Article September 27, 2004 Issue

Swing a New Song

By Patricia Kadick

Call it grace fusion. Bill Carter works at integrating his passion for God, for his Presbyterian ministry, and for jazz. He feels that our lives shouldn't be compart-mentalized into cubicles. And he affirms that our day-to-day roles can fuse to serve a true identity, rather than partition us from ourselves. Carter's convinced, too, that jazz fits naturally into worship and that its improvisatory nature is a metaphor for faith.

But it wasn't always that way—Carter once thought that his efforts with jazz, however much led by the Spirit, could be only an aside to his true calling as a pastor.

Considered on a par with the best keyboard men of the genre, Carter lives the life of a true artist: yearning to let God, the divine Artist, color and shape his experience. He lives that life with focused energy and childlike funness, yet with serious brilliance. And a humility that knows that whatever is done, must serve the Divine, or it won't serve anyone.

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