Former Gangster Now Serves as Pastor at Michigan Church

Troy Evans never thought he’d end up in church, let alone be a pastor.

The former gangster and current pastor of The Edge Urban Fellowship in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has lived a dramatic life. A school dropout by seventh grade, Evans helped start a gang, which led to selling drugs and organized crime. By age 20, he’d acted as the leader for 70 men in his gang, and served time in jail after a drug bust.

He assisted in starting another gang and then left town when his former gang began hunting for him. His next stop landed him in Georgia where he worked as a bodyguard for an East Coast hustler. Through a course of events, Evans (pictured) became homeless, living briefly in a U-Haul truck in North Carolina. Eventually he traveled back to Michigan, where his gang gave him an honorable discharge.

Life Changes

That’s when his life began to change–for the better. A woman he knew convinced him to attend church.

“It was a miracle that I met her,” says Evans, an African-American who needed convincing that Jesus wasn’t the God of just the “white man.” Ironically, Evans accepted Christ in 1996 after hearing a Caucasian pastor preach. A new man, Evans soon returned to the inner city, where he says “God began to send people to teach me how to do things like read. People began showing me that I was worth spending time with.”

He eventually learned to read and then went on to work as an engineer, making a six-figure salary. After many years of working secular jobs, Evans, a husband and father of four, sensed God moving him to serve in full-time ministry. His wife of 14 years, LaDawn, is that woman who convinced him to initially attend church. 

Now a Pastor

Years later, he serves as the lead pastor of The Edge, Michigan’s first hip-hop church. “Edge” is an acronym for evangelism, discipleship, spiritual growth, and empowerment to communicate the gospel through hip-hop culture. The Edge launched in September 2009 and is a church plant of Kentwood Community Church, a Wesleyan church in Kentwood, Mich. A former photography studio has been renovated to house this new church in a neighborhood where prostitution, drug use, and gang activity are prevalent.

Hip-hop music saw its beginnings in the early 1970’s with roots stemming from West African and African-American music. Church services at The Edge are held on Saturday evenings and are referred to as “sessions,” a term based on hip-hop recording sessions.

When asked by MLive.com, an online newspaper, what hip-hop church looks like, Pastor Evans described it as “multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and multi-cultural.” He recognizes that the hip-hop subculture transcends ethnicities and racial barriers, whether Caucasian, Chinese, African-American or Latino, and sees importance in making the gospel known in the church’s neighborhood in Grand Rapids–without cheapening the beauty, purity, and depth of the message.

“We’re taking the gospel of Jesus Christ and making it relevant to the hip-hop culture using the music, style, and decorations conducive to the worship style of people in the hip-hop culture,” said Evans, in an interview with RapidGrowth.com.  

Changed Lives of All Types

Since its initial launch, more than 150 people have experienced a changed life by accepting Christ. And the congregation is diverse–full of white professionals, families, Latinos, African-Americans or senior citizens who have caught the vision for ministry, as well as pimps, gang members, and prostitutes who hit rock bottom and found that hope is born through Jesus Christ. Small groups have formed giving ample opportunities for relationship-building and deeper spiritual growth.

“Everyone is accepted, a ‘come as you are’ mentality,” says Evans. “People come and stay because it’s authentic, and they can relate to the personal struggles.”

Even the struggles of their pastor.

“Daily I am reminded of the mess I was before I received Jesus in my heart as I look at the lives that have been changed through The Edge,” states Evans.