Transcript

In the 1920s, pastor Bates Burt didn't understand his son Alfred's fascination with new, unsettling jazz..  But he supported it—even letting him practice drums in the rectory attic! Al became a professional jazz musician, and Bates was his son's most devoted fan. Al continued his father's annual tradition of composing carols as Christmas cards.

Nat King Cole, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor recorded Al's carols. The songs continue to proclaim Christ's birth in ways his pastor father could never have imagined.

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. What if Alfred Burt's father had denounced his son's love of jazz as unspiritual or unworthy? We might not have his wistful, innovative music. Sometimes vocation and worship meet to break new ground . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6, AMP)