Not Your Mama's Church
A multi-ethnic movement to reach leaders of the next generation.
Warren Bird
October 1, 2004
Stephen Jean-Marie was born in the West Indies, never knew his father, experienced physical abuse, was kicked out of his home, started selling drugs, and at one point held a gun in his hand, intending to kill himself.
"Cue," as he's known, is also a talented rapper who by the early 1990s was a rising artist with a hit song, a Virgin Records contract, and performing before crowds as large as 60,000.
"I was living large but feeling empty. I started praying to God," he says. A friend invited him to church, where he received Christ, grew in his faith, but became disillusioned, seeing how few African-American churches were reaching his generation.
Another friend invited him to NewSong (www.newsong.net), a church in Irvine, California. "It's real," the friend said. "It's about reaching the next generation." Indeed, the average age is 28. They meet in rented facilities, but that doesn't seem to discourage any of the 2,000 worshipers.
Cue was so impressed that he joined the staff there. Today Cue, 39, is director of a community development corporation focused on Crenshaw, an African-American section of L.A.
An African-Asian-American church
The most unusual dimension of this story is that the church is primarily Asian-American. Senior Pastor David Gibbons, 42, has a Korea-born mother and Irish-American father. While the Asian population is the largest at NewSong, "the white, Hispanic and African-American crowd is growing every year," says Gibbons. "We're committed to being a church that represents the beauty, mystery, and diversity found in God."
NewSong, launched in 1994, was inspired by Psalm 40. "It became clear what the 'new song' was to be for us," Gibbons says, "a multi-ethnic movement that reaches the next generation through ...
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