Meet LCM missionaries Olly Sherwood – Missionary in the Lewisham team, and Simon Knightly – Missionary Team Leader in Croydon, popularly known by their stage names King Jims and Si Knightly.
Music for them is an extension of the work they do as missionaries. “I remember this saying,” says Olly, “you talk about what you love and I think naturally that comes out in the music. I can't help but talk about Jesus, it's who I'm passionate about and it's why I live. So, I want to communicate that in music to encourage other Christians, but also hope that people might feel inquisitive when they listen to the music, and ask, “why is this guy talking about Jesus?” and maybe the Lord might use it to bring someone to him”
Here is an excerpt from our interview with them – you can watch the full conversation here.
Olly: I’ve found it's been a great tool to use in communicating the gospel at times. My ministry exists quite a lot in prison. I remember the first time that I'd actually shared a spoken word/acapella rap in prison. A lot of the men were really encouraged by it. I remember one guy got released from prison about a year later and he saw me and he's said “Oh, you came in and you did a rap that time” and it made me think how impactful that is, that someone would remember something like that, because maybe it's a bit different.
They don't always get someone coming in, maybe especially to lead a church service that will communicate through the artistry of music. So that really spoke to me on how that can connect with people, engage with them more and create intrigue.
Simon: When I come alongside churches as they visit their community, we meet people in their homes, doing door to door ministry, often music is one of those subjects that comes up. I remember one time I was chatting to this guy and he was a rapper himself and he just started rapping to me, he just broke into it in the conversation. So, then I just rapped the gospel back to him. It's interesting how that can be a common ground.
Olly: Oftentimes people connect with music that relates to them. And I think that the gospel can be something that maybe many don't relate to, but we can weave it into everyday life and into the themes of life Often what people don't understand can create intrigue as well. Rap allows us to communicate the truths of the gospel in a way that might draw people in to access it where they might not have done before.
I remember the Lord used music for me to come to faith. I was in Brazil and the guy that was communicating the gospel with me showed me Guvna B, this was in 2012. I didn't even know this stuff existed. Then it was someone who worked with LCM at the time and also rapped, I connected with his music, messaged him on Instagram and he said, ‘can I meet up with you?’ We ended up meeting up. I can't share my testimony without sharing about how Christian rap connected with me. Then the Lord used him to bring me here to LCM today. So it's massive. It impacted me.
Simon: One of the themes that I want to constantly bring out, is the faithfulness of God. As we go through life, we're constantly reliant on the grace of God and it's God's faithfulness that picks us up every time. The knowledge and assurance of his forgiveness and that he's going to be journeying with us through life. I like the idea of the faithfulness of God is like a banner that flies over our lives.
Olly: Recently the kind of things that I've writing about is fighting against sin, fighting for the assurance of faith and trusting in the gospel. I've been quite inspired by the Psalms. I think there's quite a big portion of the Psalms that addresses lamentation and depression. Yet it's not separate from faith. A lot of times when the psalmist is saying “Lord, where are you? Have you forsaken me?” But yet at the end will say “I will trust in you, Lord.“
Often in music and just in general we separate those themes like here's where we praise, here's where we worship God and here's when we just feel sorrowful and disconnected. But I think we can express great faith through such times. And so I've wanted to express that in music, to encourage people who go through challenging times as we all do, living in a broken world, to say actually, this is where we can really express faith, and this is where faith can grow. What is faith if we only praise when it's easy? So a lot of my more recent songs have had a melancholic feel, but still full of praise as well.
Simon: It's such an important message for our culture, because the world is always screaming to us it's about your strength, and conversely, to be weak is not something that you should be proud of. You've got to show strength in every situation and rely on yourself to get yourself through. And of course, the phrase ‘power in weakness’ comes from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.
And he's talking about his own struggles, this thorn in his flesh. ”Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9) And that's the theme. Therefore, we're not going to boast in the strength that we don't have. Actually, we're boosting in our weaknesses because God's glory comes through us.
Olly: A few years ago, a guy reached out to me saying that he was listening to my music, he was about to shoot up heroin, then my song came on and he threw away the needle! And I remember that being really encouraging to me to know that my music could make an impact in that way.
Simon: I got a message from a guy in America, he was listening to ‘Third Day’, a track about Jesus’ resurrection and he said he was so inspired by hearing about Jesus in this track that it made him want to be a better husband.
He said “life has been really tough, I've just been convicted that I've not been taking care of my wife and my family the way I want to, and I look to Jesus and listening to your music has enabled me to look at him again to be a better husband.” And that just really humbled me.
Watch the full interview below:
LCM shares the gospel alongside the local church of London, equipping everyday Christians to lovingly bring a message of hope in Christ to those least likely to hear it.
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