Update Please

I enjoy singing hymns but.... sometimes they need to be updated.
Take the hymn And Can It Be by Charles Wesley & Thomas Campbell for example. The words to this hymn go something like this:


And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood
Died He for me who caused His pain
For me who Him to death pursued
Amazing love how can it be
That Thou my God shouldst die for me

Chorus:
Amazing love
How can it be
That Thou my God
Shouldst die for me

He left His Father’s throne above
So free so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
’Tis mercy all immense and free
For O my God it found out me

Chorus

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off my heart was free
I rose went forth and followed Thee

Chorus

Now the hymn in and of itself is speaking truth and conveying the idea of God's amazing love, which is clearly spoken in the chorus. But the rest of the hymn might as well be gibberish to today's American society. Many Americans today have never been to church. Of those who go to church, many go to churches that sing only contemporary praise songs. In addition to that, there are many christians who never grew up in a church (of which I am one) so they would not have learned all of the traditional hymns that churches sang before contemporary praise music entered the church. Why am I mentioning this? Because christians today need to update the "version" of their hymns. We have updated Bibles so that they are in today's language. Why can't we do that with hymns?

This may be a shocker to some, but Americans don't speak in the old King's English of the 1600's. Yes, we sometimes do read Shakespearean plays and KJV Bibles, but Americans don't actually talk like that. We have updated English versions of Shakespeare and the Bible. There need to be updated versions of hymns. In fact, I think most churches that sing hymns should see this as a necessity. How do you reach out to a world that knows so little of Jesus, the Bible, or Christianity? By sharing with them in a way that they can best understand. We don't use words like "propitiation" & "sanctification" when sharing the gospel with a non-believer (at least I hope people aren't using those words). Instead we use words that people will understand like "forgiveness" & "sacrifice." The same should go for hymns since they are another means of sharing who God is with an unbelieving world.

I understand the words to And Can It Be because I've sung it so many times that I've had time to take them in and assess what the hymn is saying. A person hearing this song for the first time (christian or non-christian) might be like "huh?" when they sing the verses. After all, when singing this for the first time, would you easily understand what "for me who Him to death pursued" means? Or how about "’tis mercy all immense and free" and "I woke the dungeon flamed with light?" Now I'm not trying to knock hymns. The Lord is speaking as much through them as He is through contemporary praise songs. I just want us to be able to make it easier for christians and non-christians to hear God's message in these hymns.

And guess what? It's not a sin to update the words!