Christian spoken word artist Levi the Poet opened up to BREATHEcast about his new album Correspondence, the extremely tragic suicide of his father, and now in part three of our interview he dives into how he feels about the church.

Levi explained that he grew up in an evangelical church and in a relatively transparent home. In essence, he has grown up along with the church of the last twenty years, which is drastically different from the generation before.

"The world that we live in continues to become individualistic," he explained. Today's church has a whole slew of new things to contend with as far as what is going on in society.

He feels a lot of the western church focuses more on moralism and a traditional values worldview "instead of walking in the light living for the creator." In Levi's mind, the actual fulfillment of the Great Commission is what should take the forefront above everything else.

"There's definitely a tension in the church and as a body the gospel needs to keep going out spreading that message."

The poet also thinks Christians living beneath the weight of moralism will not find freedom in their faith. "People should take their masks off and realize they are forgiven by God instead of trying to shield themselves under this religious veil."

Levi thinks that there should be nothing so 'taboo' that the church cannot enage it, but understands that the whole thing is a growing process. "I really really, love the church. I really believe in the local church as the body of Christ and does she have her flaws 'yes', does she shy away from things 'sure'. Could she grow in certain areas? 'Yes', I think that I get disappointed that people go so far in the direction of criticizing her that it never becomes constructive again. The whole point of deconstruction is to try to rebuild," he said.

Levi used to go to Mars Hill, and he said on a local level the "community" aspect of it was amazing. He explained that while problems became evident throughout the church, he was thankful for the way his local body was able to walk through the pain together. 

"Sometimes I will go out on tour having forgotten that honesty and transparency are not a part of places they should be a part of," which ironically in light of the openess in his own community, he believes played a large role in Mars Hill Church's collapse as well. 

Levi said things of this world, money, stuff, power - can destroy a person. He explained it would never satisfy the feeling of getting an email that says, "Hey I was going to kill myself but I heard your story and now I'm not. That's not my work, but I'm thankful for that."

Levi admitted his poetry was a little more topical in the beginning when he started out. He would often talk about substance abuse, pornography, or depression and mental health.

"I am feeling more and more like there has been nothing more fulfilling regardless of what I've tried to chase after in doing all this than believing that I have done what I can to give glory to Jesus who has saved me and to see other people encouraged that they are not alone in the process of doing that."

Now Levi gets to take that message on the road with him as he just announced his Don't Sink Tour. He is looking to fill up the West Coast with shows in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Colorado.

(Photo : Facebook)

"I will be performing Correspondence (a fiction) in its entirety, offering extended Q&A sessions at every show, and working with hosts to create an experience unique to each stop along the way.," he posted on Facebook.

Other than that he is trying to make a behind the scenes documentary for Correspondence. He is also looking to get into team building because he values the need to work within community, collaborations, and relationships. "I love the idea of working with other people however that looks," he said and revealed that even the idea of being interviewed pushes this thought process along.

Levi also just released the first part of a tour documentary on YouTube, "Beginnings Tour Documentary Part 1- Levi the Poet, Lowercase Noises, Glowhouse."

Watch below:

"In September & October of 2014, Glowhouse, Lowercase Noises and I rented a minivan for our six week Beginnings Tour throughout the Mid/Eastern United States. During the first week, Drew Schrimsher - film guru and friend - joined us and captured some of our lives as touring soccer moms. A life which includes a lot of Rage Against The Machine, coffee and Pad Thai," he wrote on the description. "This is the first half of that week. We hope you love it. Rumor has it, Part 2 is only a week away."

Listen to the album here. For more information on Levi and his poetry, click here.

Special thanks to Levi the Poet for taking an hour out of his day to do this three part interview profile with us. Read part one of the interview about his new album and crafting spoken word here. Read part two about the powerful song "Rearview Memories" and his dad's death here.