Dance music and Christianity are sometimes looked at as a strange combination and not seen as something that goes hand in hand due to the negative reputation that the clubbing scene sometimes has. My aim has been to maintain and champion the positives within this industry and scene.
The principal purpose of the DJ workshops is to relate to young people and build relationships with them in a positive and safe environment. It is so important for them to have positive role models, especially in the area of music. It’s all about showing the young people that you have time and patience for them as well as showing God’s love through your own attitude and the art-form of DJ’ing. The young people love having a go on the decks and it really lets them express themselves and helps them develop and improve their own team working skills. The DJ workshops are a useful tool in building their confidence and self esteem as well as being practical, educational, informative and fun!
The DJ workshops are a great way to keep young people motivated and away from negative influences and provide them with an alternative to anti-social behaviour and crime in a format that has street credibility and is meaningful to them.
In particular, I remember this one young person who was getting involved in street crime and from running the DJ workshops in his area it really benefited and encouraged him and led him away from the bad influences he was involved in. He has since then been so keen and eager that he has saved up his allowance and got help from his family members, etc and bought some DJ equipment and now he is DJ’ing at different places in his own community including his own church youth events! It’s really amazing to see that from running a DJ workshop for a couple of hours, it can spark something off in young people and put an interest into their hearts and minds that they didn’t know was already there.