An emcee urges the frenzied crowd to wave hands in the air while a DJ mixes songs on the turntables and young people jump up and d
own and sway beneath the whirling strobe lights.
But this is not a rap concert at the Oakland Arena or some show at a local nightclub. It's church.
DJ Born Again has the crowd rocking at Changed Life Church in Pittsburg on a recent Friday night, whe
re
young worshipers wear casual outfits and baggy pants in place of dress suits and skirts.
Changed Life is one of about six churches in the Bay Area -- and about 2,000 nationwide -- that lace their youth ministries with holy hip-hop to attract new, young believers.
"Youngsters have to have something done in a way they can understand," said DJ Born Again, whose real name is Ramon Jackson. "I deliver the message, but I still keep it raw."
The gospel rap movement, which features Christianity instead of profanity, dates to the early 1990s in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., but it has begun
to catch on in the Bay Area only recently.
"Gospel hip-hop has been around as long as regular hip-hop -- it just didn't get much acceptance or attention," said Curtis Germany, publisher of U-Zone, an Oakland urban gospel trade magazine.
Germany says San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area were slow to adopt r
a
p in church. "Now doors have been opening, and a lot of people are waking up to it."
The movement has struggled against the negative image many Christians associate with hip-hop, particularly the violent, profanity-laden gangsta rap that dominates the genre.
At Church of Jesus Our Lord in Oakland, Pastor Phillip Tindsley said his first foray into gospel rap services about five years ago got an unenthusiastic response from his congregation. Today, the church has a large number of young worshipers, several of them aspiring gospel rappers, and plans
to open a music studio this month.
"People were kind of resistant at first because of tradition," said Tindsley. "It's grown on them. People realized we could use it to reach young people, and we have reached a lot of young people."
Gospel rap has drawn in young people who didn't come to church before, and some of them have also brought their parents into the church, Tindsley said.
"The need is gr
eat
," he said. "We got young men and women on the streets selling their bodies, selling drugs, and they're all interested in rap. But they tend to be interested in the negative rap."
The recent Friday night service at Changed Life Church drew a crowd of about 40 youths of various ages and ethnicities. DJ Born Again played loud, base-heavy tracks while the faithful formed long dance lines or broke into small groups.
"My dad was surprised when I started coming," said Emily Thornton, 14
, of Antioch, who began attending Changed Life's hip-hop services last month with her older brother. "I think he was thinking 'why would you want to come to church when you could be at home doing something else?' "
The service included a dance-off where challengers showcased their best break and krunk-style moves and the "Faith Factor" finals, in which contestants ate a mixture of liver, clams, chili sauce and mus
tard[/color
]. Then, youth minister Kirk Waller delivered a sermon on the biblical figure David, a teenager who rose to become king of Israel.
At Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, rap acts regularly perform and talk to the church's approximately 500-member youth ministry, which meets on Wednesdays and Sundays.
"Sometimes, [color=red'
>I might throw a short little rap in a song in</span> (the main service)," said Jubilee music minister Brian Waller. "I remember the first time I did. It blew some people away, and it turned some people off."
Tommy Kyllonen, 32, <span style='color:red]pastor of Crossover Community Church in Tampa, Fla., and rap artist known as Urban D, estimates about 2,000 churches nationwide use rap as part of their youth ministries.
Kyllonen hosts an annual gathering called FlavorFest that last year drew 250 church leaders from across the country and says only abou
t 25 churc
hes across the country feature hip-hop prominently.
"It's only a small segment of churches that are starting to use it as a mainstay in their programs, targeted to adults," said Kyllonen, whose 400-member church has graffiti on its walls. Christian hip-hop's popularity is spreading in church and on the street, with popular acts garnering 100,000-plus album sales, according to Christian music industry observers.
Jay Swartzendruber, editor of Nashville's Contemporary Christian Music magazine, said some popular Christian rap acts are being played on BET and MTV2.
In December, when Grammy nominations were announced, for the first time ever, three Christian hip-hop records were nominated. But since there's no Christian hip-hop category, the acts were placed into the Best Rock Gospel Album category.
Swartzendruber said hip-hop is also becoming a regular presence on Christian radio music charts.
"Christian radio, that's prett
y conservative music
targeting a white audience," said Swartzendruber. "So that's just another sign of its growing popularity."
In the Bay Area, one group uses gospel rap on the streets to reach out to drug dealers and gangbangers.
T
urf Ministries holds stage shows on the back of a truck on some of the toughest street corners in San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond to reach at-risk youth who would never think of setting foot in a church.
For some young people, like Andrew Allen, 17, and Dominique Brown, 17, both of Oakland, gospel rap provides an alternative to mainstream rap, which they say concentrates too much on guns and drugs.
"I talk to people on the Internet in, like, gospel chat rooms. There's a whole lotta people who are really into it," said Brown.
Allen said that gospel rap music has improved. "Now that it's getting bigger, it sounds better," said Allen. "The musical content and the lyrics are better."
Allen and Brown themselves have formed a rap duo called D.
A. Sciples, and perform in
front of the Church of Jesus Our Lord congregation.
They hope their music is embraced outside the church, too. Some of their peers who still prefer traditional hip-hop
are skeptical.
"They look at it, and they're kinda shocked," said Allen.
"You catch a little heat for it," Brown added with a smile
