Larry Roff still remembers the moment at the second PCA General Assembly that changed everything. At that time, music was not yet part of the Assembly, and the meeting was getting long.
Moderator Erskine Jackson called for a moment to stand and stretch and suggested it would be a good time for a hymn, if there was anyone at the Assembly who could play. Several friends pointed to Roff, an organist and pastor, who agreed to play. At the 2024 General Assembly, Roff was honored with a standing ovation for 50 years of service as the Assembly’s organist.
Since that spontaneous hymn sung five decades ago, Roff has been instrumental in developing the worship component of the General Assembly. He began playing music before each business meeting to create “more of a worshipful atmosphere” during the meetings, he said. Over the years the Assembly has added official worship services planned with great care and detail.
“I’m just really honored to have had a part in encouraging that so that when we meet as a denomination we meet for worship, not just business.”
Roff is responsible for arranging the use of a large digital organ at the Assembly each year. The experience of accompanying thousands of worshippers still gives him chills, and he can sometimes see the excitement shaking his hands as he plays.
“The thrill of that sound…” he said, “It’s something of an appetizer of what it’s going to be like when we are gathered with countless millions of saints and angels singing ‘worthy is the Lamb!’ To me worship, particularly the music and singing, is almost like rehearsing for heaven.”
Music as Ministry
The callings to pastoral and music ministry have been intrinsically linked throughout Roff’s life. He felt the call to pastoral ministry as early as 10 years old. At 15, he was introduced to one of the great loves of his life: the organ.
His father brought home a spinet organ with just two and a half keyboards and 12 stick pedals, a far cry from the full organ console. The instrument came with six free lessons at the music store.
Despite never having played the piano, Roff eagerly took to the organ. He studied with the organist at his church and majored in organ performance at Belhaven University, as he worked on the side for a local pipe organ builder. By his own estimates, Roff has played over 250 organs throughout his life, including the largest church organ in the world, which is in the Cadet Chapel at West Point.
For Roff, the organ is not just about musicianship, but the greater calling of worship. In addition to his music degree from Belhaven, Roff has earned a M.Div. degree in pastoral ministry from Reformed Theological Seminary, a Th.M degree in American church history from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a D.Min in worship and hymnody from Westminster Theological Seminary.
As a pastor, he remained involved in music, even when he was working with other organists or music directors. In planning the services, Roff was passionate about making sure the congregational worship aligned with the preached word. He tries to instill this connection in younger pastors as well, particularly while teaching at Knox Theological Seminary.
“The worship service should have a cohesiveness. The hymns should relate to the sermon. The flow of the service should build up to an understanding of that,” he said. He tries to help pastors understand they aren’t just preachers; they are worship leaders.
On rare occasions, Roff has had to wear the hats of both preacher and organist in the same service. “The organ console, thank goodness, was very close to the pulpit so I could go back and forth,” Roff said.
Before his 2019 retirement, Roff had served churches in Mississippi, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Virginia and Ohio. He also worked as the chaplain at Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in southeast Pennsylvania.
“At every church I have served as pastor, we’ve either purchased or added to an organ. That just thrills me to have that kind of legacy out there,” he said.
Helping churches acquire an organ is not simply a matter of personal preference for Roff, but adds value to the church that is both practical and spiritual. The organ has an orchestral quality that contains a multitude of sounds within one instrument, making an abundance of sacred music accessible to churches that might not be able to afford instrumentalists.
The organ also adds a quality of greater importance, according to Roff: majesty.
“We’re coming into the throne room of the King of kings. Why not use the king of instruments?” Roff said, citing composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous moniker for the organ.
Bringing Organ Music to Ukraine
Roff’s penchant for bringing organs to churches has extended overseas and resulted in a memorable partnership with believers in Ukraine. In 1998, Roff went on a Mission to the World vision trip, first to Turkey and then to Odessa, Ukraine, where he fell in love with the people and the country.
When Roff visited, Ukraine was newly independent. A Ukrainian congregation that MTW missionaries had planted was meeting in a rented facility, but in the city center stood a beautiful building that had once been a Reformed church. The 500-seat sanctuary had been confiscated by the state after the communist revolution, turned into a puppet theater, and then allowed to fall into disrepair.
Local authorities deemed that it should be returned to the Presbyterians, given its historic origins in the Reformed tradition. Roff was present the first time that the church members entered the building.
“Standing in there, looking at the graffiti, the broken plaster, the empty room, no chairs or pews or anything, we sang the doxology. The beautiful, reverberant acoustics there were so thrilling,” Roff said. Looking up at the balcony, Roff noticed a bare space, and remarked that there must have been an organ up there at one time. He suggested that the church should get one when the building was restored. “Why don’t you do that for us?” the church members asked.
Roff agreed to help raise money for the organ, and MTW also appointed him to the committee to raise the funds for the building restoration. The committee raised over a million dollars. Roff spent seven years playing benefit organ concerts in PCA churches to help raise the organ funds.
The organ was installed in August of 2004. Depending on the feasibility of the wartime conditions, Roff hopes to return to celebrate its 20th anniversary later this year. He has visited Ukraine a dozen times by now, playing organ concerts, recording music, and speaking at leadership conferences. He maintains close friendships and correspondences with several Ukrainian pastors and believers.
A Pandemic Project Keeps Going
Today, Roff and his wife Betty live at Penney Retirement Community in northeast Florida. He is retired from fulltime pastoral ministry, but ministers in a new way with a focus on another of his passions: hymnody.
Hymnody was the topic of Roff’s doctoral dissertation, and Great Commission Publications later published it as a Sunday School curriculum. He also served as the editor on the committee for the 1990 revised edition of the “Trinity Hymnal.” As part of his doctoral research Roff surveyed the hymns from more than 100 churches that used the “Trinity Hymnal” to determine which hymns they sang.
Roff’s interest in hymns extended beyond the music and the text to the stories behind the hymns. As a pastor, Roff would often share one or two sentences of context about the hymns they would sing. After retirement, this interest grew into an extensive writing project of hymn studies, called Hymns4Him.
The project began in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, when Roff realized the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” was written as the bubonic plague overtook Germany during 30 years of war in the 17th century. The horrors of war and the plague killed nearly one-third of Germany’s population. In the midst of this devastation, Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart continued to minister in his village while burying as many as 50 people a day, including his own wife.
“The way he responded was trusting that God, even in the midst of those horrors, was there to care for them, and that even though they had lost so much, there still was so much that they could be grateful for,” Roff said, “[Rinkart] wrote the words to ‘Now Thank We All Our God,’ not as a hymn, but as a prayer for himself and his two sons.”
Roff wrote about the background of that hymn, its scriptural connections, and a note on its relevance in 2020. The next week he wrote a second hymn study. Four years later, Roff has written more than 200.
Roff finds the work of writing to be a rewarding form of ministry, and a way to impart his knowledge to future generations. He is the author of four books and was a prolific writer, even before the hymn studies project began.
“One of these days when I’m dead and buried, nobody’s going to remember the churches where I preached or even the sermons that I wrote. They might remember that I was somebody who helped with that red “Trinity Hymnal.” But maybe the best legacy…would be if one of the things that I could leave to the church for future generations is this collection of hymn studies.”
With the time dedicated to research and writing each week, he wants to make sure to acknowledge the support of his wife. “I want to give Betty credit for allowing me to devote so much time to doing this.”
With the support of his wife Betty, Roff spends his time writing hymn studies, preaching occasionally, leading Bible studies in his retirement community, and acting as a chaplain for some of the residents. He also gives monthly organ concerts, despite having lost most of his vision five years ago to giant cell arteritis, an autoimmune disease that can impact vision.
As the name suggests, Penney Retirement Community was founded by J.C. Penney, known for the eponymous department store, as a place for retired ministers and missionaries. The first building Penney built was a chapel with a pipe organ and seating for 200. Roff takes daily walks next door to the chapel to practice on the organ.
In addition to the live audience, the concerts are live streamed in-house so that assisted living residents can tune in. In this way, as in so many others, Roff continues to minister through his love of music and love for the One whom he worships.
“What is it that drives me more than anything else? It’s love for my Savior who is so wonderful, so kind, so gracious to me, so amazing to call me His friend and to allow me to serve Him.”
Erin Jones is a contributing writer for byFaith.