I am sitting at the back of a large hall on the first night of an “out-reach” camp. There are seventy-five excited, energized, yet agitated, predominately African-American middle schoolers waiting for the next event. As they sing music that has no relevance in their lives nor do any of them even know the words still it is “Christian,” I notice that only their adult leaders are singing the lyrics to the music they obviously already familiar with. Upon second look, I notice that the middle schoolers are actually singing along…extremely sarcastically and mimicking the song leader as she leads out in songs. What is more, there are groups of several students lurking around, looking for the first chance to sneak out. Finally, the end of the last song! The kids seem to clap as if in relief from a terrible bout with diarrhea. All the while their adult leaders seemingly bewildered as to why there were not more songs sung. I then prepare my notes, as I am the speaker for this “outreach” camp for the whole week. I take a deep breath, and begin with my introduction: who is Christ? I feel confident tonight. I am part African-American, part Mexican, I speak Spanish, I am tall, I love the Dallas Cowboys, I am bald, and I am a male (that should count for something right?). All the “qualifications” for speaking to urban youth (or so it has been implied ideologically over the years)! I know that I can “relate” to these youth. Heck, I have “been there” right where they are sitting.

I begin my talk. Things go well for the first five minutes. I get through a couple of stories and have gotten a few laughs out of the crowd. “Good,” I think, “Now I’ll hit them with an introductory bible verse, that’ll get them!” Upon opening my Bible to read what I thought was a great scripture to begin with, John 3:16, there came a sound from the entire crowd: a unison “lip smack”. I thought, “This is weird, urban kids smacking their lips when the Bible is open.” Next to “mama,” God and God’s word are the most revered things in the urban community. Surely, these kids could not be smacking their lips at the Bible, could they? Well, I quickly read through the verse, showed my traditional Matrix clip, and seemingly ended well that night.

The second night came and sure enough, for both of the scriptures read out of the bible, the crowd smacked their lips and a synchronized sigh was heard throughout the room. It was at that point, on that second night, (With all of my training), seminary education, urban youth research having, and years in urban ministry that I realized things were changing.

I came to understand that most of these kids had been “evangelized” extensively and although these urban, tough, middle school kids knew Jesus, went to church every Sunday, some even having a personal relationship with Jesus, there was still little or no change in their lives. Their honest opinion of church was not high at all and most of these youth were actually bored with the traditional form of church, camps, and most definitely “pastoral” preaching. Most will not return to the church after they leave their guardian’s home or become an adult; and over 90% of the seventy five youth that were there, have been hearing the same tired message of how Jesus died on the cross and loves them. While that is true, how does that story transcend to the youth that live at or below the poverty level in their neighborhoods? How does that message bring hope to someone already living in hell? Moreover, how does the image of Jesus get presented to these youth? Most of the youth I spoke with that week thought Jesus was from Europe!

Of the young men that I spoke with, half are either involved or planning to get involved with some type of gang or gang affiliation. Most have seen violent murders happen right before their eyes. So to hear that Jesus loves them and died for them when there is little to no action on the part of either the youth worker and or the church, has produced in them a sense of distrust for the church and for Christians in particular. But what about the kid that does go to church and is making a difference? What about the teenagers that love Jesus and hate church? How do urban youth workers minister in these environments? What does a “Gospel” or “good-news” message get revealed?

I for one argue that the urban church has lost a lot of relevance and authority. There are too many pastors, reverends, deacons, ministers, elders, bishops, and “apostles” that care more about booty, money, and fame than they do about Jesus’ message. If its one thing urban youth know, it is a sense of justice and fairness. A pimp one time told me that he hated Christians coming into his ‘hood. When I asked why, in righteous indignation, he responded to me, “Because they take all my business. You pastors think you can get booty fo free. All my girls are up in yo church and putting out fo nothing. You killin me bruh!” That is just one of the many issues the urban church has. These kids that I spoke to at camp knew the Bible in and out, they knew Bible stories like any seminary professor would, and could quote you almost any verse verbatim. This was all coupled with the ingrained knowledge, which was learned, that you only really have to act right in front of the pastor and your daily personal life can be whatever you want it to be. As Tony Jones states, “…these ministries missed the mark because they valued head knowledge over community.”^[1] Consequently, many urban ministers have taught an urban youth culture that it is simply better to know who Jesus is rather than to be who Jesus is.

This is where the emergent Hip Hop Church comes in. What is that, you say? It is a church beyond the borders of modern and contemporary evangelical Christianity. The Hip Hop Church is big “C” church—meaning church happens in community with others who are both authentic and open to new ways of interpreting and engaging Christ. The Hip Hop Church is not built around a single pastor or person, but around people; it is about both embracing and living out the great commission and living with the “nations.” The Hip Hop Church argues for small group discipleship and a strong and growing knowledge in the word of God, but not just head knowledge, an active and working knowledge with and among other people who do not look, think, act, smell, eat, love, and or live like they do—that means actually disagreeing and being ok with it.

Yeah, I know, this all sounds too idealistic and naïve right? Well, actually its not. It’s happening, right now. There are people who are actively moving out with or without the “churches” approval, with or without Christian “leaders” ok, and most importantly with the authority of Christ. If all you’ve ever accepted is “Youth Sunday” and or “4^th Sunday Youth Day,” then we’ve all missed the point and have a lot to work on.

I ended up having personal conversations that week at camp with many of the young people I spoke to. I found out many interesting things about each of them. I was also able to take off my “titles” and become human again. I was able to lay aside me own ego and allow them to tell me what it is they did not like and actually needed. I ended up changing my entire talk and plan for the week. The kids loved it and the leaders hated it. The kids felt heard, engaged, and challenged. They also felt that someone who is older than them can do more that just preach at them for an hour. The leaders, on the other hand, felt as though I did not keep with the tradition of camp speakers (the 5 day plan that leads kids from the intro of Christ through the sin talk and ending up with a proclamation night). They felt I was not “authoritative” enough with the kids. However, while I always welcome constructive criticism to all of my talks, that time, I just didn’t care. I had made a deeper connection with the students and I am still moving on and learning from it.