Liz Hoffman
There is a group of young men gathered
at mid-court, and there is a basketball. From a distance, it looks like
the start of any other pickup game, when players jockey for position at
center court to await the tip-off.
But this is not
kind of basketball that the court at the Anthony Perkins Community
Center usually sees. There is no jersey tugging, elbow nudging or trash
talking.
Instead, the young men are praying
Then their heads lift, eyes open, and one young player takes the ball
to the top of the key and checks it in. On the first play, he drives
sharply down the lane and scores with a strong post-up move.
This scene played out this summer, as it did each of the past six
summers, at the weekly games of the Christian Basketball League.
Shepherded by a local hip-hop producer and a collection of area
churches, the league is Boston’s hip-hop-infused chapter of a
nationwide movement that has grown in popularity in the past decade:
basketball ministries.
“It’s almost like a language barrier,” said Alvin Lewis, president of
the Focus Entertainment Group, a Roxbury-based production company for
Christian hip-hop artists, and the league’s founder. “If I’m talking to
someone who speaks Spanish, we won’t get too much out of it, but if I
know some Spanish and he knows some English, we can communicate.
“It’s the same thing with us talking to young people about faith,” he
continued. “The music and the basketball give us a common vocabulary.”
Headed by a joint effort of Focus Entertainment and the House of
Deliverance Church of God in Dorchester, the league has brought
together area youth in competition, brotherhood and prayer for six
years.
Lewis founded the league in 2001 and was recognized for his work that
year with a “Hidden Heroes” award from the City of Boston. He says that
his league creates a place for teens to find God, and for God to find
them, at the intersection of music, ministry and basketball.
“Bringing the three together creates an atmosphere for our kids to be
influenced through religion,” said David Edwards, a 21-year-old
Arlington native who has been involved with the league as a player and
a coach since its inception. “We use basketball like a fishing net to
bring them in, and Christian hip-hop puts a whole new twist on
something they already know. By combining them, we’re able to bring a
message to these teens that they otherwise might not respond to.”
The Christian Basketball League is part of a growing trend that is
changing American ministry. While the hip-hop element that Focus
Entertainment brings is unique to Roxbury, there are thousands of
Christian-influenced basketball leagues, camps and church-based groups
across the country.
Brent Fuqua, 41, is the founder and director of Hoops of Hope
Basketball Ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colo. He is also an
ordained pastor.
“As a minister, you want to go where people are already and make a
connection there,” said Fuqua, who worked with Athletes in Action, a
nationally recognized sports-based ministry, for five years before
founding Hoops of Hope in February of 1996. “Where people already are
is sports, so that’s where we go.”
That’s a lesson Lewis knows well. A Roxbury native, Lewis grew up
playing basketball in a town league in Stoughton and knows the role of
the sport in black culture and in the lives of the area’s youth. He
feels that adding the new element of Christian hip-hop to his own
ministry makes it a better fit in Roxbury and neighboring areas.
“You walk down the street in certain neighborhoods around here and you
see kids playing pickup [ball],” he said. “The music is blaring while
they’re playing, and it’s always hip-hop. It’s something that’s
uniquely ours and it’s a way of communicating within the black
community.”
As such, the league’s games are all played with a hip-hop soundtrack
pulsing in the background to introduce teens to a spiritual message
wrapped in backbeats and verses.
“Hip-hop just reaches the guys,” said Wesy Gallimore, 37, who has been
a coach, player and referee since the league’s inception. “A lot of
them don’t know anything but hip-hop and won’t listen to anything else
but hip-hop. They hear the beat and they start realizing that the beat
is good, but the lyrics are about God.”
According to Lewis, the league’s religious aspect isn’t really about
just promoting Christianity; it’s a way to impress upon kids the
importance of social compassion, spirituality and community strength.
“It’s more about putting the ministry and everything it can teach us
out on the streets,” he said. “It’s not limited to one faith and it’s
not limited to Sundays; we’re concerned with what you do the rest of
the week, too.”
Teen players are invited to church functions several times a month,
part of an effort by the league’s coaches and older ballers to carve a
more direct path to worship for the youngsters. Some go and some don’t,
said Gallimore, but all are welcome.
“A lot of people around here, they try their hardest to have a
connection with God, but they don’t always know where to start,” said
Vanessa Lewis, Alvin’s niece, who helped out in the early years of the
league. “I’ve seen a lot of team players also begin to go to church on
their own, just from the experience of playing [in the league].”
With his league having wrapped up its sixth year this fall, Lewis
believes it is filling an important role in the community. By infusing
the street-level appeal of basketball and hip-hop with the message of
the ministry, the Christian Basketball League is creating a positive
message in a language that the community can understand.
“We’re looking to project a more positive outlook in what’s happening
nowadays in the Boston area, and especially with the African American
community,” Lewis said. “We want to show that even though we have a lot
of negative things happening, with crime or poverty or whatever it is
on a particular day, there are still positive things happening around
the area.”
