BALTIMORE — Delivering the good word has been a passion ofPastor Melech E.M. Thomas for years, but his most recent service is reaching crowds he never expected.
This past Sunday, at the Payne Memorial AME Church in West Baltimore, Thomas connected with his crowd using Memphis rap star Glorilla's lyrics.
"I love good gospel music, and there's this new gospel artist. Some of you might know her, some of you don't. But her name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods. Yes, she is from Memphis. She's from Memphis. Her name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods. Some of you might know her as Glorilla, yes, Gorilla, yes. Well, Glorilla has a song called Tomorrow, and she makes this statement that blesses me. She says every day the sun don't shine, but that's why I love tomorrow. And I'm talking to some people, that life ain't been the kindest to you. But you understand that what Big Momma said all the time was right that weeping may endure for a night, but shortcomings in the morning. That every day is not good. But as long as I can make it to tomorrow, something can turn around. Come on, look at your neighbor and say yeah, Glo," said Thomas during his sermon.
During a sit-down with WMAR, he said it wasn't the first time he'd used hip-hop references during his sermon.
"I love rap, so what happened this Sunday was nothing out of the ordinary for me or for my members. So that's one of the things that blew my mind about everything. Simply because this is so regular for us that my members didn't even bat an eye when I said it because I reference Glorilla, I reference Lil Durk, I reference Jay-Z, and at the same time, I reference James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston. I'm pulling on whatever I can pull on to get the point across. And I think when it comes to this past Sunday, Glorilla, just in general, is extremely inspirational."
He would go on to say that a lot of Glorilla's lyrics are powerful affirmations and that he can tell that she's having a real conversation with herself.
After his service, Thomas went viral.
Complex, XXL Magazine, The Breakfast Club, Nick Cannon, and even Glorilla herself reposted his sermon on their social pages.
PREACH ! Yeah Glo 🗣️ https://t.co/X0VIkp0n6d
— GloRilla 🦍 (@GloTheofficial) March 6, 2024
Thomas says garnering the national attention was a surreal moment for him.
"I will say, out of all the hundreds of sermons I've preached over the last 17 years, I want to say 90 to 95% of them have had some form of [a] rap lyric. Even now, as I'm in my late 30s, it's just what I've done. And so when I started to see all of the retweets before Glo really even saw it, I started seeing all the retweets [and] I was like, whoa, okay. And then when Glo reposted it, I was like, oh, wow, this might be, this might be something that I wasn't expecting."
Although he got the attention, Thomas doesn't preach for fame.
As a child, he wasn't interested in the church. Until a reverend from his younger days told him to attend a youth bible study on a Friday night.
Thomas said the reverend would take popular rap songs and remix them into gospel music. This would be the first time Thomas would have heard anything like that.
"I remember going up to him and telling him, I don't think that's right. I think there has to be a distinction between the sacred and the secular, that God isn't going to use no secular music. And he looked me square in the eyes, and we're good to this day thats my OG, but he looked at me in the eyes and said, I just want you to see, look out there and see how many young people's lives are being changed, folks that are being saved, and folks that are coming into ministry, while we're doing this type of ministry, where we're mixing go-go and rap with our preaching. And that conversation shifted my mind."
With that shift, Thomas has established a routine delivery that can connect with the past and present.
He invites any and everyone to join his church for service on Sundays.
Thomas even invited Glorilla.
"I would love for Glo to come to church. I would love for her to come to church. Our church is in West Baltimore, and I know outside of just the members being welcoming and loving to her, I know my community, [and] our neighborhood would be so excited. In fact, Glorilla, Lil Durk, all of you come on by if you're ever in Baltimore, there's a space for you at Payne Memorial AME Church."
