Social media is going crazy after a Baltimore preacher referenced rapper GloRilla in one of his Sunday sermons as he made the connection between the Memphis native’s hit song “Tomorrow” and Psalm 30:5, as an encouragement to hang on for better times surely to come in the future.
The Rev. Melech E.M. Thomas, the 24th senior pastor at the Payne Memorial A.M.E. Church, posted a clip from a recent sermon that he preached called “I’m Tired of Being Perceived!”
He captioned the video post on the X platform on Tuesday, March 5: “Glorilla’s lyrics >>>>.”
“I love good gospel music,” he begins to say in the clip. “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 .. She from Memphis … some of you might know her as ‘GloRilla.”
He continues, “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 youm but you understand that what Big Mama said … ‘Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. [You understand] that every day is not good but as long as I can make it to tomorrow, something can turn around.”
This is a reference to the Psalm verse that says, “For God’s anger endures but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Within a day of the posting of the video, the clip was viewed more than 1.6 million times on his profile.
Pastor Thomas went on to justify why he used the rapper’s lyrics, saying, “I raaaarely post my own sermon clips because I have issues with Black preaching being turned into commodity, but @GloTheofficial ’s music is consistently inspiration and affirming.”
GloRilla a preacher’s kid, reposted the sermon, saying, “PREACH ! Yeah Glo.” He replied with “LOVE YOU, BIG GLO!!! If you’re ever in Baltimore, you got a reserved seat at my church!”
LOVE YOU, BIG GLO!!! If you’re ever in Baltimore, you got a reserved seat at my church! 🙌🏾 https://t.co/A9EIg6qPcq
— Melech. (@MelechThomas) March 6, 2024
Fans also responded. One person suggested using the clip for a new project, writing, “Glo we need a church remix directly from you!!! With this intro big energy stemming from your back story on why you were named and a fire choir!.”
One jokester added, “Look at your neighbor and shout Yea Glo!” Another wrote, “I almost started shouting!”
Yet, not everyone was a fan of Rev. Thomas’ use of the couple of words from the song.
An X user posted a gif of a worried Steve Harvey, writing, “Jesus watching from the rafters Knowing all the lyrics that come before that…and realizing the pastor was bumping that before the sermon.”
Jesus watching from the rafters
— Clark (@TruthinBeing) March 6, 2024
Knowing all the lyrics that come before that…and realizing the pastor was bumping that before the sermon pic.twitter.com/oDPpK7qgCo
“Glorilla is a devil worshiper, she sold her soul and the fact she got the nerve to post this is beyond me. Nothing ‘church’ when her music degrades the black community,” another person posted.
GloRilla is also known for songs like “Blessed,” “Tomorrow 2” remix with Cardi B, and her 2022 breakout hit “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance.
Glorilla is a devil worshiper, she sold her soul and the fact she got the nerve to post this is beyond me. Nothing "church" when her music degrades the black community.
— 〽️ario lewis (@Armondsthoughts) March 6, 2024
With less than a year in his position, the Howard Grad (who also attended the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University to get his Master of Divinity) also shared on social media that this is not the first time that he has used rap lyrics in his sermons.
“The crazy thing about all this is that I’ve been quoting rap lyrics in almost every sermon I’ve preached in the last 17 years,” Thomas posted on X. “Like rap has ALWAYS been a major part of my preaching and my hermeneutic. I actually wanted to be a rapper before I wanted to be a preacher.”
The crazy thing about all this is that I’ve been quoting rap lyrics in almost every sermon I’ve preached in the last 17 years. Like rap has ALWAYS been a major part of my preaching and my hermeneutic. I actually wanted to be a rapper before I wanted to be a preacher.
— Melech. (@MelechThomas) March 6, 2024
He added later, “My first Sunday morning sermon was back in August of 2009 about David and Goliath in I Samuel 17, and my sermon topic was “Ain’t I?”, using Yung LA’s song with Young Dro and TI as my anchor.”
This is not the first person to use GloRilla’s lyrics to preach the gospel — though possibly the first to seriously try and convey a message.
Everyday the sun won't shine, but that's why I love tomorrow
— Bailey, The Scientist 🧪🦠📶 (@TheGreatBailey) February 4, 2024
preach evangelist GloRilla
The Rev. Thomas is not the only preacher to have gone viral for infusing pop culture into their sermon, speaking from their hermeneutical purview and attempting to reach a more secular population.
Bishop William Murphy Jr. was slammed in the media after he played Fast Life Yungstaz’s “Swag Surfin” during his New Year’s Eve Watch Night Service at the Dream Center Church in Atlanta.
One person wrote on social media, “If you wanna club just go to the club. Don’t defile God’s temple.”
Murphy said that he was doing no such thing.
“We’ve had to be very creative in how we engage culture,” he said in an interview after the service, saying that “there was no cursing in our church. There was nothing that desecrated the house of God.”
He further acknowledged that his congregation is multigeneration, but not stuffy, “This is not your grandma’s church.”
