Urban D, Unorthodox CD / DVD
Tommy Kyllonen, also known as Urban D. (Disciple) to his music fans, founded the youth ministry at Tampa, Fla.-based Crossover 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 specifically to reach those influenced by Hip-Hop Culture. Crossover Church became Purpose-Driven in their structure and began to truly engage the culture in their community. Tommy and his team 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 they soon maxed out their former campus doing 3 Sunday services. In January 2010 they sold their former campus and became a portable church meeting at a hotel for 9 months as they continued to grow. In October 2010 they moved into their new 43,000 square foot facility (A former Toys R Us Store) in the inner-city of Tampa. The church has now grown to over 1,000 people. Their Thursday night teen service reaches hundreds more as the new church campus has become a haven for the community youth. Tommy also pioneered an annual Urban Leadership Conference called Fla.vor Fest. Over the past 10 years the event 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. Urban D., has recorded seven solo Hip-Hop albums since 1996 and has traveled across the U.S., Germany, Japan, Africa and England performing and speaking. His latest project "Un.heard" is now available at his website and at itunes and all other digital outlets.His 2007 project covers print, music and film with "Un.orthodox - church.hip-hop.culture" as a book published by Zondervan and a CD/DVD distributed through EMI. The book serves as a great resource for church leaders, parents, and hip-hop fans that want to better learn to engage the culture. The CD features innovative Christ-centered hip-hop and the DVD is a full-length documentary on Crossover's un.orthodox story along with Urban D.'s Un.orthodox music video. In addition to his role as pastor and artist, Tommy's perspective as a Christian leader and pioneer in reaching the Hip-Hop culture has led him to be a featured speaker at more than 50 church leadership, youth and worship conferences and workshops. As a writer he continues to reach the culture through print as he is the publisher of "S.O.U.LMAG" Magazine. Now in it's 17th issue the magazine has become the voice of the Christian Hip-Hop Community in print. Tommy regularly writes for The American Bible Society (Elementz of Life) and several websites. His new book "Next" for urban new believers was recently independently released. Tommy and his wife Lucy and two daughters call Tampa, Florida their home.
- £9.99