Topeka ? A recent Wednesday night found dozens of students flocking again to the Source, a youth ministry of Victory Tabernacle that uses Christian rap and hip-hop music to bring a culturally relevant Gospel to students across Topeka.

Pastor Titus Terry speaks to his teenage congregation about rules for their new facility during opening night at The

The Source, which has meetings for teens at 6 p.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, hadn’t met for the past three months. Its building, which for about 35 years housed the Adam’s Apple music ministry on Saturday nights, was being renovated. But this Wednesday night, the work was done on the small white building – just west of the main church facility- and the Source was open again.

Dennis Terry, whose wife, Rebekah Foster-Terry, is pastor of Victory Tabernacle, looked around the remodeled building and smiled.

“Now you see why we closed the Adam’s Apple,” Terry said. “Us old folks couldn’t cut it anymore, so we turned it over to the young ones.”

His son, Titus Terry, 26, has been youth pastor at Victory Tabernacle the past few years and started the Source. In so doing, he turned the church’s youth ministry on its ear.

The younger Terry isn’t that far removed from the trials and tribulations of teens immersed in the hip-hop culture.

“He went through a period in his life when he struggled with his Christianity,” Dennis Terry said. “He could have gone the other way. But he chose to follow Christ instead.”

Now, he said, his son works with teens to help them avoid some of the pitfalls he experienced when he was their age.

Titus Terry said he doesn’t speak often of his past: of getting shot in the side in a 1998 drive-by shooting that left 17 bullet holes in his car or of drug use as a teen. While saying he is fortunate to be alive, he refuses to flaunt his past.

“I think I’ve only given my testimony about twice since I’ve been youth pastor,” he said. “I don’t drag that out and glorify that.”

Yet, he said, his experiences have helped him relate to youths who are headed down similar paths, even if they don’t know his story.

“I think the messages God gives me are relevant to this culture and this generation,” Terry said. “When they come here, they’re going to get a strong message of Christ.”

Terry said he challenges teens who come to the Source to think twice about messages in the music they listen to or in the shows they watch on networks such as MTV.

He said he doesn’t “get on a soapbox” and point fingers at students, particularly when he said they already know right from wrong.

Instead, he said, he attempts to “show them another way” that leads to a relationship with Christ.

“I know a lot of the kids we have coming here aren’t perfect little angels,” Terry said. “Some of them aren’t saved, and we’re trying to get them there.”

Youths who turn out for the Source each week – many of whom come in church buses and vans – say Terry can speak to them on their terms and relate to what they are going through.

“He tells us about God, but he does it in a way that’s for us – in a way we can interpret,” said Highland Park freshman Jesse Bauer, 15. “I learn about God here and stay out of trouble. It keeps me busy so I’m not out getting in fights and stuff.”

No subject is taboo – Terry has taught on such themes as violence, teen pregnancy, drugs, guns, gangs and rape.

Excitement was thick in the air on a recent Wednesday night as more than 100 students prepared to get their first glimpse of the updated building, which included several large video screens, computer stations, games and a high-octane sound system.

Several of the Source’s 10 adult leaders said there are probably bigger and better youth buildings in town but believe the new facility will be a “stepping stone” to attracting more students.