“Jack of all trades and master of none” does apply to worship and gospel teacher Jackie Hill Perry. She has taken the Christian platform by storm. She speaks passionately about topics like God’s goodness and God and sexuality. She speaks nationally and has been a teacher at Jeanie Allen’s If: Gathering, Passion Conference, and many other venues, speaking powerfully about the gospel and God she loves.
Who Is Jackie Hill Perry?
Jackie Hill Perry is an author, hip-hop artist, teacher, and poet.
As a singer, she has released two albums that combine masterful storytelling with engaging music, bridging the rap and worship genres.
The Art of Joy seeks to unpack and understand the human desire for happiness and where true happiness comes from. The Art of Joy features several other rappers, including John Givez, Braille, Eshon Burgundy, and Natalie Lauren.
In her second album, Crescendo, Perry addresses hard topics of race, gender, social media, and the church with a few hymn lyrics mixed in. Perry says the heart behind this album is “Our lives should be a constant crescendo. We should be growing in love for God and our neighbor. This is really a story about what it’s like to grow.”
She and her husband, Preston Perry, host a podcast called Thirty Minutes with the Perrys, where they discuss God, family, parenting, and the culture surrounding them.
She is also the mother of four kids.
Important Events in Jackie Hill Perry’s Life
Jackie Hill Perry was born in St. Louis and grew up without a father figure in the home. David Daniels of the Washington Post states, “Ms. Hill-Perry says she was sexually abused by a family friend when she was five.” In a Focus on the Family Interview, Perry talks about how her absentee father’s unstable and unreliable love made her define men as untrustworthy, while her mother’s love built in a belief that women are safe and loving.
Around the same time, she experienced gender confusion that had developed into an attraction to women when she turned 17. She became sexually active with her first girlfriend and became a regular at gay clubs and gay pride parades in St. Louis.
In an interview with Matthew Smethurst of The Gospel Coalition, Perry states, “Over a period of six months (from spring 2008 until October 2008), I felt the Lord drawing me. I was beginning to be very convicted about my lifestyle. I never had peace, and I knew ultimately that I would spend an eternity in hell if I didn’t repent.”
In October 2008, Perry walked away from a homosexual lifestyle and began pursuing Christianity.
She left her girlfriend and returned to the church. A year later, she contributed to a spoken word event at P4CM Poetry Conference, where she performed her poem “My Life as a Stud” about her spiritual transformation. At this event, she met fellow poet and wordsmith Preston Perry. She continued to feel less attracted to women and more attracted to Preston, which she attributes to God working in her life. They married in March 2014.
Also in 2014, Perry released The Art of Joy, her first hip-hop record with Humble Beast. She told Rapzilla that Piper’s book Desiring God inspired her project. Perry states in the interview, “It’s pretty much this idea of, I’m playing with two worlds: What does it look like when God is our joy, when God is our satisfaction and what does it look like when he’s not? Oftentimes in the Bible, we see people looking for the things God has in himself in other things.”
She has since written many articles on reconciling issues of homosexuality in Christianity. She is also involved with the Poets in Autumn spoken word group that travels the country, speaking the transforming and transparent truth of the gospel.
In 2018 she released Crescendo. CCM reviewed the album, saying that “with lyrics both confessional and confrontational, Perry’s commitment to share the truth is unflinching and her flawless delivery rises to match the occasion.”
In 2019, she and her husband started their podcast.
10 Quotes by Jackie Hill Perry
1. “I did not fit the mold of what they said a girl was. And so, because I did not fit the mold of what a girl was, naturally, I’m going to think that I must be something other than that. And so, there’s this confusion that I have that was brought about by people teaching me womanhood that did not come from the creator of women, but from culture.” — Focus on the Family interview
2. “Light has a way of welcoming in the truth and letting it put its feet up, which in turn means that everything not like it, though it may invite itself over, can’t get comfortable enough to stay.” ― Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been
3. “The word slave carries a lot of baggage in our culture…The word is used differently here. Jude was not a slave to men, but God- meaning Jude listened to, followed, obeyed, and honored God.” — Jude: Contending for Faith in Today’s Culture
4. “If God is holy, then He can’t sin. If God can’t sin, then He can’t sin against me. If He can’t sin against me, shouldn’t that make Him the most trustworthy being there is?” ― Holier Than Thou: How God’s Holiness Helps Us Trust Him
5. “Our sexuality is not our soul, marriage is not heaven, and singleness is not hell.” ― Gay Girl, Good God
6. “The soil from which all sin grows is unbelief.” ― Holier Than Thou
7. “Just because we are tempted does not mean that we are our temptations.” — Gay Girl, Good God
8. “You have to believe God’s word is true even if it contradicts how your feel.” ― Gay Girl, Good God
9. “May we all be quick to encourage as we are to rebuke.” — The Gospel Coalition
10. “God forbid that you have to wait till judgment to find out who you really are.” — Lifeway Glory event
What Can We Learn from Jackie Hill Perry?
I have followed Jackie Hill Perry on social media for only the last couple of years. Even in that time, I have learned a lot from her story and her passion. From her story and her words, I am reminded that God is still in the business of transforming lives. God is still moving and acting to turn us from sin to the abundant life He desires for us in Him.
Perry’s passion for the Bible and the gospel truths throughout God’s word reignited my love and desire to discover more about God through reading the Bible.
No matter your stance on homosexuality, Perry’s message is more about rooting our identity in whom God says we are and not what the culture says we should be or how we should act. We are not defined by marriage, singleness, race, or socioeconomics but by the loving hand of God, who made us in his image and desires a relationship with us.
I am thankful for God’s transformational work in Perry’s life and look forward to seeing all God wants to do with her in the future. She is worth a follow, for sure.
Books by Jackie Hill Perry
Jackie Hill Perry has written (or, in one case, narrated) the following books:
1. Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been
2. Jude: Contending for the Faith in Today’s Culture
3. Holier than Thou: How God’s Holiness Helps Us Trust Him
4. Audio Bible ESV - Narrated by Jackie Hill Perry
5. Upon Waking: 60 Daily Reflections to Discover Ourselves and the God We Were Made For
She has also contributed essays, introductions, or forewords to the following books.
1. Beautifully Distinct: Conversations with Friends on Faith, Life, and Culture edited by Trillia Newbell
2. When You Pray - Bible Study Book with Video Access: A Study of Six Prayers in the Bible by Kelly Minter, Jackie Hill Perry, Jen Wilkin, Jennifer Rothschild, Jada Edwards, and Kristi McLelland
3. Dangerous Jesus: Why the Only Thing More Risky than Getting Jesus Right Is Getting Jesus Wrong by Kevin “KB” Burgess
4. Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited: Embracing Your Power in Marriage by Dr. Juli Slattery
5. Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life by Jeff Vanderstelt
6. Images and Idols: Creativity for the Christian Life (Reclaiming Creativity) by Thomas J. Terry
7. Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope by Jasmine L. Holmes
Further Reading:
7 Christian Women Poets You Need to Know About
20 Great Books on Christian Music
What Does the Bible Say about Homosexuality?
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Iuliia Burmistrova
You can find out more about Valerie, her books, and her blog at www.valeriefentress.com.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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