My office shakes to the beat of a hip-hop groove. I hear voices rapping indistinctly. I know that The Spot, an after school hangout affiliated with Circle of Hope Brethren in Christ Church through the work of Brotherly Love Urban Youth Services, has opened. So I head downstairs to see today’s contest. Ten African-American teenage boys stand in a semicircle at the front of the room waiting their turn to compete before a panel of their peers. Others crowd into the room, cheering and jeering. Three little kids play a video game in the corner, children of the teenagers present.

They compete in a round robin style tournament. Two rappers battle, and the judges decide who will move on to the next round. As I enter the room, the boys known as Tek and Shug compete. Tek is the crowd favorite, and seems to be the better rapper. But the judges vote for Shug. The room explodes. Tek throws his bag down, cursing everyone in sight. I wonder if we are in danger. I look to Kariem, The Spot

Coordinator, and see his calm restoring order to the room. Even as he demands that Tek leave for the day, he is able to reassure that he cares for this boy, and that he looks forward to seeing him tomorrow. Tek heads out the door, frustrated but talking about the next competition.

This is my church. And my church is global. We are in the midst of expanding our boundaries. Circle of Hope Brethren in Christ Church began seven years ago, and became the church of the next generation in Philadelphia. It has struggled to be a diverse church, representative of both white people and people of color in Philadelphia.

Through The Spot and the work of Brotherly Love we are meeting the next generation of African-American teenagers in Germantown, northwest Philadelphia. And these teenagers are attending our evening worship service in Germantown on Sundays. We are trying to do this without scaring them off with our whiteness. We have found leaders like Kariem who are people of color, leaders who share similar life experiences with these kids. They can also act as a bridge to bring us together in worship and in life. Often when we try to support a global initiative, one that goes beyond our cultural understanding, we as the dominant (western or white) force attempt to maintain the status quo. It is difficult to give leadership to those who are new and different. It is difficult to encourage newcomers to share their ideas, which will inevitably change what we have created. But if we don’t give these strangers opportunity to lead, they will always be strangers to us.

Kariem leads one of our cells. The cells meet weekly, gathering a small group of people together to be with Jesus and each other. Each cell hopes to grow, bringing more people together until they are large enough to support two groups. Like the cells of an organism, our cells then multiply. In order to do this, each cell has a leader and an apprentice, someone who is learning the ropes of leadership so that they can lead their own cell when they multiply. Tek is Kariem’s apprentice.

Tek is new and different. He is young, loud and passionate. He is the voice of the next generation in Germantown. He loves Jesus. But he approaches Him in ways that are foreign to us. Because of Tek and his friends, rapping and spoken word have been incorporated into worship in Germantown. The room has been set up in a coffeehouse style, so that teenagers who may not be comfortable walking into a formal sanctuary will feel comfortable entering in.

The Spot and the Germantown worship service continue to grow because we are dedicated to building relationships with these teenagers. We are not here to tell them how to live their lives without understanding what their lives are all about. We are not here to tell them they need Jesus, only to turn our backs on them when they need Jesus most.

Instead, we are here to love and to learn from them. We are here when they vent with rage after losing a rap contest. We are here as they grow into the church’s next leaders.

It would have been easy to keep growing without including all of our neighbors. But if we can’t be Jesus to those in our city, how can we go to Venezuela and be Jesus for a week or a year there? If we can’t love the youth on our block, how can we be honest about loving those who are just like us year after

WELCOME