You say tomato...

Ah, the beauty of the human race.  Like snowflakes, God has not made one of us a copy of another.  And like an inexhaustible catalog, it was His design that we come in all shapes and sizes, different colors and temperaments. It’s what makes clunking around on this planet together so challenging and yet, at the same time, so rich and rewarding.

But how much energy is devoted to trying to persuade others to be like us—think like us, feel like us, to like what we like and hate what we hate.  If you don’t agree, just try listening to 10 minutes of most talk shows (there’s a reason they’re not called listen shows).  It’s “I think blah, blah this and blah, blah that.” Unfortunately this pursuit of group think is not restricted to the world out there…you know, the secular world of education, politics, and entertainment.  It can also be found rearing its ugly head smack dab in the middle of the body of Christ.

One of our core values in the worship and arts ministry of our church is pretty simple: Celebrate diversity. Just two words.  One a verb, an action word.  The other a noun, a person, place or thing. Put them together and they give us a compelling, God-pleasing formula for building up the body of Christ through the arts.  For the purposes of this article, let’s limit our focus to style rather than substance. No one is advocating a watering down of systematic, Biblical theology to accommodate alternatives to orthodox Christianity. Jesus never proposed an expansive highway leading to His kingdom but rather a narrow path.

But in our life together as God’s people, in what areas might we celebrate our diversity? Start with the word celebrate. It suggests an act of intentional affirmation, to hold up or play up in a public way, to honor or value in a deliberate way. What it does not imply is tolerating or observing in a token, even patronizing way. It is, as we have said, intentional, deliberate, positive, and public.

Then there’s the current cultural buzzword: diversity.  Try obtaining a corporate or educational grant these days without a boatload of evidence that you are culturally diverse, and you may as well try to convert the pope.  But how does one define diversity?  I know the government must have a definition.  But what is helpful in constructing a ministry which reflects the heart and mind of God? 

Paul writes to the church at Corinth: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)  Our first clue as to what will characterize a healthy church is that it recognizes and allows differences.  God isn’t into cloning.  He likes originals, not copies.  In musical terms, He knew unison gets old, so He created harmony. 

So what are some examples of diversity in the church which we should be witnessing to celebrate the diverse nature of God?  Start with the obvious in the contemporary church in America.  How about different styles? I remember the days when what separated us from the church down the block was mainly doctrine.  Today, we have created niche churches to appeal to a plethora of style preferences. 

A recent church sign I passed actually bragged “We Still Sing the Good Ol’ Hymns.”  So who is right? The traditionalists or the contemporaries?  The Bible actually mentions very little about the “how-to’s” of corporate worship, choosing to use descriptive language rather than definitive.  Check out Psalm 150, I Corinthians 14: 26ff, Ephesians 5:19-21, and so on.  Paul’s summary statement that “there are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people” suggests that God can actually be expressed through more than one style or language.  We needn’t fight over it or form new fellowships around it.

Other forms of diversity in the body which can find expression through the arts:

·         cultural history (also usually associated with musical styles)
·         how we dress (Before you complain about the casual dress of the contemporary          

      church, don’t   forget how upset your grandma got when you stopped wearing hats 

      and suits to worship.)
·         different types of instrumentation (Do you know that when the organ was first 

      introduced to the church in Europe, it was considered a godless, secular instrument?  

      So also, the drums, guitar, keyboards in our day)
·         use of the body in worship (clappers, hand-raisers, kneelers, those who prefer a more 

      stoic, if not statue-like aspect)
·         expressions which speak more to the thinker 
·         ditto for the feeler
·         people who like to sing
·         people whose gift to the world is not to sing
·         artsy types who love pushing the envelope
·         traditionalists who get nervous when everything appears to be changing
·         the lovers of the loud
·         the root-ers of the reverent
·         and on and on it goes.

Can we begin to hold a big enough view of God and a loving enough attitude toward one another that we actually can celebrate our differences.  It will say to the world that the God, in whose image we are made, has many facets to His beauty, and we who reflect His glory desperately need each other.  At the end of the day, if I say tomato and you say to-mah-to, let’s just keep listening to each other.  The world has enough talk shows.

tad