Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies
A Sacred Storm
When God Speaks Through Radical Disruption
Featuring Christopher Michael Jones
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 • 6:30–8:00PM ET • Virtual Event
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A Sacred Storm:
When God Speaks Through Radical Disruption
For those of us who lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, during the 1980s and early 1990s and were not raised in the church, we were unaware of our proximity to prophetic voices like Dr. Gardner C. Taylor at Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Dr. William Augustus Jones Jr. at Bethany Baptist Church, Dr. Sandy F. Ray at Cornerstone Baptist Church or Dr. Johnny Youngblood at St. Paul Baptist Church. Our pastors were Eric B & Rakim, Run-DMC, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, and Public Enemy. Our deacons were the Ultramagnetic MCs, LL Cool J, Audio Two, Stetsasonic, Kool G Rap, and EPMD. Our on-call ministers were N.W.A., Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, and Queen Latifah. Slick & Dougie Fresh were our pastoral counselors. The Dee Jay was our worship host and both the B-Boy and the graffiti artist were our liturgical dancers and scribes.
A Sacred Storm wrestles with the contention that Hip-hop emerged during the late 1970s and early 1980s on the fringe of urban decay as a prophetic response to the death-dealing effects of Ronald Reagan’s voodoo economics. Amid seismic shifts within the urban landscape, young prophetic voices began to arise outside of the reach of the church disrupting the status quo. Through acts of radical disruption, it can be argued, that God used unorthodox and poorly researched prophetic movements both within the genre of Hip-hop, as well as the witness of the church, to orchestrate social transformation within their respective context. As such, elements of faith, religious symbolism, and spirituality in both communities should be reimagined to bridge together a renewed hope and collaborative witness that speaks to the reality of the poor, marginalized, and oppressed who continue to suffer in this present age.
Speaker
An educator, practical theologian, grassroots organizer, published author, magazine columnist, and multi-platinum record producer, Rev. Dr. Christopher Michael Jones currently serves as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Hillside in Hillside, NJ. A true hybrid of Hip-Hop and the Christian Church, Dr. Jones leans into a communication methodology that reaches multiple generations by lovingly keeping it real and making the truth plain through powerful preaching, insightful teaching, lecturing, and creative writing.
Dr. Jones also serves as Faculty Mentor of the inaugural “Builders and Bridgers” Doctor of Ministry Degree Program at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH, where doctoral students are currently engaged in the work studying the correlation between the daily practice of the Ancient Christian spiritual disciplines and how pastors in the post-quarantine era may embark upon newly emerging transformational approaches to organizational leadership, Christian discipleship, and prophetic preaching.
A graduate of Forest Hills High School, Dr. Jones graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University, earned his Master of Divinity Degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and also earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Memphis Theological Seminary with a concentration in Preaching as Pastoral Care in the African American tradition.
Christopher Michael Jones is an educator, pastor, and grassroots organizer, with degrees from Rutgers University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Memphis Theological Seminary, where he focused on preaching as pastoral care.
Jones is also former record producer Chris Large—who collaborated with such artists as the Notorious B.I.G., Nasty Nas, Shaquille O’Neal, and many others. His new book from The Pilgrim Press, A Sacred Storm (2024), is a career memoir and inspirational guide for responding to the radical interruptions of God’s voice in our lives.
Host
Rev. Dr. David G. Latimore serves as the Director for the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. The Betsey Stockton Center brings the exceptional strengths and resources of the seminary to support the prophetic and social justice traditions of the black church. The Center also serves to advance, and be transformed by, theological education that develops and nurtures current and future leaders of black religious institutions and to be a national leader in creating knowledge that addresses, in new and innovative ways, the theological and praxiological issues confronting the communities and constituencies served by the black church.
Rev. Dr. Latimore has over twenty years of pastoral experience. He most recently served as the sixth Senior Pastor of the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has also served as Senior Pastor at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church (Joliet, IL), the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church (Gainesville, FL), the Southern Union Baptist Church (St. Louis, MO), and has also served the First Calvary Baptist Church (Durham, NC) as Senior Associate Minister. Rev. Dr. Latimore was licensed into ministry by Bishop Paul S. Morton at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church (New Orleans, LA).
Rev. Dr. David G. Latimore serves as the Director for the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. The Betsey Stockton Center brings the exceptional strengths and resources of the seminary to support the prophetic and social justice traditions of the black church. The Center also serves to advance, and be transformed by, theological education that develops and nurtures current and future leaders of black religious institutions and to be a national leader in creating knowledge that addresses, in new and innovative ways, the theological and praxiological issues confronting the communities and constituencies served by the black church.
Virtual Participation
Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies
The Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies exists to highlight the theological and religious witness, which arises out of the African American and African Diaspora Christian experience. The Center helps to prepare men and women for vocational ministry or scholarly pursuits shaped by a wider knowledge and deeper appreciation of Black life within American and global Christianity.
The Betsey Stockton Center aspires to be a national leader in research on the Black church through the collaborative creation of scholarship with leading scholars, community leaders, and pastors to address the critical issues confronting clergy, congregants, and communities served by the Black church.