Vibe.com, September 2nd, 2004
Photographs by Erin Patrice O'Brien
You've probably heard the buzz about Mase's reentry album, Welcome Back. You've most likely grooved to the set-up single, "Welcome Back," and bopped to the club-shaker "Breathe, Stretch, Shake." But it's a good bet that during the five years he's been preaching down South, you haven't witnessed him in action and shouted, "Amen!"
Five minutes from Interstate 85, on a tree-shaded road near the outskirts of Atlanta, the parking lot of S.A.N.E. Church International has just about reached critical mass. The sticky heat this Sunday morning means nothing to the devout souls who've come to hear the Word.
They fill the main hall in the low, wide building that looks more like a meeting lodge than a traditional church. Soon every seat is full. A closed-circuit A/V hook-up simulcasts from the main hall to the overflow room, which does its best to accommodate the late risers before all its seats are filled as well.
The church-its name an acronym for "Saving a Nation Endangered"-will soon move to brand-new and much bigger digs, complete with a school and related facilities, according to the architectural pen-and-inks hanging on the walls.
The first thing that hits you as you glance around is how young everyone is. Even the "elders," handsome cats with silk ties and beautiful sisters with eyes that smile, can't be more than 32, 33 years old. Young husbands and wives. Young mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
The next thing you'll peep is the dress code. Although a good half of the congregation adheres to the custom of rocking one's Sunday finery, more than a few worshippers have chosen a, let's say, hip hop look: fresh Air Force Ones and striped button-downs, for example. But right in line with the minister of S.A.N.E. Church's decidedly different modus operandi, no one gets a sideways look for dressing down.
Then there are the salvation-minded folks, most of whom are in these seats every Sunday without fail, and they don't care one iota about some rapper named Mase. The man they've come to hear is an older, wiser, and ultimately more serious man they call Pastor Betha.
You'll notice that today's sermon, peppered with many an interpreted Biblical reference to having money, sounds a lot like a spiritual version of Napolean Hill's Think and Grow Rich. "My message is you can live well and you don't have to do all the wrong things," Mase will say later.
To Read The Rest Of This Story, Get This Issue At Your Local Newsstand Now!
Click Here! To Receive a Full Year of VIBE for $11.95!
To view the video for "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" click here To listen to "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" click here To listen to "Welcome Back" click here To watch the video for "Welcome Back" click here To hear Mase's HOT 97 interview when Jim Jones and Cam'ron called to confront him click here To listen to Mase on the "Lean Back" remix click here To discuss Mase on the VIBE.com message boards click here To listen to sample tracks from Mase's Welcome Back click here
