Tommy Kyllonen, also known as Urban D. (Disciple) to his music fans, founded the youth ministry at Tampa, Fla.-based Crossover Community Church in 1996. Starting with just four teens, he and his wife developed a first-of-its-kind Hip-Hop Youth Ministry which over the span of six years grew to 200, far outpacing attendance in the main Sunday worship. In January 2002, Tommy became the lead pastor at Crossover and a new vision was birthed to specifically reach the Hip-Hop Culture.
Crossover Community Church became Purpose-Driven in their structure and began to truly engage the culture in their community. Tommy carefully incorporated music, dance, visual arts, media and relevant messages into the worship context and campus without compromising the truth of God’s word. The ministry has seen incredible growth as Crossover’s weekend attendance jumped from 40 to over 400 in less than four years. The youth services reach hundreds more as the church campus has become a haven for the community youth.
Tommy also pioneered an annual Hip-Hop/urban ministries conference called Fla.vor Fest. The event, now in its seventh year, has attracted thousands of pastors, youth pastors, lay leaders and artists from around the world to the musical festival and conference to fellowship, network and get equipped to better reach this culture. Due to the momentum of the three-day conference, The INSP Network filmed the event and concerts and has released two double-disc DVD sets that are available in Christian stores nationwide. Tommy also hosts the “Fla.vor Fest Hip-Hop Series” TV show on INSP that reaches 48 million homes in the U.S.
CONTACT:
Booking: www.urband.org
Radio & Video Service:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Publicity:
Lambert & Edwards and Associates
(616) 233-0500
|
