If someone had asked me a few weeks ago to guess what my 49th birthday would be like, I can honestly say no prediction would’ve come close to the reality.

I was in LA to celebrate what I thought would be a fairly low-key day when my friend who works in the music industry mentioned that she was “working on something special” that would involve an early morning rise.

Knowing my love for hip hop, I guessed that it might fall into this category, but what hip hop artist wants to see anyone at 8am? It made no sense to me, but we got the green light and by 6.45am we were on the road.

After 20 minutes or so, I saw a sign that hinted towards where, and who, we were going to see. CALABASAS, it read. My face froze into what can only be described as that wide-eyed emoji. “Oh my god. Are we going to see Kanye West?” My friend smiled, “We’re going to Kanye’s Sunday Service.”

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Running since January 2019, West’s Sunday Services are a seriously covert operation. Being held at difference outdoor venues each week, they are teeming with A-list Celebrities (Brad Pitt, Katy Perry and Diplo have all attended) all interested in seeing West step into his new-found role of rapper turned preacher.

media_camera Kanye West took his Sunday Service to Coachella in April. Picture: Rich Fury/Getty

A live band — often starring celebrity musicians — performs backdrop beats for the choir (all decked out in West-designed minimalist uniforms) belting out gospel music for attendees who come from near and far to experience this otherworldly event.

In some ways I had an idea of what to expect, but in retrospect, I was going in blind.

We drove along the highway looking out for the secret clue given by Kanye’s people and followed a dirt road to seemingly nowhere; it was only as we looked in the rear-view mirror that we could see we weren’t alone — trailing us were six blacked-out SUVs. Either we were on the right track, or we were about to get kidnapped.

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Eventually we hit a carpark full of cars and people queuing in the direction of a hill.

Quickly our unworthiness kicked in, as did our need for coffee. Like a mirage, there was a tiny coffee stand set up at the bottom of the hill manned by a guy with a thick Australian accent and hailing from Woy Woy.

We started making our way in the direction of ‘somewhere’ and eventually got to the top of a hill where there was more dirt, a brilliant blue sky overhead, and a congregation gathered around a rock acting as a sort of pulpit. And that’s when I saw him. It was Kanye West just wandering around smiling, shaking people’s hands with a presence and energy a long way from the guy I once saw interrupt Taylor Swift’s speech.

This was Kanye in his light.

Minutes later, a golf buggy pulled up delivering Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian and two of their four children. One of the girls trailing behind them looked up over her sunglasses and brown bucket hat and I realised those incredible million-dollar eyes, were Kendall Jenner’s. That’s yin and yang for you.

The service wasn’t a multimillion-dollar music production — it was a collection of the most angelic voices I’ve ever heard. No microphones or mixers against the background of mother nature — and it was a truly spiritual experience and a birthday that went from nothing to everything.

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As soon as we arrived I’d noticed a peroxide blonde woman standing a metre or so in front of us, but it was only when Kanye pointed down at her and announced that pop song set to get a gospel-inspired cover that day — another signature aspect of the services — would be ‘Don’t Speak’ by No Doubt (which they’d changed to ‘Lord Speak’).

The blonde woman in the front was none other than Gwen Stefani and as the choir reimagined her iconic hit, she wiped tears away from her face, careful not to poke herself in the eye with her long fluorescent acrylic nails.

media_camera Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, and her celebrity siblings including Kendall Jenner often attend the Sunday Service. Picture: Rich Fury/Getty

I’m not sure if you’d call him a preacher, or just a cool guy in a denim jumpsuit and Rayban’s standing on a rock, but whoever he was he spoke of life and its challenges, the role Jesus Christ could play in it “if we ask.”

There was no ranting about his genius or the rules of how to live a Christian life; he simply came across like a humble observer who he needed the service as much as everyone else.

While speaking, he mentioned his arrogance and being “God-fearing”.

I found myself wondering why a man like Kanye West, with such a renegade spirit and creative wizardry, a rule-breaker, feel the need to fear God like the old guard of Christianity encourages people to do.

Perhaps creative and highly sensitive people tend to be prone to having minds that meander through a kaleidoscope of good and bad thoughts, and possibly what Kanye needs from Christianity is a firm anchor and a regimented belief system to keep him in check. If the fear of God brings him back to earth and aligning to a book to guide you on how to live, then I get his relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

Whether you like him or not, Kanye West’s Sunday Services, despite the closed guest list, are already reimagining Christianity in way that hasn’t been seen in decades. He’s got the whole world talking (and singing) about it.

And that is the genius of Kanye West.

Amber Petty is a columnist for RendezView.com.au.

Originally published as Inside Kanye’s Sunday Service: It’s not what you’d expect