By Billy Davis

Gospel rappers, Christian motorcycle riders and jail inmates are expected to take turns spreading the Gospel during the Love Your Neighbor Rally tonight.

The event at 6 p.m. at Hosanna Family Worship Center follows a gang-led shooting in Batesville on January 16 that took the life of Jeremy Wright, an alleged gang member.

Area churches responded to the shooting with a plan to address gang violence and organized a group known as STOP (Stop The Ongoing Problem).

Organizers also turned to a former gang member, Tony Barragan, 35, to plan tonight’s rally. He served a nine-year prison sentence for sale of marijuana before turning to Christ while incarcerated.

When the shooting occurred, Memphis-based Gospel rappers were already planning a spring concert in Batesville but moved up their performance date due to the recent violence, said Barragan.

The Memphis rappers are known as FRO, Change, and Yung Titan.

“What these rappers offer is an alternative to what young people are exposed to every day, which is the wordly version of rap,” said Shawn Gates, who managers the artists.

Gates said FRO is Adrian Johnson, a full-time minister. FRO is an acronym for “father rewards obedience,” he said.  

Local members of the Christian Motorcyclists Association will also attend tonight to share the testimony of former biker Billy Rivers, said CMA chaplain James Russell of Oxford.

Rivers was a member of a motorcycle gang and a heroin addict when he was sent to prison to serve 11 years.

When he was released from prison, Rivers attended a meeting of Christian bikers where he told them he was the “lowest of the low, but I hear you love people like that.”

Rivers now leads a CMA chapter in New Orleans.

Barragan has also said inmates from Tate County’s jail are expected to share their testimonies during the rally.

Hosanna was started approximately 15 years ago by pastor Damon Plummer, a Louisiana native.

The church has increased to a congregation of approximately 300 members, some of them former drug addicts and drug dealers, and former jail inmates.

“Hosanna is a place to experience the power and love of Christ,” Plummer said. “We have seen the Gospel work over and over again to change people’s lives, so we’re not surprised at what can happen Friday night.”

Hosanna is also a multi-racial church that includes whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians in its Sunday morning worship.

Barragan said Thursday the feuding gangs have “called peace” after Wright’s death, and tonight’s rally will be a peaceful event.  

“What happened is over,” Barragan said. “What’s next is trying to save a soul.”   

Hosanna is located in the Pope Community near Interstate 55 at the Pope-Courtland interchange.

The Love Your Neighbor rally will be streaming live on Hosanna’s Web site, hosannafwc.net.