The Answer Is...

(Originally written Summer 2005)

This morning, I found myself driving to the Sony Studios lot in Culver City, California to try out for the "Jeopardy!" syndicated game show.

Okay, I just read that last sentence and had a good laugh at myself. I really don't know what possessed me to try (besides the obvious prospect of telling my wife Shanti to pack her bags for a summer trip to see the beautiful sights of South Africa). However, something within me thought that years of yelling at the television set with correct answers qualified me as a viable contestant during the real thing. So I called the studios and set up an appointment for an audition date. Along with perhaps a hundred others, I sat in the dimmed soundstage where the show is taped and took a fifty question test of general knowledge questions, which had me feeling quite humiliated (not to mention dizzy) at the end of the experience. I remembered that Jennifer Garner was the star of "Alias" and "Daredevil", and I knew that Bogotá was the capital of Columbia, but I couldn't remember what measurement of energy started with the letter J, and certainly couldn't remember what vice‑president was charged with treason in the early 1800s. The diversity of categories was mind‑numbing, jumping back and forth from "French Artists" to "Hollywood Celebrities", from "19th Century Authors" to "R & B Legends", etc. The questions had my brain bouncing around faster than the sale of hot links during a fundraiser for Family Camp.

This evening, as "Jeopardy!" was blaring in the background, I found myself on the computer, planning and preparing for an upcoming Sunday worship service (one of my main responsibilities as my church's Director of Worship). Somewhere in the process of choosing songs and e‑mailing the church office, I began reflecting on a different kind of diversity: the diversity found within our corporate worship experience at Altadena Baptist. Everyone within our church and most who are familiar with our church are well aware of our ethnic and social diversity. Over the years, it has been one of our strongest assets, as well as one of our biggest challenges. Just as I heard the electronic fanfare of the "Daily Double" ringing in the background, I considered how our worship services were a reflection of that same diversity. The way I see it, our diversity in corporate worship has revealed itself, especially over the last decade, in three ways:

1) We demonstrate worship diversity in practice. The denominational backgrounds that our congregation come from are wide and varied, including Presbyterians, Catholics, Pentecostals, Salvationists, Quakers, and, yes, even Baptists. On any given Sunday, someone may come up to me after the service and express thanks for introducing a new song sung during worship (such as "King of Glory", a modern worship song written in the year 2000). Another person may be grateful that we included "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" (based on the original Beethoven chorus from his Ninth Symphony) as a congregational hymn, perhaps on the same day. One individual might be thankful for Amanda's beautiful sonata played on the oboe; another was really moved by Rob's "killer timbales solo". Organ, piano… bass guitar, harp… raising hands, kneeling down… sitting in quiet mediation, clapping enthusiastically… you get the idea. Although it is true that our music leans slightly towards the "contemporary" end of things, we never want to forget or ignore the rich resource of traditions and experiences represented within our congregation.

2) We demonstrate worship diversity in progress. We didn't get to this point all at once, to be sure. This evolution began almost a decade before I became a staff member of the church, as our church leaders sought to explore how to expand our thinking about how we view and execute our corporate worship. There were many different points of view (and more than a few disagreements) along the way, which is a natural occurrence when people sense the winds of change in the air. During the past few decades, scores of churches have split or dissolved in the face of such changes. But for the most part, our congregation stuck together where others might have fled. Instead of feeling the need to choose one or the other, we decided to listen to each other and be patient with each other, and God continues to bless us (despite ourselves!). Even recently we have shown how we are still "in progress", as we stretch ourselves yet again to embrace musical styles such as gospel and songs in Spanish and other languages.

3) We demonstrate worship diversity imperfectly. That sounds like bad news, but it simply means this: before we think we've got it all figured out at Altadena Baptist and we think we're the best thing since sliced bread, we need to think again. At the end of the day, we're still the same, imperfect, flawed humans we were at the beginning of the day. To me, it's actually a relief and a huge reason to praise God. He accepts us in spite of ourselves. In reality, the type of musical genre, the amount of liturgy or spontaneity, dunking or sprinkling (or neither)… all of this is secondary to the authenticity of our worship. Which, you must remember, will always be slightly clouded because of our own self‑interests and our natural tendency to mess up. But God, full of grace and mercy, accepts us and loves us unconditionally. It doesn't relieve us from the responsibility to offer Him our best; He deserves our best, and much more. But He understands that we're still figuring things out down here, including how we come together to worship Him as a church body.

By the way, I didn't pass the qualifying test to be on the show. But as I took the long walk from Soundstage 10 to the studio parking structure, I didn't feel embarrassed or ashamed that I wasn't going to be meeting Alex Trebek or getting the chance to say "I'll take Armenian Folk Dances for $2000". The experience of going to the audition was fun, exciting, and enriching. I came away appreciating the detailed process the producers undergo in developing several hundred shows each year. By the same token, it is not the shape or size or volume of our corporate worship that matters as much as our motives and our authenticity, while we acknowledge our God together in song, in prayer, and in fellowship.