n our brief existence as The Yuinon, we’ve fielded several emails from eager believers who’ve experienced firsthand the transforming power of God through MCs who’ve availed themselves for His use and (now) “spit” for kingdom purposes. Via a neighborhood block party, a church outreach, a youth revival or some other community event, many have watched their skepticism melt, their hearts pricked, and their allegiance converted as they respond to biblical truth explained in rhyme form and MCs challenging them to move from head nodding to the beat to nodding their heads in agreement that apart from Christ, they’re sinners, lost and potentially separated from God the Father for eternity. The zeal of many who’ve seen or experienced this, has led to them wanting to expose more youth in their communities to what they’ve discovered: hip-hop being utilized at its highest possible level. However, for many the efforts that accompany this zeal, for reasons that are numerous and complex, fail to be fully realized, leaving these people (promoters, HHH advocates, event planners, etc.) frustrated. The purpose of this article is to examine a few reasons for this and offer some suggestions and strategies that prayerfully will lead to if nothing else, ignorance being eliminated from the list of reasons these events fail to reach expectations.

…They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. – Mark 7:7-9

The unfortunate reality is that some churches are mired in tradition. Because something has never been done is rationale enough for opposition to a new idea, in this case putting on an event that features Christian hip-hop. However, we must be honest enough to concede that the church’s skepticism and reluctance to follow “worldly trends” is warranted. It’s true that every MC who claims to rep Christ may not really be and exposing youth to them could be more detrimental than edifying. The introduction to the hip-hop for skeptical elders needs to be from solid artists, with detectable or rather explicit ministry in their rhymes.

Secondly you must understand that generation gaps are real. Your parents, grandparents or older aunts and uncles may still be unaware of the capabilities of the internet. Well this generation gap exists in the church as well. Pastors and elders disconnected from youth culture are very common. As they go about their daily lives, short of the blips on their radar screen that emanate due to media saturation, they really are clueless about people such as Britney Spears or 50 Cent. Not to mention that when hip-hop seeps into something they might see or read, its likely negative. So the notion of “gospel rap” or Christian hip-hop (and I use those terms only for clarity’s sake in this article) sound like oxymorons to them. Instead of despising or avoiding them for their ignorance, we must be willing to spend the necessary time to educate them. Ask them what is their biblical basis for rejecting hip-hop as a viable ministry tool. Explore with them, if it is improper exegesis to connect Lucifer’s heavenly “music ministry” to the current state of popular music. See how they respond to a question about what the “gospel” really is. Is it content or a sound? If a song that presents Jesus Christ as the “good news” to a circumstance or problem, does so in rhyme form accompanied by a drum beat, is the gospel nullified because it’s not delivered by a balladeer and accompanied by a Hammond organ or an acoustic guitar? In dealing with African American churches, you can historically remind them of Thomas Dorsey who popularized what is now the standard for “traditional gospel” after having met with criticism and rejection for injecting the heartfelt emotion and delivery that after slavery was being manifested only in blues. The reason being is recently freed slaves (desiring to forget their painful past) decided these songs and the way they were sung were too depressing and not worth preserving. It was the Fisk (University) Jubilee Singers who practically singlehandedly preserved many of our Negro Spirituals. So Dorsey, who did a “new thing” in his day met with the same criticism Christian MCs are meeting with today. Those who forget their history (and are biblically off center) are doomed to repeat it.

He put a new song in my mouth, and a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
– Psalm 40:3

Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
– Isaiah 43:19 (Also peep all of Psalm 150!)

Interestingly enough, the white church hasn’t been as resistant to Christian hip-hop. Pioneers like E-Roc, SFC, and others have attested to this on many occasions. However, if the resistance does surface, many of the same questions and scriptures mentioned above may prove helpful in a relational dialogue. Also, perhaps the following quote from Rick Warren pastor and author of the multi-million selling book, The Purpose Driven Life would carry some weight:

Your supposed “built-in” audience really isn’t

Once someone aspiring to promote or host an event featuring Christian MCs gets past church tradition and gets an “okay” if they assume the youth at their or neighboring churches will be “all in” they’re in for a rude awakening. Your supposed built-in audience, really isn’t.

It is imperative that you understand that because of the turbulence of adolescence, coupled with the unfortunate reality that discipleship is largely absent in churches, most of the youth in the church really are just “church kids.” Often, they’re just well mannered enough to appease parents in church and not get the “troublesome juvenile” label outside of church but their hearts and minds (including musical tastes and preferences) are still loyal to the world.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God – James 4:4

There may be a few “Timothy types” in the group and they’ll stand out, but for the most part the youth still prefer the world’s hip hop over God’s alternative. Consequently, they may not get excited about an event that will feature local or national Christian MCs. In their minds if the local Hot Whatever FM station isn’t playing them, they must not be tight. Secular radio validates artists in their minds. So as it relates to the “event” don’t be surprised if they fail invite friends, don’t come at all, or sit slouching possibly with arms folded with a facial expression that says, “are you done, yet?”

Because of the lack of Word in them, it’s difficult for them to get excited and react to the Word in Christ centered rhymes. They can appreciate a good metaphor, a tight flow, and a hot beat, but even they don’t see hip-hop as a ministry tool yet. I’ve seen grandmothers “get open” in response to the Word at events like this while their grandkids are like, whatever. So the event shouldn’t be held in a contextual vacuum, but after the youth (and if need be, the pastor and youth pastor) have been educated on the true content of secular hip-hop (transcribe and analyze some lyrics) and challenged to support godly alternatives.

Also, in general people don’t get excited about music they don’t know. Anyone whose gone to a concert will tell you that a part of the fun is being able to recite the lines of the artist along with them, and waiting with eager expectation as to whether they’ll do “your song”. This is where our still emerging genre suffers, there are very few FM radio outlets for them to become familiar with the music. If its up to them, youth never listen to AM radio which is where more Christian programming options exist.

Recently after a panel discussion on hip hop at church, a young girl, convicted by the Holy Spirit about what she was putting in her spirit, came up to me and said that she wanted to support Christian MCs, but she doesn’t know the music, and doesn’t know what to buy. Encouraged by her honesty and boldness, I decided to make a mix tape of various artists just for her. Our youth pastor then asked the congregation who else would be interested in receiving such a tape, dozens of people responded. Several people then came up to me and gave donations to cover the duplication costs. Look at God! Anyway, to make a long story short, when Cross Movement was recently in Detroit, we took a group of youth to see them. The song Free from (Holy Culture) was on the mix tape I’d made and gave out and judging from the reactions I observed, this was the highlight of the concert for many of the youth we took. The reason being, they knew this song and were able to sing along.

I can see a zealous “promoter” asking well, if church youth are not my audience who is? Even many Christian artists say their music is for everyone. Some say it’s to “edify saints” and “reach the lost.” That’s cool, I’m not in a position to dispute that, but knowing specifically who your audience is, who you’re aiming to reach, should affect how you go about planning your event. Now it’s not impossible, but on their own accord, most unsaved cats are not coming to a church event because they got a flier that says some rapper will be there. (Unless it’s a secular rapper, remember Kanye West being invited to that church in MD? Packed the place out!). If the unsaved is the audience, plan accordingly with diverse recruitment and promotional approaches, one of which might be to hold the event somewhere other than (gasp!) the church.

Hopefully the event is not the first attempt at community outreach. It’s important to build and maintain credibility in the community you aim to reach. Ask those you want to come, what is the best way to get others like them to come. Seek their input, encourage their involvement. In doing this you’re already empowering them and making them feel like the church is a “cooperative organism” that they can have influence in. Also, if your audience is the unsaved, the artists you’ve scheduled to “minister” should be able to relate to your community. God’s word is truth and not contingent upon personalities and experiences per se, but relevance is important. Again, the audience won’t know the artists, but those who do come, should feel like the person they’re listening to can or is willing to empathize with them. And it should go without saying, but make sure the MCs at your event are tight! Nothing’s worse than your first exposure to something that’s supposed to be a godly alternative being subpar to its secular counterpart. What does that say? (Corny Christians trying to be hip) Those you want to reach may leave your event never to return again.

Man, this has gotten longer than I expected but I pray yall see and feel where I’m coming from. There’s gonna have to be a part two to this piece, cause we haven’t even touched on the gospel industry, some of the technical needs for the event itself and more suggestions for promotion. So be on the lookout for the sequel to this article.

-vessel
03.06.05