Finding the Groove

Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 06/24/2009 by Chad Vandervalk.

Recommended. An outside-the-box metaphor for the Christian life of faith.

Why is it important that I come to grips with what the Church has thought about God throughout history? What does it mean for my life?

No doubt many Sunday School teachers and parents have heard these questions, or questions like them. There are still times when I see people becoming trapped by their tradition rather than freed by it. I feel this temptation in myself, a temptation to make certain statements about God more important than God himself.

Of course, we cannot know God outside of some kind of statements about him, and this is the paradox. Robert Gelinas, author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith, argues that knowing our tradition can actually provide a way to develop a living faith that plays within the boundaries of our faith.

Gelinas is not only a devout lover of jazz music, he also argues that it can provide a great metaphor for Christian faith:

A jazz-shaped faith is worth pursuing because it balances freedom with boundaries, the individual with the group, and traditions with the pursuit of what might be.

Gelinas argues that the Christian life is far from being something static, but it more active and dynamic. When a jazz musician decides to play a certain song, no one expects her to copy the song exactly. Everyone expects her to put her own stamp on it, to pour her soul into it and let the song pour her out to the audience.

In a jazz ensemble the musicians are all playing the same tune, but they are using their own instruments, playing from their own backgrounds and influences, and improvising within the structure of the group. Gelinas wonders what would happen if we approached faith like this.

What if you and I experienced church like a jazz ensemble (listening to the beat of the image of God in each of us) and community meant that you and I felt connected, not only to those we can see, but also with those who have followed (in past generations) and have yet (in future generations) to follow Jesus? (emphasis original)

This may seem very strange to some who would get very nervous talking about “improvising” with the Christian faith. This may very well sound like another way to ignore some of the core Christian truths in order to make the religion more palatable.

This, however, is far from what Gelinas is arguing. In fact, he urges us to become more rooted in our tradition than many of us already are. Just like a jazz musician can only start to improvise after they fully understand the structure of the art, we can only start to improvise once we have fully grasped our tradition.

We need basic spiritual disciplines such as participation regularly in corporate worship and Bible reading, practicing generocity, and engaging in a life connected to the poor. … If we are rooted in the historic faith, basic Christian doctrine, and community, then I think we are ready to experiment a little.

Gelinas is lead pastor of Colorado Community Church, a multicultural, inter-denominational church, and so is careful to avoid some of the more divisive comtemporary issues regarding Christianity. He attempts to present something which will help all of us who call Jesus Lord and Messiah to develop a deeper, richer, more meaningful connection with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

Drawing on Eugene Peterson’s book Working the Angles, he says there are three stories for which we need to develop our ear.

First, the story of what God has said to those in the past (the Bible); second, the story of what God is saying to us; finally, the story of what God is saying to those around us.

Developing our ear to listen for the call in all these stories and preparing to respond by accenting the unexpected (synopation) or allowing God’s voice to speak in creative and dynamic ways (improvisation) is crucial to developing a jazz-shaped faith.

If you decide to adopt a jazz-shaped faith, you will become a statement. No longer will you be satisfied with a series of propositions or the status quo. Rather, you will begin to sense current realities, anticipating the Spirit of God as the old passes and the new arrives.

Listen to IT. Respond to IT. Live IT.

What is IT? IT is not a question; IT is a statement. Jesus and his gospel was and is a proclamation. IT is the radical, life-altering, world-shaking assertion that the kingdom of God has arrived. The good news that Jesus announced with his lips, demonstrated with his life, sealed on the cross, and inaugurated with his resurrection is nothing short of the reality that the way and the will of God is here for all people.

Then he brings it home.

A statement needs to be made in the midst of the consumeristic, power-laden, individualised culture in which we swim. We know it. But what is the statement that a jazz-shaped faith will make? … renaissance.

A renaissance, a re-birth, of that faith in all of our lives.

Gelinas issues a compelling challenge to make our faith our own. To take our traditions and to struggle with them, to wrestle with them, to listen to the voice of God in scripture, throughout history, and today, as we seek to anticipate what he might be doing in the future.

This is a great book that encourages us to take Christianity and our traditions seriously enough to use them, rather than simply know them.