Last night was the performance of an Oratorio as created by Darren Thomas. He is worship leader at the church where I was baptized and spent the first four years of a truly committed walk with Christ. It is a Pentecostal church in the heart of the 'hood' on the South Side of Youngstown (a true divergence from my past on so many levels) and preaches the belief in the Oneness doctrine, that Jesus is in fact God and that the name of God is in fact Jesus.
There is a style of preaching and singing that is dear to my heart as it is where I was born, so to speak. I have fond memories of this period of time but have since moved on to a more subdued style of evangelical worship of the "white" variety, the music driven by acoustic guitar rather than the keyboard/organ. It is noticeable and lacks that certain "soul" of the black church. I enjoy both styles and can easily tire of too much one or the other, the variety a welcome balance.
So last night's Oratorio, rooted in the black church, was an attempt at mixing it all up, with a 100 person multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-church choir and musical styles ranging from salsa to reggae to gospel to a more classical feel. It is all the work of one man and seeks to tell the story of Jesus Christ from prophecy through his being raised from the dead, the message being the title of the Oratorio - Forgiven.
The show itself was stellar. Performed in an old venue affiliated with the Warner Brothers in Youngstown, Ohio, the setting was grand, professional, a far cry from the confines of the church walls. And through four acts, the music was tight, with instruments ranging from French horns to xylophones to drums, and the singing was powerful. I sat in awe at the power of the human voice.
And I realized how much I miss this style of worship, how much it stirs my soul. I miss the enthusiasm, the tight sound of the bass, the boldness of the choir. I am grateful for my roots in that church and would not be where I am today (though it is interesting as well how my gravitation towards Oneness doctrine in the beginning rather than Trinity at the time was also the reason that I was drawn to Islam).
The performance itself is a work of art. The man truly has a gift and I pray he is able to break out of the confines of the tradition in which he is so comfortable to fly on his own and share this, with his own style, with the world.
Without going into too much detail, there are some kinks that need to be worked out, and the show, as grand as it was, also reinforced the reasons that when my wife, a PK and herself born into this tradition, and I decided to move on there was no looking back. It is our ability to flow in and out of a variety of settings with a diversity of peoples that makes life so interesting and, like iron sharpens iron, helps us to grow as people, grateful for the diversity in the body of Christ in all its color and splendor.
This diversity, this muttness in my background, is a great thrill for me and has enlarged my worldview, freeing me from the fetters of cultural, racial and ethnic isolationism. I am able to enlarge rather than withdraw my picture of the world and engage, embrace and grow from the diversity. I thank God for difference and distinction and don't want a world where all the cultures blend into one homogeneous stew just as I don't want a religion where everything is blended into one.
If everything was the same, how would we learn? If everything was the same, how dull and uninteresting would life be?
I am reminded, once again, of the following:
"When everyone knows good as good, this is not good." (DDJ, 2, Cleary translation)
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