Highlights from Legacy Conference 2010

Highlights from Legacy Conference 2010
Alden Powers, Music Director @Roosevelt Community Church

Last week Jordan (aka Barabbas the Rebel of the Christian hip hop group i65), my wife Melissa and I attended the Legacy Conference in Chicago, Illinois. This was a three-day conference dedicated to equipping people for urban ministry. The conference featured prominent guest speakers like Paul Washer, Francis Chan and Thabiti Anyabwile. It also featured concerts and workshops taught by many of today’s top Christian hip hop artists such as Le Crae and Shai Linne. Here are a few of the highlights from this very informative conference.

Discipling Artists in the Local Church

Lamp Mode recording artist Steven the Levite taught an extensive four-hour workshop on how to minister to rappers, musicians and artists in the local church. Steven discussed some of the reasons why rappers have a difficult time getting plugged into a local church. He stressed the importance of artists getting involved in other ministries in the church that are not as high profile as performing. He also addressed qualifications for rappers to have in order to properly minister.

Compassion Ministry

This workshop focused on what is necessary to have an effective ministry toward the poor and needy. Concepts stressed in this workshop were the importance of the person going into ministry to be prepared spiritually. They must be faithful to the Word of God and spiritually mature. We also discussed what the Bible says about poverty and Godly compassion. We also went over how to effectively evangelize, as well as practical issues to consider when ministering to someone in poverty.

Lamp Mode Concert

Thursday night’s concert featured the music of three artists from the Lamp Mode record label. Steven the Levite mixed spoken word with his unique rapping style. Steven likes to experiment with more complex rhythmical patterns that are rarely heard elsewhere in hip hop. Hazakim, an energetic duo consisting of two Messianic Jewish brothers, followed Steven the Levite. Shai Linne challenged everybody’s assumption of what a hip hop concert is by singing classic hymns along with a beat boxer from the audience!

Cross Movement Concert

Friday night was one of craziest concerts I’ve ever witnessed. Cross Movement artists LeCrae, Thi’sl, Flame and Tedashii rocked the house. All four artists were on the stage at the same time and the energy was explosive. The crowd was jumping, LeCrae poured water on the audience, Thi’sl grabbed a guitar, and the God’s people jumped for joy.

Francis Chan

Friday night Francis spoke very candidly and openly about the need for us to love Jesus more than anything. He challenged us to look into our hearts and see what indwelling sin we are harboring that keeps us from a true, deep relationship with our Lord. Chan told stirring stories about saints all over the world living Godly lives. Hearing about these people such as his grandmother who talks to Jesus all day long, or missionaries in Afghanistan who were nearly killed for their faith convicted Chan to leave his comfortable surroundings in an affluent church and seek a deeper relationship with Christ.

Saturday Inner-City Outreach

The best part about this conference was that after we were fed with some amazing Biblical teaching, we were then sent out and expected to apply our knowledge. The conference adjourned from the comfy confines of the Moody Bible Institute to a low-income neighborhood in Chicago’s west side. The outreach featured Christian rap concerts and food all day long, but while the stage was set up, we were asked to go out into the community and tell people not only about the concert, but also about the good news of the Gospel.

As we walked down some of the poorest streets of Chicago, God worked to open up the hearts of many of the people in the community to hear the Gospel message. We talked to guys getting drunk on their front porch. We talked to grandparents who had lived long enough to see the neighborhood deteriorate. But as we shared the message of hope in the savior Jesus Christ, people were willing to listen and ponder some truths that they had heard for the very first time.

Overall I felt the Legacy Conference greatly helped me grow in understanding how to share the love of Christ in an urban context. I got some great knowledge, met some great people and heard some great music!