Every year in February the state executive directors from the forty-two state conventions gather for our annual meeting. This year we enjoyed being in Portland, Oregon. Our host was Jeff Iorg, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention. The Northwest convention includes Oregon, Washington and a few churches in northern Idaho. It was my first time to be in Oregon except for a brief drive-through when I was a child on family vacation. God has especially blessed Oregon with remarkable natural beauty. I had an opportunity while there to drive to the coast. On the one and one-half hour drive I crossed over the coastal mountain range. On the top of the mountain the air was a crisp 35 degrees and the forests of giant Douglas fir trees were magnificent. I pulled off to the side of the road and stood outside for a while to absorb the natural beauty and revitalizing cool, moist, fresh air accented with the fragrance of evergreen.

I thought to myself how nice it was to breathe air devoid of auto and truck exhaust. There were no factories here belching out clouds of industrial byproduct. It was abundantly clear why folks choose to live in such surroundings and why they are so protective of their environment. I understood why Oregonians are often quoted as welcoming visitors but discouraging new residents to their pristine landscape.

My destination was Cannon Beach where I would see Haystack Rock, an incredibly huge outcropping just offshore. There were other outcroppings that were not quite as large and often referred to as The Needles. These rock formations are nonexistent along the beaches of the southeast where many of us spend time on vacation. I should add that there was another reason for the trip to Cannon Beach. Jeff Iorg had informed me that if I was willing to make the investment of the hour and a half drive, I could eat at Mo’s Restaurant which is known for its clam chowder. At 11:15, I was the first to enter the restaurant for the lunch hour. The hostess greeted me warmly and I informed her that I had come all the way from Georgia to eat at Mo’s because I had heard of their clam chowder. She was delighted. I was not disappointed in the chowder and the view was extraordinary. After lunch I strolled along the quiet beach with the towering rocks and worshiped the God Who created them.

On the night before my day adventure I had enjoyed fellowship with Jeff over dinner at a seafood restaurant on the Willamette River. I inquired about his ministry and rejoiced to hear how God is at work in the planting of new Southern Baptist Churches throughout the Northwest. Jeff began his ministry as a church planter and reflects the creativity of a young church planter and the cutting edge kind of thinking that is often associated with the west coast.

I was particularly interested in learning about Jeff and Ann’s family. They have three children: Casey, Melody and Caleb. Pray for Casey as he seeks to be an effective Christian witness as a junior on a college campus in South Dakota. He will be playing the quarterback position on the football team for the next two years. His soul desire is to have a significant spiritual impact on the team and one day to be a Christian coach to help build young lives in the right direction. Pray especially for Melody, a very athletic young lady, who has experienced an unusual and undefined illness in recent months that has been a tremendous challenge in her young, vibrant life. Pray with me that God will heal her.

When Jeff spoke of his youngest child, Caleb, he related an incident that was both amusing and informing.

At the age of six, the only church Caleb had ever known was the church which his father had planted and where his father was pastor. The style of worship was contemporary. When Jeff became the executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention, on his first Sunday morning preaching engagement in an Oregon church, he took his entire family with him. As the congregation stood to sing, Jeff opened the hymnbook and held it for Caleb. Jeff was caught off guard when Caleb asked, “Dad, what is that?” “It’s a hymnbook, son,” Jeff responded. Caleb exclaimed, “Boy, Dad, that’s really neat! Let’s get these in our church!”

Jeff said to me that all at once it became clear to him that innovation is what you have not seen before. For Jeff, innovation had been singing hymns from words projected on a screen because in his earlier years he had sung hymns from a hymnbook. For Caleb, singing words from a screen was traditional worship. He wanted to experience this new innovation of singing from a hymnbook. Jeff reiterated what he learned – innovation is something you have not seen before.

Caleb has something to say to all of us. Whether worship for you is traditional, contemporary or blended, no one style is better than another. The styles of worship are simply different and what is innovative for one may not be innovative at all to another.

Let’s never lose sight of the purpose of worship. The purpose of worship is not merely to be innovative, or different, but whatever the style, to give praise and glory to God.