This weekend I had the opportunity to attend Calvin College's Symposium on Worship with my ministry team. We took two vans up to my homeland of Grand Rapids, where we stayed for two days. We were welcomed in by our chaplain's daughter and son-in-law, who generously fed and sheltered us on our journey.
What to say about Symposium? I could say that the men of CMLT (Chapel Ministry Leadership Team) bonded over Batman and late-night starvation. I could say that my van got to know each other a little too well on the drive home. I could say that I got to see some of my old friends from school and church while back in my home state. I could even mention the guy who looked like, to use Jordan's words, "the love child of Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon".
But those things would only scratch the surface of the experience. Imagine you're passionate about something, so much so that you travel for hours to be with people who share your passion. Now imagine that those people come from all over the world, from Kenya to Pakistan to China to Mexico. Now imagine that there's thousands of them.
Imagine the harmonious voices of a thousand different nations singing out in their native languages, bringing praise to God. Imagine opening a hymnal and finding songs from every generation, every tribe and nation. Imagine the unity of Christ's church across the globe, together for one purpose: to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
There are countless lessons I learned from this experience, and many of them I will be able to implement in Trinity's worship community. I attended a variety of seminars that were intended to enhance my own perception of what worship is and how it should be done. But if I'm a tired college student, and to transfer all of those lessons from my head to a keyboard would take hours. So I'll focus on one I never thought would be relevant to me: diversity.
Trinity is a diverse school. We're close to one of the biggest cultural hubs in the US, so we bring in people of every color, language, and country. But one thing I've noticed is that these groups rarely interact. The white Dutch kids spend their time with white Dutch kids, the African American kids hang out with the other African American kids and so on. It's segregation, but chosen instead of forced. It's bothered me to see this, and to hear people say things like, "Were there any other black people there?" or "That's where all the Asians hang out." There's no hatred or racism to these comments; people here at Trinity love each other across cultural boundaries. But even though these people want to be a diverse group, they aren't comfortable being in groups with other types of people.
This is reflected in our worship. When we as leaders try to build up a repertoire of songs that reflect the diversity of the church across the globe, we scare people. Singing in other languages and styles freaks people out. They get uncomfortable, so new ideas are stifled for the sake of pleasing the crowd. Everyone, regardless of background and ethnicity, want the same thing: current, popular music that is recognizable to everyone and comfortable to sing.
At Symposium I listened to a speaker named Mark Charles who discussed diversity on a number of occasions. This man was certainly qualified to speak this subject: he is Dutch/Navajo, and has lived in both major cities as well as alone on a Native American reservation. What he said about our diversity problem was mind-blowing to me: diversity is not comfortable.
...Yeah, we knew that. So how do we fix it? The point is that we don't. From a worship standpoint, we are doing diversity right. Our chapels are a perfect blend of the known and unknown, the local and the universal. We represent the world in our worship, and it makes people uncomfortable. Mark Charles says this is what we want. Cultures must be separate, because our differences are what define us and make us beautifully unique. As soon as we try to change one culture or another to make it more comfortable, we dilute it, and eventually the beautiful melting pot becomes a flat grey. We lose the beauty that the Creator created us with.
The best example I have was the Pakistani man who led a portion of one of the worship services at Symposium. He told us about how the simple song we were going to sing held great significance to his people, and that he was excited to share it with us. When the congregation began to sing, it immediately fell apart. There were only a few Middle Eastern people in the crowd, and those of us from every other area of the planet found ourselves floundering to sing the piece properly. It was clear that everyone was uncomfortable, but at the same time I sensed that the man leading us was feeling a profound joy. This song had such a deep connection to him and his people and how they bring praise to God. Despite my discomfort I felt drawn in. I wanted to know this man's story. I wanted to know why this simple song was held so dearly by the church in Pakistan. I wanted to know the same passion these people had for their Lord, and express it with them.
It was a beautiful discomfort.
The point I'm trying to make is that we expect the solution to a problem to end happily. Sure, there will be pain and discomfort during the solution, but when it's all said and done, everyone will be happy. This is not the case with diversity. Good, healthy diversity should be edgy. It should be uncomfortable. And in that way, it should be beautiful.
Nor is anything with Christ intended to be comfortable. Faith in itself means being constantly on edge, having to believe in something we can't see and living one hundred and eighty degrees from the rest of society. In no way is that comfortable. If this is true, maybe in order to understand Christian unity we have to first try to understand each other.
So if diversity in worship is uncompromising and uncomfortable, perhaps that should be reflected in our community. Instead of sticking to your own people group or trying to assimilate people from other groups into one more like your own, we should step out in faith. Maybe God is calling us to be uncomfortable, to meet people we wouldn't normally, people who are different in ways we don't understand. Don't try to change them: be content to be uncomfortable and see how beautifully God has made them.
As quasi-segregated as Trinity's campus can be at times, it is beautiful when I see people who hold on tightly to their people's history living in harmony with others of a different history. Instead of joining the Grey American Melting Pot, they become a piece of beautiful stained glass in Christ's great mosaic. We don't have to find similarities to love each other. In fact, maybe we should actively seek out our differences.
So my point is two-fold. The first is that in order to be diverse, we must be uncomfortable. The second is that being uncomfortable isn't a bad thing. It is a beautiful thing.
Song for today: Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. Christ uses all of us, regardless of race, nationality, or language. Let's learn how we can appreciate that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQqFP658aHo
So as you go, remember to get uncomfortable. Only then will you know the unity that Christ brings.
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