Young pastors like Kenny "KP" Petty are working hard to plant more churches and trying to draw people who have grown up in hip-hop culture where "rap music, gangs, urban clothing, art, poetry, hardship and violence have molded our people."
Petty was a gang member in high school and was shot twice. He went to jail at 19 for attempted murder but was acquitted.
He and co-pastor/rapper Kyle Hubbard are in their fourth year of planting The Gate church in University City, a poor neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, according to the Baptist Press.
Another church in Baden, St. Louis is also set to rise.
"Our environments are so raw and produce such a distinct lifestyle that you can almost sense inauthenticity," explained Petty. "To reach people here you gotta have a real sense of understanding to earn credibility. But the reality is, when out on these streets we need to have full confidence in the power of the Gospel to change people's lives."
While he was in jail, a chaplain challenged him to read Psalm 51 three times a day—and he was moved, eventually leading to a personal transformation.
"Against You and You only have I sinned ... It caused me to cry out for mercy," Petty said.
Petty said he didn't know much about Christianity but after studying and growing, "I began to understand that the church is God's plan for the world."
"I wanted to be part of a church that was biblically sound and culturally relevant," he said, describing hip-hop as a culture that has "produced men who are absent from the home, young pregnancies, women who are raising children alone, drugs, violence, and a sense of hopelessness."
Hubbard said they saw an opportunity to bring the Gospel to people who are "disenfranchised, impoverished, in the hip-hop culture that has hoisted a generation of people living in hopelessness."
Under The Gate's method, there are four community groups, each responsible for a two-block area in University City.
They do prayer walking, talking to residents, identifying ministry needs and letting God work out "divine appointments."
"When they come into our church, our first priority is to get them discipled, teaching them sound theology, challenging them on finishing [high] school, preparing them for job interviews, scheduling, finances. We help the whole man and the same for our women," said Hubbard.
The Gate has purchased a former Lutheran church in the heart of University City. It paid $30,000 for the building. $300,000 is needed for repairs and renovation.
"It's a lot of work," said Petty. "Because of all the Southern Baptist Crossover volunteers who will be helping this year, our church will have the opportunity to solely engage with people and share the Gospel with them."
He added, "We're in this together. We're better together. God wants His body to be united in the faith, and He does this by knitting our hearts together. The Gate is a story of God seeing the Kingdom mind of Southern Baptists."
