Rapper Canton Jones has grown to become a Christian Hip Hop Icon by bringing his smooth vocals, powerful anthems and worship songs to the ears of the youth for years. Canton has performed in front of millions of people and released countless albums throughout his lucrative career. An award-winning artist, he has been nominated for a Grammy and a Stellar Award, and he has won three Gospel Choice Awards.
Nowadays, Canton is now “Pastor Canton” as he is now the head of Free Life Church in Stockbridge, Ga. as well as one of the stars of the new show “Preachers of Atlanta” on the Oxygen network.
After the controversial Preachers of LA, and the Preachers of Detroit, here comes Atlanta. LA had the flash, but Atlanta has “the new” according to Pastor Jones. “This time around we are all new churches. None of the churches in this series are more than six years old. We all have jobs to pay the bills. One pastor even has a lawn service. Ain’t no Bentley’s being driven here”
This round of preachers include Grammy award winning gospel singer Pastor Le’Andrea Johnson, Pastor Kimberly Jones-Pothier, Pastor Corey Hambrick, and Pastor Judah Swilley. Each is dealing with issues in their lives and at the church.
Pastor Le’Andrea goes to the extreme to reach the lost, dressing as a prostitute and going to the streets, passing out cigarette and condoms, but also sharing the good news of God with them.
As soon as you see Pastor Kimberly, you know she is something different. With her spiked white hair and tutu’s, she certainly commands attention. But the twice divorced pastor preaches acceptance and forgiveness for our mistakes in God’s eyes.
Pastor Cory is a police officer and is trying to bridge the gap between the police officers and the streets. He’s trying to work with one of Pastor Jones’ portage’s who has just been released from prison and feels society is against him.
Pastor Judah is in the process of taking over his father’s church and establishing it as “The Movement”, however, his father’s recent revelation that he is gay has complicated things drastically.
Preachers of Atlanta” offers a fresh perspective on men and women of the cloth determined to meet people in their current circumstances in order to inspire a resurgence of faith.
As for Pastor Jones, there’s a whole lot more going on. He has released a new album that has a deep personal meaning to him: “I Am Justice”
Before you go and grab your “Black Lives Matter” banners, check out the REAL meaning to the album title. “I Am Justice has a long story to it. My wife and I lost a baby in 2014, and God blessed us with another pregnancy in 2015. It was a high risk pregnancy, so I was in constant prayer for the health of this special baby. When he was born, I prayed to the Lord for a name for him. I was given the word ‘Justice’.”
Some of the songs on the album reflect what I was going through at the time, like the song “I Can’t Help It”. That song is about the fact that I was built to praise God no matter what. When things are Bad, I praise God because I can’t help it. When we go through troubles, I praise God because I can’t help it.”
When asked if the album title was also about the recent controversy nationally about police abuse, Paster Jones replied “There is some of that in there, but I don’t go deeply into it. I’d rather the listeners seek God’s Justice. Once you have God’s justice, he’ll take care of everything else.”
The real Preachers of Atlanta airs on Wednesdays at 10pm on the Oxygen network.
Pastor Canton Jones album “I Am Justice is available on Itunes and wherever records are sold.
