Suburbs...

"I still hold. . . that the suburbs ought to be either glorified by
romance and religion or else destroyed by fire from heaven, or even by firebrands from the earth." - The Coloured Lands by GK Chesterton

RIghteous B gets an AIM screen name -- Add "RighteousPhilly" to your buddy list if ya'll would like to chat wit me sometime. Peath

I love being a dad - Me and Bud after the show Friday night.

Inner City Show - Queen of Peace

Inner City Show Queen of Peace Church (5/6)

Last night I had the blessing of rapping with the good folks at Queen of Peace Church in Houston. I had visited the church once before a few years back and fell in love with the peeps. The church is like 99% Mexicans and I always feel a connection to a church like that being a minority myself (I'm a Polish Black man). Anyway - the show was a silly sick time - and these cats really knew how to dance (especially Alfonzo, Rudolf, and Gina - my soultrain dancers for the evening). The concert was especially memorable cause it was my last concert in Houston as a "Texan"...we're moving in a week. Because of that some of our friends from the past 2 years came out to wiggle it one more time together before we shoved off (thank you SVDP). It's always nice when my family can come out to a show too. Though they normally leave about 20 minutes into the concert cause my kids either break something at the venue or hurt each other. But this time was a little different cause my wife took my daughter (Ceili) and my youngest son (Toby) home but left my son Christian. Christian felt compelled to stay cause he said he had been writing some raps and he just had to do one on stage. So we closed out the concert together and Christians rap consisted of the word "hi" which I must admit he delivered quite nicely over the microphone. I tried to feed him some other lines to spit but he kept looking at me as though he was slightly offended saying stuff like "But, I don't want to say that". I love rapping... but I really love being a dad.

Fr. Stan with me at Francesco Studios - Bronx NY

My Visit with Fr. Stan

On the day Pope John Paul II died - I got a call from Father Stan, who was actually in Poland at the time, saying we need to do an "emergency colaboration" on a tribute track to JP. 3 days later I was on a plane to the Bronx - which was a blessing in itself as we have talked for a couple years about doing a project together yet have not been able to swing it with our schedules. Having 2 days free to actually do the deal was the first among many blessings we received that week. Being able to share stories and celebrate mass together as brothers was like a retreat for me in the midst of my chaotic life right now. It was theraputic to hang with my big bro (as Father Stan calls himself - even though he weighs like a buck 20). We would write and record by day and eat good eats by night. We rolled into the Polish ghetto where we feasted on kielbasa, kapusta, and fine Polish beer. Needless to say the large amounts of sausage and cabbage brought unpleasant odors to the studio the next morning. The studio now that I mention it was such a unique yet well crafted lab. It's actually carved into the old baptistry at the monastery - complete with this old fresco of the Lord's baptism behind the control booth.

The track itself (beats and hook created by Fr. Stan) was very different and out there. It's very Fr. Stan (unique, creative, hairy) with a world beat/ jazzy flavor. The beat has such an emotional tone to it and so it was perfect to really grieve over. The snare is absent and the 2 and 4 and virtually non existent - so the vocals really pop out. The goal was not to create some slammin club banger - the real goal was to honor JP 2. For me the track was very personal and I felt very close to John Paul as we worked and prayed that week. Though JP is gone - he has not abandoned the church. He is now in the church victorious as he prays for us the militant. Look for the single "The Great One" in about 2 weeks. It will also feature a interview with Fr. Stan and I and a teaching by Father.
Peace

Urban Ministry Must Be Taken Seriously

Urban Ministry Must Move to the Forefront

Today urban, hip-hop, and black youth culture often has an amazing influence on the whole youth culture—white teens far from the inner-city streets are influenced by the slang, fashion, and music of the ’hood. I’ve heard it said in many hip-hop articles that if white suburban teens stopped buying rap music, the industry would go out of business. If this is true, we must change the way we minister to young people. If this is true, we can no longer put up with divisions between urban youth ministry and so-called "mainstream" youth ministry. If this is true, we need to question why most Christian music festival lineups usually include 100 rock and alternative bands and 3 urban/hip-hop groups.

If it’s true that the youth culture has become more urban and multiculturally influenced, then why does mainstream youth ministry in its leadership, marketing, training, and practical theology still come across so male, suburban, and white? Youth-ministry speakers, leaders, and professors seem to care very little about putting urban youth or multiethnic issues at the forefront of their agendas. Some of the reasons may be that there aren’t very many full-time urban youth pastors, especially in comparison to our suburban counterparts. Maybe youth ministry has become big business today, and there aren’t enough urban youth workers with the resources to pay the price to put urban youth ministry in the mainstream.

For the most part, white, suburban, megachurch youth pastors are marketed as the experts in youth ministry while urban youth pastors of color rarely, if ever, get a chance to write, teach, or present practical theology to transform how we think about youth ministry. I’ve even had youth ministry leaders question me about whether urban youth ministry should even be presented outside of what they call mainstream youth ministry—which many times is just a code word for rich, white, suburban, programmed youth ministry.

Even though today’s kids cross racial and ethnic lines more proactively than any generation before them, I’m concerned that adult leaders are satisfied with presenting a suburban, white model that seems to care more about game ideas and raising up corporate, white, male youth ministry experts than talking about what’s really influencing students.

None of the youth ministry leaders and so-called experts seem to want to deal with why the pain, hopelessness, and anger of the urban youth are now reflected in the rural and suburban areas through school shootings all across the country. No one really wants to talk about how racism has kept us from developing a radical and revolutionary global model for youth ministry that could raise a generation of young people to build the authentic, Christ-centered, and multiethnic church laid out in chapter two of Acts.

Youth speakers who were radicals in the ’60s and ’70s sound mainstream today, mainly because they won’t deal head-on with race issues and the urban influence. We can no longer afford to treat urban youth ministry as a misfit, outcast ministry. Urban youth workers, speakers, and theologians can no longer be treated like modern day Samaritans of ministry. Urban youth ministry must move to the forefront.

Youth culture is changing in many ways, because the new radical voice of ministry comes from the ’hood. The voices of rappers in the inner city aren’t just influencing the hearts and minds of urban youth. The voices have found their ways into the soul of youth culture as a whole. I just hope and pray that youth leaders will take the time to pay attention, be real, and catch up.