A great work of God has been brought to my attention over the last couple weeks, and I want to take this opportunity to highlight what God is doing, so that He may rightly receive glory for His grace.
God is doing something big in the inner cities of America, and the evidence of this revival is the complete sea change in Christian rap over the last couple years. Artists like Lecrae, Shai Linne, Trip Lee, Flame, and others are translating deep theology and rich biblical truth into brilliantly produced music that is easily on par with their secular counterparts. As Lecrae explained in an
interview with Mark Driscoll last year, hip hop plays a greater part in inner city culture than music does in the wider American culture. Rappers aren't just cultural commentators-- they are the culture
definers; hip hop doesn't just describe culture-- it
creates culture. The tragedy is that secular rap is probably the darkest genre of music out there today, full of drugs and sex and lies and violence and materialism.
Into this culture-forming crucible, however, the gospel is breaking in. Last year, Shai Linne produced a spectacular album focusing on the atonement. Lecrae's most recent album is a call to rebel against a secular and material culture by taking up the rallying cry of Christian hedonism.
In a very real way, what is happening in the inner cities is a new generation of hymn-writing. Two and three hundred years ago, out of the spiritual power of the first and second Great Awakenings, came a flood of theology set to contemporary music-- hymns like Amazing Grace, And Can It Be, Crown Him With Many Crowns, Be Still My Soul, and others-- that are still with us today. Today's Christian hip hop artists describe what they are doing as "lyrical theology"-- essentially translating biblical truth into lyrical, musical, rhythmical form.
While I don't think that rap is going to replace hymns or congregational worship, what is happening is still staggeringly wonderful. Cities are always the birthplace of culture; as the cities go, so does the culture. To see God moving in such powerful ways in such hard places is a testament to the amazing power of His grace.
