A Church that Embraces Hip Hop
You may have read and joined the conversation about my recent post on music in “The New Traditional Church.” In response to that post, I heard from several people who were aware of churches using hip hop in their services. This particular story caught my attention. Here’s an interview with Stefanie Kelly, the worship arts director at the Rock Church in San Diego, CA.
TONY: For those who are unfamiliar with the Rock Church, tell us a little bit about your story.
STEFANIE: The Rock is a diverse church nearing 14,000 attendees located in the heart of urban San Diego, California. Pastor Miles McPherson was obedient to the call of Christ on his life, and after being mentored by Mike Macintosh of Horizon Calvary Chapel, the Rock was birthed. It is home to hundreds of small groups, 62 ministries such as JC’s Girls (a ministry to strippers) and Luv Em’ Up (a ministry to our inspirational congregants with disabilities), as well as countless other ministries that reach out into the literal and figurative prisons of our community in order to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to all who will hear. We are a DO SOMETHING church, meaning, the Rock is dedicated not only to encouraging our church family, but to going into all the world to preach the gospel in tangible ways by serving our community.
TONY: In case you didn’t hear, my post on hip-hop and R&B in the church raised a little stir. How is the Rock Church using these genres of music in your services?
STEFANIE: At the Rock we strive to be relevant in every area of programming, especially in the musical portion of our worship. Because Christ was incredibly relevant and in touch with His time, we are also committed to following that example. As the Worship Arts Director, I specifically listen to music outside the church walls in order to know what is currently happening in the world. In fact, I often find myself worshipping to something like Shania’s “Forever and For Always”, Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, or EWF’s “Sing a Song”. For that reason, and depending on the musical strengths of the volunteer musicians available on any given week, we deliberately arrange, program, and write with an R&B/hip-hop bent.
For example, one Sunday our musicians played a tune with a very pronounced Ne-yo groove, and on another day we featured a rap with a hip-hop vocalist backed by our gospel choir on the vamp! (BTW, Resonate, our choir, is an SAT choir – which generates a more R&B sound, rather than an SATB choir – which is more traditional in nature). On another Sunday we featured a hip-hop dance presentation, and in the coming weeks we are going to worship to “Umbrella”.
Just this past Sunday our worship consisted of an acoustic jazz set with a grand piano, upright bass, a siiiiiick saxophonist, and three “American Idol Style” background vocalists. God has blessed us with wonderfully talented musicians who are not only skilled as in Psalm 33:3, but are dedicated to the spiritual health and unity of our arts program because of their genuine love for the Lord.
TONY: Why are you using these new styles of music?
STEFANIE: I believe Paul was directly speaking from the heart of the Lord when he called us to be “all things to all people” – and because the Rock is an urban church with a diverse demographic, we must offer all musical genres to the worshipper. For one worshipper, the hip-hop style reaches to the core…for another, it is the pop-rock genre that moves the heart. For the “wiser” members we will approach musical worship one way…for the younger and growing in their wisdom, we will choose another way.
Fortunately, God has provided the Rock with skilled musicians who are able to play a wide range of musical styles with excellence. I believe one reason why we don’t hear R&B/hip-hop music more frequently in today’s church is because smaller congregations are often limited in their resources, but they are faithfully doing the best they can with what has been given to them.
TONY: Do you believe hip-hop can be a part of our corporate worship?
STEFANIE: I absolutely believe hip-hop can be, should be, and will be an important worship style of the future – in addition to all the beautiful styles of music our innovative God created! The R&B/hip-hop element will, however, require a dedication on the part of the staff and congregation to dig deeper into the well of musical study and commitment in order to facilitate this with excellence. Somewhere, though, doesn’t it say that “all things are possible with God”?
TONY: How would you encourage other churches in this area of ministry?
STEFANIE: I would encourage other churches to boldly go out on a limb and embrace new ways of worshipping God through music. But in order to do that, we need to diversify and de-segregate. As a result, the music will naturally do the same, to the praise of His glorious grace! Every Sunday when I look out into our congregation and see all shapes, sizes, ages and colors, I thank the Lord that I am not just surrounded by “like” people with the same musical preferences, but am sharpened by the diversity that harmoniously defines our unified worship!
The Bible says that God has given us a “new song” to sing – and He is neither confined nor limited to just one style of praise. Finally, in regards to hip-hop, because of the negative messages prevalent in pop hip-hop culture today, I believe the church at large is afraid to incorporate this genre into modern services because of the potential criticism that might occur as a result. But now is the time for believers to reclaim ALL styles and take back what was created for His glory in the first place – the wonderful gift of music, in the mighty name of Jesus!
That’s awesome! We actually performed “I Tried” by Bone Thugs and Akon this morning at ALIVE in Central, SC. It was our first attempt at pushing into the hip-hop genre. Not too bad for a bunch of white kids and a Puerto Rican. However, we have a long way to go. We need to learn more about how hip-hop is performed and produced live. It is so much different than the rock worship we know so well.
I think this is a great feature…. and much needed in our churches and cities. Thanks for taking the time to focus on this. I think it’s also important to note that there are many smaller inner-city that have been doing this for years in places like Philly, Detroit, NY, etc…. reaching people right in their own neighborhoods. They may not be as “good” and may not be able to do it on as grand a scale as The Rock, but they are doing their thing. I don’t think limited resources equals limited effectiveness. Just some thoughts…
I’m totally down 4 worshiping with Christian Hip-Hop. But worshiping to “Umbrella” by Rihanna?
Why doesn’t the church take the hip-hop beats that they are trying to be relevant with and combine them with the Christian artists already proclaiming the name of Jesus through mad beats?
Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Sho Baraka already do this and we are opting for Bone Thugz and Rihanna? Come on people!
Check out http://www.reachrecords.com if you wanna see what worshiping with hip-hop really looks like.
Love it! Any churches on the East Coast doing this type of thing?
oh my goodness that is awesome! keep it up The Rock!
Keith, It’s a quality thing. Christian Hip Hop is not mainstream Hip Hop. The Christian version of this music styling is like much of “Christian” music, not in the same class as its “worldly” counterpart. When artists who follow Jesus put out quality art, the world recognizes, but it’s got to be top notch. Bringing anything less than that into our worship services simply screams Cheesetastic. We’re more like The Rock, when it comes to incorporating that into our environment it usually comes in the form of using a Radio Hit to compliment the message. This is a very important issue for us as our area is 50% African American 45% white. Our church doesn’t reflect that mix, but we try.
J I agreed with your opinion until the 116 Clique came out. check out reachrecords and you will see what I mean. Their quality is better than the secular stuff out there. Heck Sho Baraka was a secular rapper before converting to Christianity. Check out Trip Lee Tedashii Lecrae and Sho Baraka and THEN try telling me it’s a quality thing
If you wanna talk Hip Hop in the Church, why not talk about the guy who wrote The Hip Hop Church, my friend Efrem Smith at Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis:
http://www.sanctuarycovenant.org/
http://www.efremsmith.com/
Keith.
I completely agree with you. As a youth pastor, all of my students listen to (or at least are familiar with) the mainstream hip-hop songs of the moment.
I started pumping lecrae in my car and the students were all, “wait, who is this?” they were pumped to hear some killer quality (they didn’t even really care that it was “christian”)
that being said,
if you’re simply playing a cool mainstream song to be cool and get people’s attention, that’s lame. if you’re helping them experience the reality of hip-hop culture and using mainstream stuff to help them worship, that’s baller. Play rihanna and play lecrae. Heck, find you’re own local rapper and pump out a worship song specifically for the night.
I know this is on the wrong post, but Angelus Temple at the Dream Center in LA uses hip hop in their services all the time (and on occasion, the real hip-hop artists :)
Keith, I couldn’t disagree with you more. The popular secular emcees are not any better than Christian emcees. Manchild, Raphi, Cash Hollistah, Fedel, The Czar, Lecrae, Dwayne Triumph, K-Drama and scores of others are much better than your Soulja Boy, Lil Wayne (yes I said it!), Rick Ross, Flo Rida, Jadakiss and other popular emcees.
Anyone who still complains about the quality of Christian hip-hop today either A) Spends too much time at your “midnight musicals or listening to the 11 year old at youth church trying to rap for the first time or B) Is just plain old not aware of what is availble today compared to what was available 10 years ago.
Here’s the problem I have when I see white churches trying to embrace hip-hop: With perfectly good intentions, it becomes parady. I’ve seen far too many attempts at being relevant come off as parady and that does more to offend those who they are trying to reach rather than reach them. I minister a culturally diverse church and we do open the door occaisionally to hip-hop. Being someone who has done it for a while, its definitely an area of sensitivity for me. Here’s a tip to ANYONE trying to infuse hip-hop music into your services: If it makes you laugh – don’t do it. Think like a missionary. You wouldn’t purposefully use bad spanish, leaders who are VERY limited in its knowledge of Mexico and talk about taco bell in attempts to reach spanish culture. Then why would you use bad rapping, people who only appreciate the culture from a distance and hip-hop cliches (ie “Yo, Yo, Y! I’m MC Shofar!) to try to reach those influenced by hip-hop culture?
/end rant
Uh Steve? You just pretty much agreed with me man.
Keith, I just realized I was reading two things at once and responded to that…my bad. Long weekend and short sleep I apologize.
It would be interesting to see a church like the Rock play Country music just as much as Hip Hop.
According to Recording Industry Association of America, there are just as many consumers of Country Music as Hip Hop.
http://76.74.24.142/44510E63-7B5E-5F42-DA74-349B51EDCE0F.pdf
According to Tony’s survey, only 3% of churches play Country music in church.
If we are going to be embrace culture, we should embrace all of it right?
Thanks for this followup! Rock church looks Rockin’! :)
Wow. DJ Beat Rabbi was trying this for a couple years with a church plant I was a part of, The Deep End. Didnt’ work out… maybe we were ahead of our time? =p
This is a great topic to wrestle with and very healthy, we WANT great music in our churches, we WANT to reach people with relevant music for Christ. It’s also important to note, not all churches are the SAME, not all churches need to be the same way, Diversity is key, is good and needed.
Reminder that the Rock Church is a reflection of their pastor’s personality. Hip Hop makes sense for them. It doesn’t make sense for everyone to do hip hop just cause its on the radio. There are plenty of other genre’s on the radio too. You have to be who God has called you to be. He has a specific group of people planned for you to reach and you can only reach them by being who he has created you to be. For many churches it would be extremely awkward and would flop for them to attempt to do hip hop.