Kanye West likes to be unpredictable,
whether it’s with his music, his political
views or his faith. And his latest project,
Sunday Service, held each week in the
outdoors near Los Angeles, has proved just
as intriguing.
While it’s called Sunday Service, as a
highly exclusive invitation-only event, it’s
been hard for outside observers to discern
how Christian the meetings are or the
extent to which they follow a traditional
church service.
Snippets posted to social media by his wife
Kim Kardashian-West and other members
of her reality TV-famous family have
revealed a lot of energetic singing led by
Kanye and an accompanying gospel choir.
Kim has in the past described the event as
a ” spiritual Christian experience ” but also
made clear that the idea was not to copy a
typical church service.
In an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
earlier this year, Kim confirmed that the
emphasis was on getting together and
connecting over music; there was no
preaching involved.
“There’s actually no praying, there’s no
sermon, there’s no word; it’s just music,”
she said.
Her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, a regular
at Hillsong Church, also confirmed that it
was “Christian” and that one of the songs
they often sing is Kanye’s “Jesus Walks”,
from his 2004 album The College Dropout .
Months after Sunday Service launched,
Kanye offered some more clarification in
the final episode of season 16 of Keeping
up with the Kardashians, in which he
revealed that his idea was to make a
church.
“I had the idea of making a church before
but I really was sketching it out. Then in
2019, I was like I’m not letting a Sunday go
by without making this,” he said.
Now it seems like the event has taken a
step closer to being a church service by
inviting celebrity pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr –
the man who wed Kim and Kanye in 2014 –
to preach at the latest Sunday Service.
Kourtney posted a photo of herself with
Rich standing on the rock where he later
talked to the crowd about the close
relationship between Jesus and his
disciples.
A clip of his sermon was shared by
Kourtney via Instagram Stories in which he
took inspiration from John 14:1, in which
Jesus tells his followers not to let their
hearts be troubled but to trust in God and in
him.
“Try to imagine for a moment, He knows
He’s going to die and here He is with his
best friends, his circle of friends,” he said.
He went on to ask those present to “check
their circle” as this was the place they
could draw strength from for everything
else in their lives.
“You’re in the right circle today … I don’t
know what the rest of the week looks like
but today on this Sunday, you’re in a place
full of grace, a place full of faith and you’re
connected to something bigger,” he said.
“Here’s Jesus with His circle and when
they should be comforting Him, notice what
He’s doing, He’s comforting them.”
Kim also talked about the development of
Sunday Service in the season 16 finale and
how rapidly it has grown from the original
vision of an intimate gathering.
“I think the intention was always for it to be
this smaller experience but then when I
was posting pics online everyone really
liked to see what was going on,” she said
in the episode.
“So Kanye is going to continue this and
hopefully have it grow and become a really
big experience.”
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