A Grammy, four-time Dove Award and two-time Stellar Award nominee, hip hop artist Flame credits his time at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with strengthening the theology in his chart-topping songs.
Flame — whose actual name is Marcus Gray — was introduced to Southern by happenstance when he and a friend took a road trip from St. Louis for a conference at the seminary in Louisville, Ky. That visit is where Flame met R. Albert Mohler Jr., Southern’s president, who made quite an impression on him.
“We really enjoyed the preliminary session and the breakout sessions, and Dr. Mohler just meshed well with the prospective students, the conference attendees,” Flame said. “[We] got a chance to sit with him, and it was like, ‘Wow. This guy’s really intelligent…. He’s very witty, funny, but focused on Christ and centered around the cross and the Gospel.'”
Little did Flame know that God would pull him back to the seminary.
His wife landed an internship in Louisville during a time when he was trying to further his education. Because his visit to Southern Seminary left such an impression, his wife looked online and suggested Southern’s undergraduate program at Boyce College. So Flame transferred from Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis and moved with his wife to Louisville.
Since graduating from Boyce, Flame has continued his studies at Southern Seminary in biblical counseling. But he has been doing much more than just hitting the books.
Earlier this year, Flame released his sixth rap album, aptly named “The 6th.” In it he uses rap music, which usually is associated with sex, gangs and violence, to teach others about the Gospel.
“It’s my sixth album but it’s also a deeper meaning,” he said. “Obviously God created both male and female on the sixth day…. I wanted to talk about us. It’s really an album focused on anthropology, the study of man, and thinking about our strengths, our weaknesses, our personalities, our flaws, our accomplishments, and ultimately pointing towards God’s original purpose for us.”
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article courtesy of BCNN1.com
