Jazzing up church music

Hmm, this is becoming more about singing, isn't it? I'm just not listening to anything particularly new or interesting right now.

For a benefit concert, my choir is performing a "jazz cantata." I was quite skeptical about it at first, and not just because I have doubts about my WASPy choir doing jazz justice. The composer, a local woman, managed to create a work that balances being a jazz piece with being a liturgical one. There are sections that are swing, and others that are gospel. I think that if we work hard it will sound quite nice.
I like that she's taken the traditional and messed with it. Choirs too often sing the same boring things because that's what has been written. There are folks out there who don't like their tradition messed with,who would think jazz music inappropriate for liturgical texts but who cares about them, anyway?