low tech style

I was cleaning up my office and found my old LP’s. So I connected up my old record player and put a few of them on. Phil Collins “No jacket required”, Springsteen “born in the USA”, Police “Zenyatta Mondatta” and Dire Straits “Brothers in Arms” among many other 80’s hits. What a flood of memories comes back! Not only listening to the old songs but also remembering how to use the old low tech record player moving the arm across etc. Remember how fragile this format was? Or how detailed the covers were. I don’t know why but there is something about the old scratchy LP’s that gives them a sense of authenticity. I immediately remember seeing Australian Crawl play in the Bridgeway hotel, Pubs played music that didn’t come from poker machines. There is something about listening to live music that I love. The fact that you would never hear the song played that way again.

In this day and age of CD’s, MP3’s and streaming etc I find that everything seems so fake, if it isn’t perfect it isn’t any good. I have seen this kind of mentality come through in the Church as well the polished singers at the front of the auditorium hands raised in just the right way wearing the right clothes heads strategically bowed. I begin to long for some authenticity in the church some low-tech scratchy performances that really tell you that you are alive. In a church context this means that the audience is God. Does he want perfection in the Worship that we offer him or authentic live never to be repeated performances for the love of him? How fragile yet compelling does God want us to be?