THIS MAY NOT CHANGE ANYTHING....

 I'm not here to change anybody's mind. I'm going to try and be extremely careful with what I want to say. Now I will say that I don't listen to Gospel rap like I used to. Not because I consider it blasphemous or anything. It's not because I got a "wake up" call about rap music. I'm still a rap fan. I'm not anti rap. I'm not anti gospel rap. Reach the nations. I still believe gospel rap can reach people that the church has thrown away if used right. My problem with gospel rap, again my, me, Daniel Richerson, my problem with gospel rap is that it's become a little too saditty. It lost the essence of what gospel music is supposed to be. Gospel rap to me has the same problem that hip hop in general has is that things are being rapped but nothing is being said. 

BUT....I believe that if some gospel rappers could sing, they would tell me and others, "You don't know my story. All the things that I've been through. You can't feel my pain. What I had to go through to get here. You'll never understand my praise. Don't try to figure it out because my worship is for real." I believe we don't know what worship really is. I believe worship is more than what we has the church has made it out to be.

John 4:23-24 KJV "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit,: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

I'm trying to be real careful with my words because I have typed on this subject before and used shall we say a more blunt approach. I do apologize if my words have offended anybody. 

I've referenced this song in another post, Preacher man by Canton Jones, and while watching the video, I saw a visual that almost brought tears to my eyes. It was a visual of missionaries and deacons dressed in their "Sunday's Best" sitting next and conversating with the people from the street with their street clothes on. Sitting next to each other while receiving the Word from the preacher. I asked myself the question, "Will I ever see that in my lifetime?" Will I ever see the church actual welcome folks in that don't look like, walk like, or praise like sit next each other and enjoy and participate in a church service together, or because they're considered hip hop...? 

I'm not trying to change anybody's mind. This is not meant as shot to anybody. This is a plea for conversation to happen between generations. This is a plea for those who sing out the hymn book to have a conversation with those who may listen to artists from Reach Records and God Over Money Records. This is a plea to actually let everything that has breath...

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson

ELIMINATE THE HATE...NOT FOR WHAT YOU MAY THINK

Warning: If you're a fan of G. Craig Lewis and Ex Ministries, you might as well leave the blog now. You will not agree with this blog. If you preach against rap music, you might as well leave the blog now, because you won't agree with this blog. If you don't believe in delivering the gospel through rap, you might as well leave the blog now because you won't agree with this blog. Ok, you've been warned.

The LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual Transsexual) community uses the term sometimes, "Eliminate the hate" in regards to their rights. I'm going to take a switch with that term. If you've been reading my blogs for some time, you know that I'm a fan of gospel rap. I believe it can be used to spread the gospel. The Gospel is not changing it's just the delivery of the Gospel. I look at it like this. Some preachers you don't like to listen to. Some like Bishop T.D. Jakes, and some like Joel Osteen. Both are preaching the Gospel, but the delivery is different. Some like Rod Parsley, and some like Billy Graham. Both are preaching the Gospel, but the delivery is different.

Now to the point. Some like the Canton Spirituals, and some like Lecrae. Both spreading the gospel but the delivery is different. It's not for everybody. Me advocating Gospel rap is not going to change your opinion on the genre. But if you don't like the genre, don't hate on the individual doing what he do to spread the Gospel. It's not for you. Paul said it like this, "When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law."

For some particular reason, when something comes along that's different, it's wrong. It's satanic. It's the devil. It's a sin. The Bible talks about nothing being new under the sun. Going back in history when TV's first came out, they were considered a sin. When movie theaters came out, a sin. When Jazz was big, it was being preached against, and in some places still being preached against. Why? It's different. We are scared of different. So naturally so spiritual. Naturally, the LGBT sees disagreement as hatred. Spiritually, when you disagree with ones thoughts, or opinion, it turns into a rift or hatred.

We need to stop hating one another over petty little things like disagreements. The Bible talks about we got to love everybody to go to heaven. Stop hating people that are different from you. That's called being prejudiced. Disagreement shouldn't mean hatred. I don't hate my family members because I disagree with them. I don't hate some preachers cause they say things I don't agree with. When disagreement turns into hatred, that's when it comes a time to check yourself. Don't let your misconceived notions on anything, turn into hatred.

One argument on Gospel rap I hear, is that, "Gospel music should lead your to worship not to twerk." My response, twerking is something that was already in you to do. I think if some music leads you to twerk, it's something you got to do some self checking on yourself. Twerking came from the strip club, did it not? If twerking is what you do, don't blame hip-hop, blame the visual the videos give off. Not all hip hop gives the visual of sex sex sex. Don't blame what people of done to hip-hop and put that on everybody. Now again, if you hate gospel rap, what I'm saying is not going to change your outlook on it. I hate quartet music. I don't like it at all. It's not for me. But I respect anybody that spreads the gospel. I'm not in the quartet audience. I'm in the gospel rap audience. Should that mean we hate each other? No.

Let me put this out there, just because it's has the label hip-hop does not mean twerking is involved. Ok? Strip clubs has been out before hip-hop. Music was talking about sex before hip-hop. Hip-hop gets blamed for stuff that was happening before the genre even started. Lest we forget some of our favorite Gospel artists does not have the cleanest record out there. Kirk Franklin, he put his stuff out there so there's no reason for me to bring that up. James Cleveland? I'm not making this stuff up, you can look it up. Donnie McClurkin. Tye Tribbett? My point is, it's not the genre that's the problem. Da Truth said it like this on TBN, "It's nothing wrong with hip-hop culture. It's something wrong with the heart that's corrupt."

And that's really all I have to say about that. All and all, let's stop allowing the devil to make on disagreements lead to hatred. Stop giving the Devil more power than he actually has. You may not be a fan of Gospel rap, I'm the minority in my house hold when it comes to the genre, but I respectfully disagree with them and continue to do my thing. Some of the dislike for it is fair. But I feel it's no different than raising the roof in church or saying, "Ain't no party like a holy ghost party cause a holy ghost party don't stop." I don't see it as we're bringing the world into the church, I see it as an evolution of delivery.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson