As many will tell you, the great lessons of design are rarely gleaned from a book or learned by sitting in a classroom. Design thrives on multidisciplinary experience, an immersion into the unknown and a search for the unknowable. If you are looking for such an experience, look no further than the hallowed grounds of the Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church. One three-hour service will convert you and possibly, make you into a different designer.

As I sat in church, jazz music flowing over me and through me, I was amazed by the one-of-a-kind environment that the Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church has consciously and unconsciously designed. If as Hank often said, design is simply a plan to make something, this plan was truly inspired. The church has all of the elements that are present in great design. First, it builds on tradition, breathing new life into something you know. Second, it breaks with tradition and reveals the stuff you have been missing. Finally, it disregards rules in favor of experience, and in this case, an experience that you will not forget. Here’s why.

Mingling with Tradition

With deference, the church uses tradition as a touchstone. If you attend other religious services, you will sing hymns, hear performances by talented musicians, be treated to a gospel or two, and last but not least, receive a healthy serving of sage and universal wisdom. The Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church does not disappoint. It delivers in all of these areas; however, the delivery is unique.

The music is organic, never stopping, never starting. It is simply a necessary element. The gospel is delivered with a smile and a welcoming invitation, and in my case, it was delivered by a glowing woman, wise beyond her years. And, the wisdom, so often delivered with a hint of fear, is delivered democratically. Archbishop Franzo King is not above you; he is with you, staring you squarely in the eye. The paintings, as represented above, deliver Marie, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus. (And, of course, Saint John is alive in the room.)

How is good design different? It isn’t. Good design should build on tradition, turning what you know into what you’ve never seen. It should treat its audience as an equal, never pandering or underestimating the people to whom it speaks. Finally, instead of an intrusion, it should be a welcome addition. It should act like it has always been there, like it always will be there.

Breaking with Tradition

Yet, the church is not like any church into which you have entered. The first hour and 45 minutes were a jazz immersion. There was no surfacing for breath, as song bled into song, as dance and performance mixed with the proceedings of the morning. As Archbishop King put it, we were raising our praises and acknowledging our blessings through performance. It was a concert. It was an opportunity to dance. It was an experience to write about.

Like good design, the church’s service breaks with tradition. It is not a stayed ceremony with time allotments. It’s dogma is the lack of dogma. Like the thinking behind a piece by James Victore, it acts like it failed to learn the rules. If you don’t know them, then you aren’t beholden to them. And, the result is new; it’s fresh; it’s unexpected. Good design isn’t a sum of parts. Good design is a synergy of parts, a combination that breeds something new, something unexpected.

Only the Experience Is Sacred

The final lesson, and perhaps the most important. The church welcomes all people, and this welcome extends well beyond convention. From performers entering and exiting during the service, to kids moving freely around the space, to unexpected additions, the importance of the execution does not outweigh the importance of the principle experience. Too often, design seeks to erase the possibility of romance and intrigue, replacing it instead with an empty search for perfection. A tightening of bolts that causes the machine to burst.

Not this church, a church where a 15-minute tap performance is seamlessly inserted into the experience, a church where people enter and leave freely, a church where children take on instruments and feel like a welcome addition to the experience.

In essence, it’s inspired. It is inspired by John Coltrane, a musician without equal who honored his relationship with a spiritual higher power. It is inspired by the church’s leadership. It is inspired by a nomadic and changing congregation, which immediately feels comfortable. And, it happens because it speaks to and fulfills a need for inspiration in all of us.

So, designers go fourth, and “Get your praise on!” Church is always in session.

The Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church worships from 12:00 to 3:00 PM Sundays. It is located at 1286 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.