Texas Church Opts for Hip-Hop Over Hymns

First, Country Rock Church in Sidney, Ohio. Now, Thee Global Rock Hip-Hop Church of Texas in Irving, Texas. This congregation praises the Lord with flowing spoken word and rhythm of hip-hop. Across the country, churches are sprouting up where people worship Christ with nontraditional music and style.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the Irving church worships God through a genre known infamously for profanity, vulgarity and violence. But you won’t find any dirty words in the church songs.

“It’s positive hip-hop music,” said James “Poppa” Knight, a member of this congregation that meets in the building of God Pleasers Christian Fellowship Church. “There’s nothing offensive.”

God Pleasers Church actually was one of the few churches open to hosting the hip-hop congregation, as many others backed away from the idea.

“It's another dimension of faith,” said Lisa Ortiz, pastor of God Pleasers church, to the Morning News. “It reaches out to a younger generation.”

The congregation, which meets on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings, encourages people to come dressed in street clothes. Churchgoers often dance wildly and perform freestyle raps, which means they rap to a beat spontaneously by devising the lyrics on the spot.

A charter school in the area, Winfree Academy, has actually started sending its students to worship so that, if for no other reason, they can see that the hip-hop art form can be used to praise and uplift rather than to degrade.

“We took the same beat from hip-hop and turned it into praising God,” Reggie Johnson, spokesman for the group, told reporters. “It's a wonderful thing.”