BRONX, NY (October 30, 2012) – Following two years of recording, the Elements Church, an Evangelical Covenant Church congregation, released its new urban gospel CD last week with a name that people familiar with the denomination’s history will appreciate – Mission Friends.
“I bet the Swedes who laid the groundwork for the Evangelical Covenant Church never thought the term ‘Mission Friends’ would ever be used in this context,” said Peter Chin, a Covenant minister and friend of Elements pastor Efrain Alicea.
“The CD is an urban ministry tool, using urban music, rap, and spoken word to bring the truths of the gospel to light to a dying world,” says Alicea.
The record features the church’s Freedom Worship Team, Alicea, and a collection of other artists, including Urban D, who is known internationally, and several who back a variety of performers.
Alicea (aka Brother E.) began rapping in 1993 and formed a ministry called Power & Dominion, recruiting teens from his church and forming a band that ministered in the Tri-State area. He and others from Elements continue to minister in churches, prisons, and at other outreach events. Alicea will rap and speak at Uprock, an urban ministry conference in Australia next month.
The Freedom Worship Team leads worship at the Annual Meeting of the East Coast Conference. They are also planning events with several other Covenant churches in New York City in which they will exchange worship teams.
The CD was released October 21 and can be ordered at the Elements website. Cuts from the album also can be sampled at the website.
