OK, not really, but in a way, it is. Try singing the words to Amazing Grace, but to the tune of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night. For that matter, you can also sing it to the tune of Joy to the World. It works, and that's not the only song that works this way. You can also sing Amazing Grace with All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, or Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed, or with O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, or with I Sing the Mighty Power of God, and Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, and dozens more.

You could run a month's worth of song services mixing and matching lyrics and tunes from the list above, and still have music to spare. It's really quite amazing, and yet it isn't. Historically, hymns weren't written with music at all. They were often written without melodies -- as poems only, with a specified meter that was very common.

This allowed composers to then take those poems, and to match them to well-known songs with the same meter, and to introduce those to their church congregations. Churches could take songs that their local congregations knew well, and apply new lyrics (with new messages) that their congregations could learn quickly. This eased the burden of learning new music, especially for the musically-uneducated, and allowed the message of the lyrics to take precedence over the tune itself. It was a teaching tool extraordinaire, and it worked.

Fanny Crosby utilzied this technique extensively. She was largely a poet, writing over 8,000 hymns, although many without melody. However, she utilized common meters so that composers could then take her songs and set them to music. Many were set to common tunes of the time, including folk tunes and bar tunes, allowing churchgoers (and even unbelievers) to sing her songs with ease.

How many times have you found yourself humming part of last Sunday's sermon to yourself while doing the dishes? Probably never. But a catchy tune stuck in your head, along with a gospel message, can carry weight well into the week, and serve as inspiration to seek God long after you walk away from your Sunday pew.

Compare this to modern music today, where tunes are uncommon, song ranges are both extremely high and extremely low, rhythms are complex and syncopated; and you have a recipe for songs that take a long time to learn, during which the user can't focus on the message because they are instead trying to learn the song itself.

While we can't borrow today's tunes due to copyright law, let alone their associated content, there are songs that are relatively well known and easy to sing that have entered the public domain just recently. For example, Gene Kelly's performance of Singin' in the Rain just entered the public domain in 2025, and Yes We Have No Bananas did so in 2024, and would make an excellent Sunday School song with new lyrics. Elvis' Love Me Tender enters the public domain in the early 2050's, which isn't all that far away any more, should the Lord tarry that long.

Of course, there is a place for performance-level songwriting that requires more talent and skill to sing, especially in choral performance (for example). But we would be well advised to follow in the example of those who came before us as Christian songwriters, and to start writing accessible songs that allow believers and non-believers (and shepherds) to learn of God's Amazing Grace.