Pastor, Christian rapper reaches Hip-hop culture

Jim VenemanBP

Epiphany Fellowship Church teaching pastor William Branch, standing left, and pastor Eric Mase, standing right, assist in serving the elements of the Lord’s Supper – a weekly observance at the Philadelphia church.

PHILADELPHIA (BP) — As teaching pastor of Epiphany Fellowship Church in inner-city Philadelphia, William “Duce” Branch also is a Christian rap artist. The group he co-founded, The Cross Movement, has received two Grammy nominations.

Today’s teaching pastor, however, was yesterday’s street kid. Away from God most of his teen years, Branch abandoned the evils of Hip-hop culture but not the call to evangelize it.

“Hip-hop was the primary social influencer of my generation,” Branch told Baptist Press. “I wanted to have the faith of my father, but also the social connection of what was going on in that day.”

Regarding his conversion to Christ as a child, Branch credits his father, a single parent, who was “discipled by white, evangelical, conservative Christians. That gave me a solid theological framework. But it didn’t teach me how to intelligently wrestle the issues of faith and culture.

“You know, you’re handed Christian culture, or subculture. And basically that’s somebody else’s version of it,” Branch said. “You’re not taught to reconcile faith and culture, normally.”

The faith of his father did become more his own as Branch studied his way to a bachelor’s degree at Lancaster (Pa.) Bible College and a master’s degree at Dallas Theological Seminary. But some of his African American street roots never left, enabling Branch to successfully blend biblical lyrics with rap music.

“Some Christians don’t feel it’s a crime to be ignorant of Hip-hop, even though we’re in a world where it’s having a major impact on the new generation. Outside of that small world the globe is talking about Hip-hop,” said Branch, citing the genre’s global following.

“Hip-hop has more theological implications than people realize, too,” said Branch, whose master’s thesis was titled “Theological Implications of Hip-hop Culture.” Branch – who is known in the Christian rap world as “The Ambassador” – used the content of his thesis as creative material for his latest CD, “The Thesis.”

“I want to hit the culture through two primary means,” Branch said: “The church pulpit and then the mic as a pulpit [through Christian rap music].”

Branch’s vision for Epiphany Fellowship, where he is co-pastor with Eric Mase – another Dallas Theological Seminary graduate who is pursuing a doctorate at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary – began years ago when he came back to Christ. “When I saw the gospel reach a group and make that group feel like they could be accepted by God without changing their hat or changing their hair, I got excited about that mission.”

Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philadelphia reaches a diverse inner-city community through a variety of creative ministries from music and in-depth Bible study to creative praise and worship.

An advocate of the Apostle Paul’s evangelistic tactic of becoming all things to all people, Branch said: “You see me, and then you see [Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas], and you say, ‘You’re both in the pulpit. You’re both black. But you’re different. You look worlds apart.’ Now, the question is this: Is my world bad and his world good? You would have to say, ‘Nahh, because when I heard his view of justification from the Bible, it was the same one that you were sayin’. And yours was the same one the Apostle Paul was sayin’.

“One of my delights is to take truths that were deposited in me, or that I learn on my journey, and make sure that I deliver them to a world that is plugged into the wrong mindset,” Branch said.

The Hip-hop world of Philly and the gospel don’t remain separate. Starting with only nine people about two years ago, Epiphany now attracts nearly 300 every Sunday, half of whom came to Christ for the first time through the church’s ministries.

Citing a series of events and contacts, Branch said the North American Mission Board sponsored Epiphany as part of its Strategic Focus Cities evangelism and church-planting initiative in major U.S. cities.

Both he and Mase say the church is not a Hip-hop church but ministers to those who live or lived in that culture. Branch has performed Christian rap as a ministry at Epiphany only twice.

“Hip-hop is eclipsed by our commitment to the things that unify Christians, and that’s the way we like it, without betraying the fact that Hip-hop culture is one of our primary demographic targets,” Branch said. “We know that Hip-hop won’t be missed because many of us were redeemed out of that social context. A lot of that is still part of us and still shows up, but we subordinate it to winning some to Christ.”