When I Don't Fit in part 1

 This 2-minute Anomaly video describes my life perfectly.




In fact, it described my life so accurately that I actually got emotional. The emotion-evoking part was the way LeCrae vividly described his life with words that sounded like he was describing my life. 

I can relate to LeCrae. I don't fit in. 

I love hip-hop. And I hate hip-hop. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. Not a conservative. Not a liberal.The all-black and the all-white church - neither or which has a scriptural precedence - can both be uncomfortable places for me. 

As I wrote in an article for Rapzilla, it's been an interesting journey for me and some friends to find a church that is eager to embrace the Christians who make their cultural home in hip-hop. 

One comforting thing in all this is knowing that other people feel the same. A few weeks before my wife showed me the LeCrae video, she sent me a blog post by pastor Thabiti Anywabwile on the Gospel Coalition.  Again, I felt like someone was writing about my life. 

Please take the time to read the article and watch the video! 

There are two reasons I think the blog and video hit me so hard. 

1. It was so freeing to know I'm not the only person who feels this way. You may know how you feel, but there's just something about having someone else voice your same concern that comes as a relief. You think, "Maybe I'm not crazy after all." 

2. There is freedom in not fitting inside the box.  When people put you in a box, they expect you to stay inside the box. The problem is I almost suffocated inside of the box. It's hard - actually it's really hard - not to fit in, but there is also a freedom not trying to conform to fit inside the box. 

At the end of the day, I'm learning to be more comfortable with who God has made me to be as He shapes me more and more into the image of His Son. 

I write these blogs to create discussion. What did you think of the Anomaly video, the Anyabwile article or both? 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her blog here), a father to five kids and a freelance writer for Young Life Relationships, HipHopDX.com, JamTheHype.com and other publications. His first book, You're Grounded, was published by Moody Publications last year. You can order the book here. 

5 Thoughts on our Mission Trip to the Bahamas

We're just getting back in the swing of things from what may have been the best week our family has ever had together! It was an amazing trip. 

Quick recap: Emily, all five kids and I helped put on a Young Life Camp for kids in Eleuthera, which is an island in the Bahamas!  

A blog that covered every great thing about the trip would be more like a book, so I'll just pick five of my favorite things about the trip. 

1.  We made the right decision by taking our kids.  

On the plane, a woman said, "You're bringing your kids to the Bahamas? What kind of vacation is that?" Technically, we were on a missions trip, but I understand. Sometimes couples need to get away together. However, what made this trip so special to me was seeing my kids in constant amazement. Doing things like this with a big family is hard. Trust me, we know. We're nowhere close to rich!!!!! If you ever get a chance to do something like that as a family, please go! You will never regret it! 

2. It's impossible to miss the artistry of God! 

On our final full day in the Bahamas, once the Young Life camp was over, the island missionary director Keith Doster told us our goal for Saturday was to enjoy God's creation. The beaches all look like swimming pools with sand bottoms. The scenery is breathtaking. The creativity is God is on full display. It reminds of an old school LeCrae song, "I'm not worrying about changing shoes, my God can change the city sky from grey to blue." 

3. Even Paradise needs the gospel. 

During my club talks to the kids at Young Life camp, I told them how in my first-ever trip tot the Bahamas, one of my college basketball teammates was robbed in Nassau. Even in a picture-perfect place like the Bahamas, there is brokenness. No place, no matter how beautiful, can escape it. The blessed hope is God promised to reconcile all the broken things in this world to Himself through Jesus Christ. 

4. This could be your blog next year. 

There are some really cool short-term and mid-term mission trips where you can serve where in the exact same place where we served.  For all of my friends with Young Life connections, please consider serving in the ministry overseas through Young Life Expeditions. Also, The Eleuthera Bible Training Center has a two-month internship program in June and July for any college-age kids seeking a really challenging and amazing discipleship program. 

5. You can help kids in Staunton have a wonderful week of Young Life camp, too.

Lee High kids - along with other area high schools - head to Young Life Camp at Lake Champion on July 19. We are still signing up kids, and every penny helps. One ongoing fundraiser is that for the next 50 books I sell, 100 percent of the proceeds go to help Lee High kids go to Young Life camp! Books are $10 each! 

This was definitely the highlight of my summer. I would love to hear from you, too! What's been the highlight of your summer so far? 

A Cry for Help: Why the Church Can't Ignore The Hood

"I've seen a lot, except for the face of my father!"

These words, "I've seen a lot except for the face of my  father," haunt me . This song (watch the powerful video above) is from a New Jersey teen named Ahsan. In song form, he pours out his fears about the possibility of becoming the next violent crime statistic.

Pay close attention to the chorus!

"Don't the let the City get me. Don't let the bullets hit me. Don't let the dealers trick me. don't Let the streets win me  ... Don't the corner hold me. Don't let the mother mourn me. Don't let the hood take me down. Don't let me this hood take me under."

As someone who has spent a decade as an urban youth worker, I've watched this scenario play out in the lives of so many kids. As a Christian, I'm praying that this would become an issue that grips all Christ-followers.

Sadly, Ahsan's song was written nearly 20 years after another another New Jersey native penned a similar account. Ironically, the song was entitled, Everything is Gonna Be Alright. (Note: Even the edited video below is graphic. And you can read lyrics here.)



In the song, Naughty by Nature's Treach made it clear that everything would not be all right. The most gripping lyric is when he asks a question and then answers it himself.

"How will I make it? I won't that's how!"  How can that not grip you?

If Jesus is the answer, who is going to tell the people in the hood that He's the answer? How does the church respond to what we see happening in America's inner cities?  If we learn anything from the book of Jonah, the answer is not with apathy.

Most people think Jonah is a book about a whale. The fish is actually a sidebar. The book is actually about a reluctant prophet who didn't share God's compassion for a particular city. Here are four things we learn from the book of Jonah.

1. God has compassion on a "Godless" city. Jonah has one of the strangest endings in the Bible. It closes with God asking Jonah a question.  "And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Despite the city's wickedness, God's heart was to still see Nineveh repent.  As Christians, are we hard-hearted or full of compassion for the cities in America?

2. God rebukes Jonah for loving a plant more than the people of Nineveh. Jonah has a lot of passion. He gets angry a lot in this book. He gets angry when the people of Nineveh repent. He gets mad for God showing kindness to the people of Nineveh. And Jonah is furious when God provides for him a plant for shade and then takes the plant away. God's question to Jonah is "Why do you care more about the plant than the people?" It's not a stretch that God would ask the American evangelical church, "Why do you care more about (fill in the blank) than the people in the city dying without the gospel?"

3. God sends someone to preach God's word to the people of Nineveh. This is why the fish is only a sidebar. Jonah decides he doesn't want to be God's spokesperson in Nineveh, so He runs. The point is that God ordained that His word would be the cure for the problems in Nineveh. And I believe that same Gospel - lived and proclaimed in word, truth and deed - can change our cities, too. Please pray, support, and when appropriate link arms with churches and ministries taking the gospel to the cities.  (Listen here to LeCrae's song "Beautiful Feet" about going to the city with the gospel.)

4. Jesus succeeds where Jonah fails. Jonah ran from God's mission. Jesus ran to it, even when it landed him on a cross. Jonah had no compassion for the people. Jesus cried for the people who where like sheep without a shepherd. Jonah disobeyed God. Jesus never disobeyed God. He lived perfectly. Yet, he substituted Himself on a cross for us, paying for our sins, because He had no sins of His own to pay for. That's the good news that I need, you need, and the hood needs.  Whether you are from the hood, suburbs, or a trailer park, we can all be reconciled to God now.

I write these blogs as conversation starters. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you wrestle through apathy or engaging the plight of the inner-city.

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her blog here), and a father to five crazy kids. Chris has written for The News Leader, VIBE, Rapzilla.com, JamTheHype.com and other publications.  Recently, Moody Published released his first book, entitled You're Grounded, which you can read about here.

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This may change the way you think about church!

Can a two-minute video change the way you think about church?

I sure hope so.

I love this brilliantly simple video entitled The Missional Church ... Simple. Please take two minutes of your day and watch it. The video compares two ways that churches can set out to impact their communities. The ideas posed are worth wrestling through. 

Here are three reasons I tend to favor with the missional approach. 

• Genuine relationships are more important than programs. I grew up in a predominately black Baptist church. To quote Christian hip-hop artist LeCrae, "I was a drug baby. Mama always drug me to church." I knew how to "do church." I knew when to clap. Part of my closet was dedicated to "Sunday clothes." And I knew that fifth Sunday meant fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, greens,  peanuts, multi-colored mints and red soda punch. 

But imagine if you were unfamiliar with "church culture." Or didn't own "church clothes."   Imagine how uncomfortable church would be if you had no clue what was going on in the meeting. That's why I think it's more effective for us to go out in our communities, build genuine friendships, live out the gospel, share the gospel and explain the purpose of the church first rather than asking people to jump through all of those hoops initially.

•  Increasingly, more and more people outside of the Christian faith don't have a close Christian friend. 
  
   

Inside of the church, we have to guard against a musk oxen defense approach. When anything that is not a musk ox approaches a herd of musk oxen, they form an unpenetrable circle to keep the outsiders out. As Christians, we can do the same. 

I read one study that within three years of becoming a Christian, almost all Christians have no friends that aren't Christian. Unknowingly, we become just like musk oxen.

• Christianity isn't a spectator sport. The God of the Bible is a God on a rescue mission setting right what is wrong in the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ. To be a Christ-follower means to be on mission, too. That's not just for the pastor. The biblical picture isn't for the pastor to "reach" everyone in the community. It's for the pastor to equip you and me to both live out and tell the story of God's work in the world. 

I write blogs in hope that they will be conversation starters. I would love to hear your thoughts on how churches engage communities.

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her powerful blog about forgiveness here), and a father to five great kids. He's written for The News Leader, VIBE, HipHopDX.com, Young Life Relationships and many other publications. Moody Publishers recently published his first book, You're Grounded, which you can read about here.