CLOSE

Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Over the weekend a church in Watts, California went viral after their praise team performed a routine to JAY-Z‘s The Story of O.J. right before they finished with Tasha CobbsBreak Every Chain (speaking of the Grammy award winning singer, Nicki Minaj will appear on her new album when it’s released later this month.)

You don’t have to know much about the 4:44 release or the song to know that anything by the 47-year-old rapper is likely not appropriate for a church service.

Within minutes of posting the initial video, it was shared over 20,000 times, prompting the church’s Minister of Music leader, John Bernard Jr. to step in respond to the criticism (press play, and click the Facebook icon in the right hand corner to hear the audio).

According to Bernard, the Pastor gave a disclaimer as early as two to three weeks about the upcoming “out of the box” sermon. Additionally, he allegedly let his members know that the praise dance was not going to be “typical”. Bernard also says that using the unedited version was “intentional”.

While I believe that most are all for using real-life inspiration to reach, encourage, nurture and motivate, in this particular case, the edited version could have served the same purpose (if we had any idea of what the sermon was about).

What was interesting to see was the reaction from the gospel community as well as those who don’t regularly go to church. Most felt the same way, the pastor’s judgment call was way off on this one.

Watch the video for the song below.

TELL US: Did this Pastor go too far?

15 Of Our Favorite Voices In Gospel
15 photos

Like TV One on Facebook and be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter.