God's Grammys

Matt Redman, TobyMac, and Lecrae Moore were among several Gospel artists who won awards during an untelevised segment of the 55th Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday.

TobyMac secured his second solo and sixth career Grammy, beating out CCM stars Kari Jobe and Casting Crowns to win Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for Eye On It.. Matt Redman won Best Gospel and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance for “10,000 Reasons.” He shared the Best Contemporary Christian Music Song with Israel Houghton’s “Your Presence is Heaven.”

“It’s been amazing to hear this song all over the world,” Redman said during the acceptance speech. “This song was really a gift from God,” echoed co-writer Jonas Myrian.

Gospel duo Mary Mary won Best Gospel song for “Go Get It,” while Lecrae Moore dropped his way to his first Grammy for Gravity as Best Gospel Album.

“I think this definitely gives some credibility to the craft," Moore told reporters backstage. “My ambition was just to make honest music. I was just very honest about my spirituality.”

The credibility of a Grammy may prove useful for him as he tries to bridge the gap between secular and Christian listeners.

Last August, Moore released Church Clothes, a controversial mixtape with 18 songs tied to a basic core message: The gospel offers a more meaningful life than mainstream street culture. The accompanying video shows Moore in a pulpit wearing a basketball jersey, rapping about churches that criticize the congregation for wearing the wrong Sunday attire instead of focusing on their deeper spiritual need.

"Church Clothes is really me speaking from the perspective of a lot of spectators who have been abused by the church," he told WORLD last year. This year, in addition to launching a college tour, he told Examiner he plans to work on a follow up to Gravity.

When his award was announced, Moore was allegedly detained on the red carpet and unable to get to the stage, so he turned to Twitter instead to celebrate: “Just Won a Grammy. I dedicate it to all the Unashamed fam all over the planet. 1.1.Six -To God be the Glory.”