Old Rockers never Die

I had a great time leading worship tonight.
The worship bands that normally lead on a Sunday night were not available: some had exam fever and others an Emmaus gathering. So I agreed to lead worship....something I have not done for some time. I have begun to suspect that my children’s contemporaries do not need this old geezer in front acting like he is a rock-star with his guitar.

I asked Brendan (the father of one of the worship leaders) to join me: so the two old rockers got out in front and led worship. We both play acoustic guitar. This means clean sound, with guitar fingering, and complementary picking. Most of the stuff that the next generation plays is muddy distortion, or a guitar used as a percussion instrument with amazing rythm but little musical thoughtfulness. My daughter Amy played drum kit, so there was enough percussion, and the two old guys had fun exploring riffs, and adding overtones in some of the quieter moments. But of course the best was when we attacked some songs with traditional rock, ending up with enough arrogance to try our hand at “Be Thou my Vision” as a rock adaption.

And I do not really care that there were not many people in church. I care even less that we are twice the age of those who did come. Because we had a great time.