Justice Jazz 2020
Justice Jazz 2020 was a powerful experience for 126 people - some joined in-person in Greenacres, Florida, and others participated virtually from 5 American states and 2 other countries. People enjoyed beautiful music about the ongoing need for more people to experience justice. The event inspired 79 of those participants to volunteer with at least one other person for one hour to meet someone’s need in their community within thirty days.
The entire event can be watched above, and can be used by leaders to inspire people in their local community to partner together on mission.
Justice Jazz 2020 was the centerpiece of Shawn Allen’s Ph.D. dissertation at Palm Beach Atlantic University. You can read a summary of his dissertation below, or consult the entire dissertation at the following link:
Justice Jazz, a music ritual offered in September 2020 confirmed that an improvisatory music ritual can facilitate a shared praxis pedagogy that inspires missional unity. Justice Jazz facilitated the pedagogy and the pedagogy inspired missional unity as participants experienced the socio-transformative rhythms of missiology, musicology, and pedagogy.
This same socio-transformative rhythm oscillates continually through practical theological analysis of ontological unity, missional unity, the social harmony and transformative power of music rituals, and the six methodological commitments of the shared praxis pedagogy. The stage is then set for a robust analysis of the Justice Jazz music ritual.
Analysis of qualitative and quantitative research on participants’ experiences during Justice Jazz demonstrated that the music ritual facilitated a shared praxis pedagogy for a high percentage of participants. Research indicated that participants experienced social formation as they viewed themselves as a source of knowledge, shared and received communal insights, understood themselves to be participants in the music ritual, and journeyed from their experience to the Christian story and back to their experience.
Research also indicated that a high percentage of participants experienced transformation as they extended the ritual into their lives by making a commitment to partner with one other person for one hour to meet someone’s need in their community within 30 days of the event.
Analysis of qualitative and quantitative research after the music ritual confirmed that the shared praxis pedagogy facilitated missional unity for sixty-three percent of participants, with both missional partners and recipients of their mission experiencing transformation.
The improvisational planning of future music rituals will enable music rituals to play a pivotal role in the missional unity movement in South Florida.