Kanye West likes to be unpredictable, whether it's with his music, his political views or his faith. And his latest project, Sunday Service, held each week in the outdoors near Los Angeles, has proved just as intriguing.
While it's called Sunday Service, as a highly exclusive invitation-only event, it's been hard for outside observers to discern how Christian the meetings are or the extent to which they follow a traditional church service.
Snippets posted to social media by his wife Kim Kardashian-West and other members of her reality TV-famous family have revealed a lot of energetic singing led by Kanye and an accompanying gospel choir.
Kim has in the past described the event as a "spiritual Christian experience" but also made clear that the idea was not to copy a typical church service.
In an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" earlier this year, Kim confirmed that the emphasis was on getting together and connecting over music; there was no preaching involved.
"There's actually no praying, there's no sermon, there's no word; it's just music," she said.
Her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, a regular at Hillsong Church, also confirmed that it was "Christian" and that one of the songs they often sing is Kanye's "Jesus Walks", from his 2004 album The College Dropout.
Months after Sunday Service launched, Kanye offered some more clarification in the final episode of season 16 of Keeping up with the Kardashians, in which he revealed that his idea was to make a church.
"I had the idea of making a church before but I really was sketching it out. Then in 2019, I was like I'm not letting a Sunday go by without making this," he said.
Now it seems like the event has taken a step closer to being a church service by inviting celebrity pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr - the man who wed Kim and Kanye in 2014 - to preach at the latest Sunday Service.
Kourtney posted a photo of herself with Rich standing on the rock where he later talked to the crowd about the close relationship between Jesus and his disciples.
A clip of his sermon was shared by Kourtney via Instagram Stories in which he took inspiration from John 14:1, in which Jesus tells his followers not to let their hearts be troubled but to trust in God and in him.
"Try to imagine for a moment, He knows He's going to die and here He is with his best friends, his circle of friends," he said.
He went on to ask those present to "check their circle" as this was the place they could draw strength from for everything else in their lives.
"You're in the right circle today ... I don't know what the rest of the week looks like but today on this Sunday, you're in a place full of grace, a place full of faith and you're connected to something bigger," he said.
"Here's Jesus with His circle and when they should be comforting Him, notice what He's doing, He's comforting them."
Kim also talked about the development of Sunday Service in the season 16 finale and how rapidly it has grown from the original vision of an intimate gathering.
"I think the intention was always for it to be this smaller experience but then when I was posting pics online everyone really liked to see what was going on," she said in the episode.
"So Kanye is going to continue this and hopefully have it grow and become a really big experience."
