sink in. Even if you wrote a hymn every single day for 24 years, you still wouldn’t come close to matching his output. The early Methodists were a singing people, and their songs helped give voice to the passion and spiritual conviction of their movement.

Likewise, Fanny Crosby, one of the great hymn writers of the nineteenth-century revival era, wrote approximately 8,000 hymns. Was Halldor Lillenas a “slacker” for writing only 4,000 hymns in service to the early Holiness movement?

Now consider the contrast with today. Contemporary Christian songwriters such as Chris Tomlin and Phil Wickham have each written about 600 songs. That is a remarkable contribution, but it still pales in comparison to the sheer volume of songs produced by Wesley, Crosby, and Lillenas.

Maybe the issue is not simply how many songs are written. Maybe it is how deeply those songs take root in the hearts of believers.

In today’s worship services, is the congregation truly engaged in singing or are the worshippers merely observing the worship team singing on the platform. Have our songs become performances to watch rather than expressions of faith to share? Are the songs we sing imbedded in our hearts, shaping our lives and strengthening our convictions enough to sustain us through difficult seasons?

These questions lead to a larger one: Could the decline of the church today be due, at least in part, to a lack of songs that deeply impact the hearts of believers? Have we lost something of the holy passion that once made the church a singing people? Has our creativity diminished? Could the absence of a fervent, singing expression reveal a missing ingredient in our longing for revival?

Perhaps we are facing a spiritual version of the chicken-or-egg question. Do revival movements give birth to great hymn writers, or does Spirit-led songwriting help awaken and sustain revival? Does a movement of God inspire songs, or can songs become instruments through which God stirs a movement?

I don’t pretend to know the definitive answer. Maybe it works both ways. Revival gives birth to songs, and songs give voice to revival. What I do know is that many churches today are struggling to grow, and congregational singing often seems to have diminished. We may have better sound systems, more polished arrangements, and more elaborate productions than previous generations, but are we cultivating the same depth of participation, spiritual conviction, and heartfelt praise?

If we long to see revival again, maybe we should pay attention not only to what is preached from our pulpits, but also to what is being sung (or not sung) from our pews.