In 1995, just after graduating from Covenant Theological Seminary, Rev. Kevin Twit wrote a new melody for the hymn “Arise, my Soul, Arise.” Fifteen years later, Twit and the Indelible Grace band played the song for a sold-out crowd who sang along at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

What happened in the intervening years is the subject of a new documentary, Roots and Wings: The Story of Indelible Grace and the RUF Hymns, which Indelible Grace Music released last month. The film documents Indelible Grace’s passion for introducing hymns to the modern church and celebrates the friendships formed as a result.

Twit works as campus pastor for Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont University in Nashville. RUF is the college ministry of the PCA and has a presence on more than 100 campuses across the continent.

In 2000 Twit founded Indelible Grace Music with a group of musicians who had been part of Belmont RUF. The group seeks to add to the church’s historic hymn canon by writing new melodies for hymn texts. Since 2000 Indelible Grace has released seven CDs of hymns—including a live recording of the June 30 concert at the Ryman—and published the RUF Hymnbook.

But before anyone thought of a documentary, Twit was serving on the host committee planning the 2010 PCA General Assembly. During planning, the idea developed of holding an Indelible Grace hymn sing. Soon Twit was investigating booking the Ryman, the birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry that escaped unscathed from the devastating Nashville flood in May 2010.

Twit learned that the Ryman was only available on Wednesday night during General Assembly, and it came with a hefty rental fee. When Twit approached Rod Mays, RUF coordinator, about the organization underwriting the endeavor, Mays took on the project as a way to thank churches for their support of the ministry. 
With the facility rented and the Indelible Grace musicians available, Twit went ahead with selling tickets to the event, which eventually sold out.

A happy accident

There was just one problem. Twit was scheduled to lead music for an evening session of General Assembly at the Nashville Convention Center just before the start of the hymn sing across the street at the Ryman.

Rather than book an opening band to play a few songs at the hymn sing while he finished his music at General Assembly, Twit had a former RUF student film interviews with artists involved with Indelible Grace and played those interviews at the beginning of the concert.

“The response to [the interviews] was really huge,” Twit says. “A lot of people came just because it was a General Assembly event, and that gave it context. [The interviews] communicated that RUF gave people a group of friends who wanted to go deeper in the Gospel.”

At the urging of his wife, Twit also recorded and filmed the Ryman concert.

“The Holy Spirit showed up, and we could probably never duplicate it again,” Mays says of the hymn sing. “If there was any reservation at all about funding this or trying to pull it off, seeing that place full of people singing the great hymns and great theology was worth every penny.”

“It turned out better than anyone would have expected,” Twit says.

And those initial interviews which bought Twit some time to get to the Ryman—along with the filmed footage from the show—became the basis for Roots and Wings.

The documentary offers plenty of footage from the Ryman hymn sing, including 11 live performances and a bonus disc with three performances, additional interviews and archival footage. 

But more importantly, Roots and Wings tells the story of how a group of students and friends fell in love with the rich hymn texts of the church and sought to add to their voices to the hymns of the church—loving the church’s roots and giving the songs new wings.

With a little help from my friends

For Twit, the students whom he mentored musically and spiritually during their years in RUF have become his friends. “I consider them some of my best friends.  Their records are some of my absolute favorite records too, and their music has influenced how [Indelible Grace] has developed,” Twit says. “They challenge me and encourage me as good friends do.”

One of those friends is Sandra McCracken, who grew up in St. Louis and, while in high school, played in her church band with Twit. She attended Belmont after Twit encouraged her to investigate the school’s music program, and while there, McCracken became involved with RUF. McCracken has contributed to every Indelible Grace album to date and has released seven solo albums, two of which are collections of hymns.

“[Twit] is the pastor who married my husband [fellow musician Derek Webb] and I, baptized our two children, and walked with us through life seasons,” McCracken says. “Hymns have been an integral part of that.”

Like McCracken, Matthew Smith’s life has been changed by these texts and Indelible Grace music. In the documentary Smith tells of Twit handing him the text of the hymn “Come Ye Sinners” and inviting Smith to try writing a new melody for it.

“Writing music to that hymn was a catalyst for my creative life, and I found what really has become my calling,” Smith says. “It's one of many pieces of my life that God put together using the ministry of RUF.”

Since 2002 Smith has led the Indelible Grace touring band and crisscrossed the country introducing the Indelible Grace hymns to congregations. In an interview for this story, Smith said he performs between 60 and 80 concerts each year.

“I would say that roughly 80 percent of the churches I play have never had a concert of any kind, but are compelled by these hymns and want to share them with the community at large,” he says. “Some have asked me to lead a seminar beforehand about hymns, and that's been a great way to cast the vision and hear people's questions.”
Those involved with Indelible Grace hope the documentary provides a context for the music and inspires local churches to add their own voices to the hymns of the church by continuing to write new music.

“I hope it shows the church the importance of hymns and encourages the church to see how we’re doing ministry in RUF,” Mays says. “We’re connecting postmodern students to a historical past, but with the new tunes, being able to do it in a more culturally relevant way.”

For more information about Roots and Wings and all the Indelible Grace music please visit www.igracemusic.com.