Improvising Church

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

Improvising Church: Scripture as the Source of Harmony, Rhythm, and Soul

Author:

Mark R. Glanville

Publisher:

IVP Academic (InterVarsity Press)

http://InterVarsity Press

Publication Date:

February 13, 2024

Format:

Paperback

Length:

216 pages

OVERVIEW

What would it mean to rethink how we do church for a post-Christian era in which we have less power? How do we build different ways of doing things? Mark R. Glanville draws on his experience as a professional jazz musician to argue the church always balances what has been done with finding what to do today. He leads readers carefully through jazz principles that he believes apply at church, asking questions like:

• How does understanding jazz’s emphasis on knowing the past while improvising new tunes enable us to draw on Scripture and tradition while finding new forms to express those ideas?
• What can rhythmic tension (instruments playing at slightly different times) show us about the creative tensions that Christians live in, and use that tension well?
• What can jazz’s emphasis on vocalizing trauma teach us in a time when the church must recognize the trauma it has caused others?

Jazz is a popular metaphor for spiritual questions. Donald Miller gave readers his thoughts on being Christian without being religious in Blue Like Jazz. Tom Anderson riffed on a New Testament epistle in Ephesians and All That Jazz. Daniel Montgomery and Frank J. Barrett compared discipleship to jazz in Say Yes to the Mess. All these discussions are rooted in the way jazz is born at the intersection of trauma and Christianity, an intersection enabling jazz musicians to understand how much the gospel is good news for the broken-hearted.

Glanville makes a great contribution to the jazz-and-faith conversation, partly because he writes very well. They say writing about music is like dancing about architecture, but Glanville’s clear prose makes his points well. He explains a jazz concept, shows how it applies, and then moves on to the next point before he loses his audience.

He also does his homework. While some authors may use jazz as a metaphor because it sounds cool (“jazz is improvisation, life is improvisation…”) he uses his years of playing jazz and reading its history to show how it enriches the way we talk about church.

Glanville also brings humility to his topic. It’s been said many times that we are moving from Christendom to a post-Christian period in the West, a shift that requires rethinking some things. But most writers addressing the problem fill their books with tactics about winning power back, or PR jargon about how to cause the next revival. Glanville is refreshingly honest about the fact that we don’t know if Christianity will regain widespread cultural approval. What we do know is we must talk about how to produce long-lasting, healthy churches that can handle church scandals and thrive no matter what polls say about our faith.

Partly, the humility could be that he writes as an Australian who has worked for many years in Canada—two countries with smaller church growth and less cultural Christianity than the United States. Divorced from the American evangelical scene with its emphasis on winning back cultural power we feel we deserve, power that we feel we lost just a few years ago, Glanville skips the angst and focuses on the practical. He’s more interested in how the church can do well in the future than in visions of getting back grandeur. He excels at exploring what that kind of church culture would look like: smaller, but more resilient and honest. More like a jazz session than a rock concert.

A highly refreshing, intelligent, clear headed look at preparing churches for a post-Christian age.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5 stars):

Five stars

Suggested Audience:

Church leaders looking for principles on developing fluid healthy churches that can survive scandals and crises and loss of cultural power.

Christian Impact:

Glenville does an excellent job of explaining why the church’s primary job is to produce spiritually mature members and equip the next generation, not obsess over maintaining its cultural position.

He also makes an engaging case that we aren’t living out the gospel well until we consider how we are relating to the margins. Like similar authors (for example, Marty Solomon), Glanville suggests that we have missed the point if we think we can preach the gospel and not talk about caring for the poor, or practice solidarity with the disenfranchised. Caring for those on “the other side” of respectability is inherent to the gospel and we share in its richness when we take that approach. We miss things when we avoid that messiness.

Glanville’s discussion of how the gospel is in its essence about caring for “the least of these” is especially apt as jazz is born from the African-American slavery experience. It is about vocalizing generations of abuse, producing poetry from deep pain. Perhaps in jazz, we see the gospel’s full power on display, in all its rawness and beauty.

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