I Pastor Hip Hop

I Pastor Hip Hop
Author: Stacey Jones
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2018-07-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781723182259

My dichotomy between Hip-Hop and the Church has appeared a conflict to many, but to me, it never has been. At the same time that I was falling in love with Hip-Hop, I was immersed and in love with the church. My introduction into Christianity is from the Black Pentecostal Tradition (Church of God in Christ). My life was quite busy as a young person; I played drums, sang lead in the junior choir, and attended Sunday school and Young People Willing Workers (YPWW). I had a strong love for both cultures, but I was told by the church that one could not mesh or intertwine Hip-Hop and the church, and so the lifelong conflict begins! Like many of our religious forefathers on western soil, we continue to shut out different forms of expression due to the fear of becoming "too worldly". Have we ever stopped to think that the issue is even deeper? Some of us want to control the move of God because it doesn't fit into our structure or programmed liturgy! However, during the early inception of Hip-Hop culture, people thought it was absurd and sacrilegious if Hip-Hop shared the stage and the microphone with the Church. Due to the church's rejection of Hip-Hop, the younger people from my generation started to develop a contempt towards people within the Christian Faith community. This contempt brought an even stronger divide, and it seemed as though this separation continued to perpetuate. Part of it has to do with the generational divide and the methodology.

Hip-Hop Redemption

Hip-Hop Redemption
Author: Ralph Basui Watkins
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2011-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 080103311X

A sociologist and pop-culture expert offers a balanced engagement of hip-hop and rap music, showing God's presence in the music and the message.

The Hip-Hop Church

The Hip-Hop Church
Author: Efrem Smith
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2012-04-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830869727

Hip-hop is here. The beats ring out in our cities. Hip-hop culture is all around us: in the clothes youth wear, in the music they listen to, in the ways they express themselves. It is the language they speak, the rhythm they move to. It is a culture familiar with the hard realities of our broken world; the generation raised with rap knows about the pain. They need to know about the hope. Enter the hip-hop church. Like the culture it rises from, the hip-hop church is relevant and bold. And it speaks to the heart. In this book, pastors Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson show the urgency of connecting hip-hop culture and church to reach a generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They give practical ideas from their urban churches and other hip-hop churches about how to engage and incorporate rap, break dancing, poetry and deejays to worship Jesus and preach his Word. Hip-hop culture is shaping the next generation. Ignoring it will not reduce its influence; it will only separate us from the youth moving to its rhythm. How will they hear Christ's message of truth and hope if we don't speak their language? And how can we speak their language if we don't understand and embrace their culture? Hear the beat. Join the beat. Become the beat that brings truth and hope to a hungry, hurting generation.

Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels

Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels
Author: Christina Zanfagna
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2017-08-29
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0520296206

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the 1990s, Los Angeles was home to numerous radical social and environmental eruptions. In the face of several major earthquakes and floods, riots and economic insecurity, police brutality and mass incarceration, some young black Angelenos turned to holy hip hop—a movement merging Christianity and hip hop culture—to “save” themselves and the city. Converting street corners to open-air churches and gangsta rap beats into anthems of praise, holy hip hoppers used gospel rap to navigate complicated social and spiritual realities and to transform the Southland’s fractured terrains into musical Zions. Armed with beats, rhymes, and bibles, they journeyed through black Lutheran congregations, prison ministries, African churches, reggae dancehalls, hip hop clubs, Nation of Islam meetings, and Black Lives Matter marches. Zanfagna’s fascinating ethnography provides a contemporary and unique view of black LA, offering a much-needed perspective on how music and religion intertwine in people's everyday experiences.

The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture

The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture
Author: Emmett G. Price
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2011-11-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 081088237X

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Black Church stood as the stronghold of the Black Community, fighting for equality and economic self-sufficiency and challenging its body to be self-determined and self-aware. Hip Hop Culture grew from disenfranchised urban youth who felt that they had no support system or resources. Impassioned with the same urgent desires for survival and hope that their parents and grandparents had carried, these youth forged their way from the bottom of America’s belly one rhyme at a time. For many young people, Hip Hop Culture is a supplement, or even an alternative, to the weekly dose of Sunday-morning faith. In this collection of provocative essays, leading thinkers, preachers, and scholars from around the country confront both the Black Church and the Hip Hop Generation to realize their shared responsibilities to one another and the greater society. Arranged into three sections, this volume addresses key issues in the debate between two of the most significant institutions of Black Culture. The first part, “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop,” explores the transition from one generation to another through the transmission—or lack thereof—of legacy and heritage. Part II, “Hip Hop Culture and the Black Church in Dialogue,” explores the numerous ways in which the conversation is already occurring—from sermons to theoretical examinations and spiritual ponderings. Part III, “Gospel Rap, Holy Hip Hop, and the Hip Hop Matrix,” clarifies the perspectives and insights of practitioners, scholars, and activists who explore various expressions of faith and the diversity of locations where these expressions take place. In The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture, pastors, ministers, theologians, educators, and laypersons wrestle with the duties of providing timely commentary, critical analysis, and in some cases practical strategies toward forgiveness, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. With inspiring reflections and empowering discourse, this collection demonstrates why and how the Black Church must re-engage in the lives of those who comprise the Hip Hop Generation.

Jesus and the Hip-hop Prophets

Jesus and the Hip-hop Prophets
Author: Alex Gee
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780830832347

John Teter and Alex Gee invite you to explore the world of Lauryn Hill, Tupac Shakur and the "hip-hop prophets"--following their lyrical messages to ultimate fulfillment at the feet of the Prophet-King Jesus.

Old School Love

Old School Love
Author: Rev Run
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0062939742

RUN DMC.’s iconic rapper Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons and his wife, Justine, share their secrets to lasting love and the guiding principles that have kept them together for more than twenty years. Written with Amy Ferris. This is a book about love. The kind of love that will keep you warm at night—that will keep you feeling safe and sound. The kind of love that will get you through some dark times; get you through some hard and yes, some tough times. The kind of love that will make you laugh, that will make you smile, that will make you nod knowingly. The kind of love that is nurtured and watered and grows—from a seedling to a flower. The kind of love that is desperately needed in the world right now, shared and sprinkled everywhere. Old School Love is a book to help you find the kind of soul-filling love you desire, written by a couple who has built a strong and joyful relationship amid the pressures, pitfalls, and temptations of the entertainment industry. Rev Run and his wife, Justine, have been blessed with a devoted partnership that has inspired others. In this homage to classic courtship, Rev and Justine reveal the secrets to their marriage’s longevity and happiness. Each chapter of Old School Love offers stories, anecdotes, and memories of Rev and Justine’s marriage, their family, their experiences, their passion, and their deep faith and belief in God. Some will make you laugh, some will make you think, and some will make you cry. Yet all will make you wiser—more beautiful for the wear—and encourage you to be a kinder, more generous, and better human. Their reflections are bookended by a verse or line from scripture, a saying, or a favorite quote and a sampling of personal wisdom. Over two decades strong, Rev and Justine’s partnership is an inspiration. With Old School Love they are spreading their message of positivity, and creating a legacy for all of us to embrace and share. Powerful and life-changing, this little gem of a book is about magic, and miracles, and yes, the irrefutable power of love. Old School Love includes 8 pages of photos from Rev and Justine's personal collection.

Gay Girl, Good God

Gay Girl, Good God
Author: Jackie Hill Perry
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1462751237

“I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.

Own The Moment

Own The Moment
Author: Carl Lentz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2017-10-31
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 150117701X

This engaging and inspirational book by Carl Lentz, the rock star pastor of Hillsong NYC, shows us the way toward a more connected, spiritually-grounded, and fulfilled life. When you think of a Christian pastor, you probably don’t envision a tattooed thirty-something who wears a motorcycle jacket, listens to hip-hop music, references The Walking Dead and Black Lives Matter in his sermons, and every Sunday draws a standing-room only crowd to a venue normally used for rock concerts—in godless New York City, no less. But then you clearly have never met Carl Lentz. As lead pastor of the first United States branch of global megachurch Hillsong, the former college basketball player is on a mission to make Christianity accessible in the 21st century. In Own The Moment, he shares the unlikely and inspiring story of how he went from being an average teenager who couldn’t care less about church to leading one of the country’s fastest-growing congregations—how one day he is trying to convince a Virginia Beach 7-Eleven clerk to attend his service, and just a few years later he is baptizing a global music icon in an NBA player’s Manhattan bathtub. Amid such candid personal tales, Lentz also offers illuminating readings of Bible passages and practical tips on how to live as a person of faith in an increasingly materialistic world. How do you maintain your values—and pass them onto your children—in a society that worships money and sex and fame? How do you embrace your flaws in this Instagram era that exalts the appearance of perfection? How do you forget about “living the dream” and learn to embrace the beauty of your reality? These are just a few of the many important questions Lentz answers in Own The Moment—a powerful book that redefines not just Christianity but spirituality as a whole.