Earlier tonight, I attended a Christian rock concert at Catawissa Avenue United Methodist Church in Sunbury. The band that performed was called End of the Age; their name comes from a phrase in Jesus’ Great Commission:

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

The band is made up of five high school students from the Richmond, VA area and, as of tonight, they just finished a tour of West Virignia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The band performed a mix of cover songs by famous Christian artists such as Chris Tomlin, Todd Agnew, Casting Crowns and David Crowder Band, plus a slew of their own original songs.

I was quite impressed with how good these guys were. For the most part, they didn’t mess around with any of the cover songs (which is great, because I really dislike when a band tweaks a hit song and ruins it) and their original songs were darn decent (check out their MySpace site via the link above to listen to some tracks).

The crowd was, unfortunately, quite small, but I suppose that’s to be expected for a small town on a Friday night. I was thriled to see a youth group from Danville in attendance and I wish my church’s youth group could have attended, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about the concert until last Sunday and that’s not enough lead time for a summer event, especially one during July 4 holiday week.

If you ever have the opportunity to see this group perform, I highly recommend it, even if you’re not a fan of Christian music. Their rock (and sometimes classic rock) style is great for those who think Christian music is all hymns and Gospel music.