Tupac once said to a group from an older generation, "What I want you to take seriously is what we have to do for the youth because we comin up in a totally different world...I'm sorry, but you can't be more offended of my language than what's going on out here in the hood."
Kanye and Jay-Z, along with Frank Ocean, famously sang, "No church in the wild."
Too many churches are fortresses playing it safe, removed from the "wild" of the real world. In his book, "The Soul of Hip Hop," Daniel White Hodge argues that we need a "NIT-GRIT HOOD THEOLOGY." Nit-grit hood theology doesn't accept easy answers. It gets at the "real issues no one wants to discuss."
"The simple "sinner's prayer" is out because while I may be "saved" and feel tingly inside, if I live in the 'hood, the reality is that I still need to eat, sleep, love, and live in this place where I can grow in Christ. Nit-grit 'hood theology promises that we are with you--through the good, the relapses, the failures, the successes, the backsliding and the getting back up. This type of theology is designed for a lifetime and not just a program." (147)
This strikes at the essence of Embrace's value: Gritty Christ-Followers. Our goal is to be in the wild where life happens.
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