To talk about jazz is to talk about race.  To choose a jazz based faith is to face race head on and to let it’s questions and tensions fuel one’s faith.  A jazz based faith is not a race dominated approach to life, rather, it is to recognize the uniqueness of the American experience as we seek to follow Jesus.  I believe that if we face race with the gospel firmly in our sites we will see it redeemed and that it is true "that all things work for the good."  It is true that race is born of America’s original sin but it’s tensions for new questions for community, sin, love and what it means to be the church in America.

All that being said, let’s begin with the foundational question:  What is race?

How would you define this American phenomenon?