Hip-hop, hooray, and hallelujah: A case study of a hip-hop church in an American city

Since the late 1990s, hip-hop-inspired worship experiences have gained popularity in many churches in the United States. Self-proclaimed hip-hop churches differ by centering hip-hop culture beyond its beats and rhymes. Not much is known about hip-hop churches’ beliefs, values, and practices or how they compare to churches that do not identify themselves with this label. Drawing from participant observations and interviews with church leadership, this study explores a self-identified hip-hop church in a major American city. Focusing on how worship services are organized, I find that church leaders share key beliefs or institutional logics about hip-hop’s compatibility with Christianity and its significance for youth-centered religious spaces that shape their practices and recruitment strategies. These findings highlight hip-hop’s embeddedness in the organizational culture of this church and the potential for the institutionalization of a novel congregational model informed by a positive evaluation of hip-hop’s cultural values.