UN-ASSOCIATED was created to help connect today’s youth to who God created them to be, enabling them to strip bare the labels and identities placed upon them by society, family, friends, and ultimately, anyone who is not God. Our Poetry Jam is a pivotal component in helping us to achieve that. It brings together our community, comprised of believers in varying places on their spiritual journey seeking clarity in establishing their identities. It cultivates a space where all, regardless of what walk of life they come from, are welcome and can meet other young people seeking to live a life of freedom through Christ Jesus. It is also an opportunity for the participating poets to share their testimonies, struggles, and triumphs in their pursuit of living a life “un-associated” from the world’s projections and labels, and instead in tune with God’s love, purpose, and will.
Love
As children of God, love is first of our core values. Just as Christ exemplified in his life, we operate out of love always – the love we were created in by God our Father, love for one another as the body of Christ, and most importantly, love for all of God’s creation. Our Poetry Jam gives each poet the license to share their own realization of the depths and meaning of God’s love and how they have come to know and love themselves.
Identity
Identity is the core value at the very foundation of who we are as a ministry and organization. Our annual Poetry Jam gives performers the opportunity to share their journey of liberation away from an identity forged and defined by society and their arrival into an identity masterfully and intentionally created by God. Performers use their poetry as a vehicle to promote and share the new identities they have claimed as children of God as well as the identity and properties of the true and living God that have been revealed to them.
Authenticity
Authenticity is the third of our core values and an intrinsic value upheld by the testimonies of each of our performers. The life of a Christian is not without hardship, trial, or tribulation and we love and worship God not because He promises us a perfect life, but because of His promise that He will be with us always, unto the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:20). Our Poetry Jam creates a rare and liberating platform for our poets to reveal their authentic selves, share what they have overcome and what they still struggle and seek freedom from. They strip themselves bare, allowing all to see their battle wounds in an effort to testify to the grace, power, and love of God.
Truth
Truth is the fourth of our core values and the basis of our faith. In John 8:31-32, Jesus says, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” That truth is the Word of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Out of that truth emanates the liberating fact that “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us,” and our Poetry Jam is an opportunity for our poets to be vulnerable about the ways in which they have conquered that which plagued them through Christ Jesus. It is an environment that affirms the journey of all while grounding us all in the truth of the life, death, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which has set us all free.
Since the birth of this ministry, we have hosted these Poetry Jams knowing how isolating and lonely it can be to navigate the Christian walk as a young person today. It is already hard living in this world that fights every day to tell us who we are, how we should act, and who we should serve. And even after choosing to serve God and declaring Jesus Christ as our Savior, the journey does not necessarily get easier and neither does the pressure from the world to conform. Aware of how difficult it can be to weather the storm of life and the Christian journey alone, our Poetry Jam was created to unite the youth of today. These are youth who are searching for their purpose in this life – youth who are looking for people like them who love God and aren’t ashamed. Additionally, we aim to unite anyone who is looking for answers that they may not have been able to find on their own. Our Poetry Jams are unifying spaces where art, worship, and community intersect. All are welcome and God’s name is praised in the name of Jesus!
