At the age of eight, Terrance Levi was coloring pictures of Noah's Ark in Sunday School. At the age of twenty-two, however, he found himself deeply involved in organized crime, a lifestyle that would have appalled the Sunday School teachers from his childhood. Working with a circle of crooked professionals earning millions of dollars a year, Levi seemed to have it all: money, women, houses, cars, power and respect. He developed an unnatural appetite for alcohol, women, and money. Frequenting topless bars, nightclubs, and pool halls, his life began falling apart spiraling downward. At his lowest point, Levi had left his wife and kids and narrowly escaped a lengthy prison term.
Levi recounts,
“Then, one evening in October of 1995, I had an encounter with God, that changed my life forever. I have since made myself a slave to letting the world know that God is real and that Jesus Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Raised by the television screen, watching gangster movies and listening to music about hustling and thugging had a powerful impact on my life in a major negative way. I wanted to live the lifestyle of the rich, the famous, and the gangster, which lead me to a life of crime.”
Levi says God delivered him from that lifestyle and saved him from the penitentiary.
“I remember watching a sting operation unfold on the evening news stations and seeing some of my associates being carried away in handcuffs. I remember franticly disposing of anything that would connect me to them, and then sitting on the sofa of my townhome waiting for the police to come for me, but they never did,” says Levi.
He immediately began taking his message to the same streets that he used to hustle in, starting in Houston, TX, and stretching across America.
Levi's ministry began with a service called “Friday Nite Live”, which featured live rap and R&B performances, hip hop dancing, skits, live comedy, a live DJ, strobe lights, and a 20-inch disco ball. Levi headlined the bill with his patented style of ministry, which combined preaching with street slang and inner-city analogies, making for a refreshingly relevant presentation of Scripture. His revolutionary formula for ministry lead to five successful years of Friday Nite Live, speaking and preaching engagements across the country, a weekly TV show and extensive media coverage. Today, Levi has moved on to the next phase of his ministry: the entertainment industry. Explaining why he has taken his ministry in this direction, Levi recalls,
“I asked God one time, 'Why do we Christians have the cheesiest programs on TV?' And He said to me, ‘Well son, why don't you do something about it?’”
And do something about it he has. Levi and his wife Lorie, along with the team at Street Life Worldwide Entertainment Group are giving birth to a new genre of entertainment becoming known as redemptive entertainment - music and movies that relay a message of hope and give solutions to today's societal ills. They also travel the country, conducting seminars, conferences and workshops on how entertainment can be used to initiate positive changes in society.
Levi is a visionary, and his vision is to take the Truth to those who most desperately need it. Levi knows the streets are where he is called to be. He states with passion,
“The streets love us, because we present them with the truth. Jesus loved the streets, and they loved Him for it. Jesus still loves the streets today, so the people love us, because we represent Him today, whether we are preaching, making music or movies, or just hanging out. I’ll always be a gangster. It’s just a part of who I am. I just roll with a different gang, that ain’t into crime and pain”
