A first-year Bible professor. A Harding University alumnus. A chaplain in the Army and a preacher. Jason Darden is a lot of things \u2014 including even a Christian rapper with his own record label.
\n Going under the name of Teech, Darden turned to Christian hip-hop when a struggling family member invited him to come over and sit while he made music. The family member told Darden that he had a gift. The two put out mixtapes, and soon Darden became a rapper. He did not grow up listening to Christian rap, but rather Run-DMC, LL Cool J and other early pioneers of \u201890s rap. It wasn\u2019t until he began writing hip-hop with a Christian message that he began to reflect on the message he wanted to send in his music.
\n \u201cWhen I started getting into hip-hop, I was like, \u2018What message do people want to hear from me?\u2019\u201d Darden said. \u201cI want to speak truth into that. As I started doing more and more Christian content, I realized that there was some self-expression that was happening in me, like I could tell my faith story and the struggle and the challenges that I have, and I can be more transparent.\u201d
\nDarden teaches his Bible classes with this philosophy and allows students to write their own raps and present them in what he calls a \u201cbar exam\u201d every other Friday.
\n According to class participants, students in Darden\u2019s classes look forward to sharing their thoughts and reflections with their classmates. Not only do the students stay engaged, but peer guides do as well.
\nPeer guides are older students who sit in on freshman Bible classes in order to offer insight and form relationships with the students.
\n Junior Logan Riggs, one of six peer guides for Darden\u2019s classes, said Darden looks to connect everybody with each other in a meaningful way.
\n \u201cMr. Darden is looking for opportunities to connect not only to his students, but also to his peer guides as well,\u201d Riggs said. \u201cHe has three freshman classes, so six peer guides in total, and he brought us to Midnight Oil to discuss his ideas for the upcoming semester, and he also wanted to hear any ideas that we had.\u201d
\n Shawn Daggett, director of the Center for World Missions, met Darden at a summer camp in 2018 and insisted that he apply to teach at Harding. Daggett described Darden as energetic and said he allows his students to express themselves in class, engaging them in the material.
\n\u201cCreativity, I think, is really useful in teaching,\u201d Daggett said. \u201cYou approach things
\ndifferently in the classroom than how they are traditionally done, and I think that\u2019s always appreciated by students as a breath of fresh air.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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