I've got to admit, when I initially saw this on the IX Marks blog, I thought it was a joke. Turns out, it's not! Apparently a group of Christian hip hop artists have put together an album based around Mark Dever's Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Let me be quick to say that I think that's a fascinating concept, if unbelievably strange! Even the producers seem to know that it's a bit unusual. Here's their blurb.
We understand both the seemingly controversial nature of "the Church" (especially among the Hip hop contingent), and well as the biblical imperatives concerning the Church's importance. We are simply offering our contribution to the conversation fueled a 9 Marks' book, "What is a healthy church?", written by Mark Dever. 9 Marks is an organization that helps pastors think more biblically about the church through emphasizing key values that the bible ascribes to a healthy church. So along with the Lamp Mode family, we teamed up with Trip Lee, Tedashii, Flame, Evangel, and more, to bring the contents of "What is a healthy church" to the hip-hop community. This is our attempt at communicating that valuable information to, and through, the hip-hop culture.
Track Listing:
1. Take 'em to Church - God's Servant feat. Azriel
2. Expository Preaching - shai linne
3. Conversion - Trip Lee
4. The Good News - Hazakim
5. Membership - Stephen the Levite
6. Words from Mark...
7. Biblical Theology - shai linne
8. Evangelism - Hazakim
9. Leadership - FLAME
10. Words from Thabiti...
11. Church Discipline - Stephen the Levite
12. Discipleship - Tedashii
13. Beautiful Church - Evangel
As I say, strange, but in a really exciting and intriguing kind of way. This isn't an endorsement since I haven't heard it. Truthfully, I really don't know if I'm going to get this or not. If I did, it would be for the novelty factor, though I do hope that those who appreciate hip hop music will find it well-done and edifying. I'll go out on a limb and say I bet it's both, or else IX Marks, a group for whom I have the greatest respect, would not have endorsed it as they have.
So, I don't know: buy it or ponder it or just be aware of it. Stranger things have happened I guess...though probably not many! Ha!