“Church In The Wild” is a new, web-based interview and teaching series filmed, edited, and produced by Houston rapper Albert Archie.
I recently caught up with the Christian MC via e-mail to discuss the project, find out how much hip hop plays a part in it, and to ask about the brawling housewives missing from his reality show.
Sketch: What sparked the idea for your new “Church In the Wild” web-series? Was it the Kanye West and Jay-Z’s song of a similar name from “Watch the Throne?”
Archie: I’ve gotten a lot of questions about that. The truth is I’ve always been involved in video production and a while back I had an idea to start up a reality series that was geared around doing exactly what I’m doing right now. Though I didn’t have a creative name yet, the idea and vision has been in me for a long time. Then when I started to put the vision into motion my eyes were turned towards the Watch The Throne project and one of the songs titled “No Church In The Wild.”
That song title seems to say that the Church (meaning: Christians) aren’t in the “wild” (meaning: amongst non-believers) I saw it as an excellent opportunity to combat that and show that Christians are called to amongst non-believers, loving on them, and shining the light of Jesus to them.
Sketch: You’re calling your new “Church In the Wild” web-series a “reality show” but I didn’t see any housewives having drunken brawls or anyone getting eliminated at the end of each episode. What gives?
Archie: It’s funny you ask that, I actually had it planned in the near future to hire a couple woman I know from down the street to grab a couple of Louisville Sluggers and go at it like there’s no tomorrow. On top of that, I think on some of the episodes we can squeeze in some college people “partying like its 1999.”
Just kidding! But in all seriousness and jokes aside, reality by definition is “The state or quality of being real” and I think it’s safe to say that a lot of “reality” shows that come on TV aren’t actually reality at all.
I think there is nothing more real than going to a random place catching someone of guard and asking them their thoughts and beliefs on a specific topic and have them give you a straight up answer.
Sketch: You’re currently five episodes in, but how long do you think this will continue? Are you looking to find a way to get it on television? If so, how?
Archie: That’s a good question. I’ve been really debating on how long this will go.
I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. I figure there are always topics that people want to give their opinion about and even more so, there are always misconceptions that people have or sometimes they just don’t understand about the Bible. So with that, there is always going to be the possibility of having an episode of CITW to be able to answer that question.
As far a broadcast TV, I honestly never thought about that. I’m not necessarily shooting for that, but if the opportunity opens up, I think it would be a huge way to push the point of the series and make it more informative to people on a much larger scale.
Sketch: How does hip hop culture play a part in the show?
Archie: The hip hop culture not only plays a part in the show because I’m a hip hop artist, but also because I think that the hip hop culture can be very naive to a lot of things that take place. And then in the Christian hip hop community it can be so easy to get involved into that community and not really understand any type of theology or doctrine.
This is geared to be so informative on what scripture says about specific topics that involve the hip hop community and regular everyday life as well.
Also as Christians, we should never allow ourselves to be caught in a “Christian Bubble” to where we don’t understand anything that anyone else believes. One of the best ways to reach our culture is to know where they are at.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying know where the culture’s at in order to conform into what the culture is doing – that would be unbiblical. But, I am saying that we need to understand where the culture is coming from so that we will be enabled to reach our culture better.
Sketch: What’s been your favorite experience or response so far?
Archie: This reality series “Church In The Wild” kills about seven birds with one stone for me.
A few birds that this Goliath size stone kills are the obvious: it opens the door for people to be able to see the truth about what scripture says about Christians, Jesus, and how we are called to live as believers in Jesus.
A lot of times people can have skewed views about Jesus because they’ve only heard about him from another person and perhaps have never actually heard about him from the Bible. Also, it allows believers in Jesus to see how people who don’t believe in Jesus believe in order for Christians to be able to reach out to our culture.
Now, a couple of the feathered friends who have been hit with these stones that people don’t really get to see is the fact that I get to build and work with other believers as I prepare each episode. Talking and getting to know them is such a joy to me.
I strategically wanted to have a different person featured on each episode to illustrate that this show isn’t all about Archie and that I am not the only believer who has a heart for the world and for making clear what scripture says about certain topics. But this also really lets me put in work alongside other people that are fighting in the Kingdom as well.
Like I’ve said in some of the episodes; I am not a guru, nor do I claim to know all the answers. I just know that the Bible does. That’s why I encourage people to dive into the scripture for themselves as well.
Finally, it’s also fun to just get out and interact with people. Everyone has an opinion and its really cool seeing how they long to express their opinions.
To learn more about Archie view other episodes of the show visit www.churchinthewild.net
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