I’ve managed to go a while without commenting on Kanye or his Sunday service, but enough is enough. I figured, with everyone talking about it I don’t need to, but I haven’t seen anyone present my viewpoint. So! While I’ve never asked for you to share a blog, please, if you know someone who is a new believer and is confused about all things Kanye, please send this to them. My goal here is to clarify a few things from my point of view, which remains, the pew and not the pulpit.
I believe that there are people who are born to be stars. While that means that they usually become famous, that is, people know and like them because of their performance/art, it’s not fame that they find satisfying. It’s the creation and the performance that draws them in and makes them feel complete when the curtain falls. I know this because I have lived this. I was deeply involved in music and drama growing up, and later I wrote stage productions and directed. Even now, if I see a stage, you’ll see a glimmer come to my eye. This is part of my design.
There are many people who want to be famous--- that’s no surprise. When you enter the fantasy of being a rock star, if you stay longer on the parts where you are signing autographs, posing for pictures and meeting fans, your focus is fame. Real artists dream about different stage spaces, soliloquys and acceptance speeches, where we get to talk about all the things we had to do to get to this point in time.
Giving my life to Christ did not change my design- I am still a performer. But I quickly found myself on the receiving end of many mixed and not so mixed messages from the church. I remember telling my dad right after he got saved that I wanted to be a dancer. “That’s… secular,” he said. I didn’t know what the word meant, but I knew that it wasn’t part of his new life and that affected me too. I listened to many sermons and Sunday school lessons that told me the careers that were the most attractive to me were sinful and secular. Others encouraged me to employ my artistic abilities for Christ, and I did. Stay with me, I’m going to detour a little.
I want to tell you that my current career does not involve music or drama directly. There are aspects of my job that are performance-oriented, and I love it. I also am active in church, unafraid to share a word or participate in praise and worship. In these ways, the artist component of me is satisfied. Most people who have this call on their life don’t actually “make it” but find other ways, more appropriate ways, for them to express that creative energy. When you are an artist and you have no outlet for that energy, you suffer. I have experienced this too. I see people around me every day who are not fulfilled and suffer as they deny their need to “create”. They become jealous and bitter. Or controlling. Or they try to do things that they think they should do, but the truth is they are running away from who they are, because there is no venue available for expression. I see you and understand you too sis. I am grateful to be satisfied in my sphere of influence and I’m praying that you too will find your place.
But now, let me go back. The evangelical Church of the 70s, 80s and 90s created some hard and fast boundaries when it came to certain artistic expressions. We, the artists, were discouraged from fully embracing this part of ourselves. We were told to funnel it back into the church, even when that wasn’t comfortable or natural. I know many people who were saved and misled to think that this meant they could not pursue dreams to be a performer. What I really want to say is THERE WAS A REASON those boundaries were put up. Part of being an artist is opening yourself to things that can damage your soul and sour the source of your art. Your source, once you are saved, is the Triune God. That source needs to be kept clean (James 3:11). A more familiar way of saying it, “no man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). The bottom line is you can be who you were created to be, but you have to be careful to keep the Source at the center and actively do things to cultivate holiness and intimacy with God in order to tend to it.
It’s not easy to be an artist and a Christian, but I don’t think it’s equivalent to cutting off the body part that offends you. If creating or participating in your art brings you too close to darkness, there are things you can be exposed to that can put your salvation at risk and cause damage to your soul. If you are not fully healed and delivered, and even if you are, you are still vulnerable in the process of creation. So the Church took a hard and fast boundary because it was easy, but in 2019, we understand that acknowledging the dissonance of the human experience is cherished by God and that His love enhances our creation and our design.
That being said, I know many aging dancers, actors and fashionistas who were afraid their creativity would be a monster that would remove them from Christ, and as such, crucified their inner artist in the same way we crucify the flesh and put our wanton desires in submission to Christ. It’s no way to live, but it’s hard for them to envision being themselves and being free.
Let’s go to Kanye now. I always listened to and appreciated Kanye’s music (at least the promoted singles, and usually the clean versions). The lyrics for “Gold Digger” are so very clever, although not always complimentary. I know that “Jesus Walks” was meant to be more about political commentary about police brutality, but I never heard it that way. In fact, I used Kanye’s music in the little high school plays and shows I put on with my students. I arranged a mashup of “Heartless” with a Deborah Cox song, “Beautiful You Are” to take the desolation out of a great song and add some brightness. And all the while, I thought about Kanye. The call of God to him was clear to me and I wondered if he would respond to it.
I am glad that Kanye gave his life to Christ. I am even happier to hear him publicly acknowledge that he went through deliverance. If you read this site, you know that’s what I believe truly makes the difference, especially for people who had been entrenched in darkness. I am hopeful for his future as my brother in Christ.
I find it troubling that so many Christians on social media feel the need to comment for or against this situation. I know we live in a day and age where everyone thinks that their opinion is needed and valued. I recognize that hypocrisy of that sentence even while I type this up for my blog. But what it has revealed about their hearts has me concerned, especially for new believers who are looking to them for guidance.
From what I see there are two “Christian” viewpoints being pushed. The first is: Kanye is saved… but is this real transformation? Can we trust what we see? What kind of example is he and do you know who his wife is? The second point of view that is everywhere: Kanye is saved… this is amazing day for Christianity! He’s going to bring millions of souls in! He is a person of influence with wealth who will invest in the church, look he’s doing it already!
At the risk of going Greta Thunberg on both camps, I want to scream HOW DARE YOU?! Too many people are talking about this thing that is not their business to talk about. Tell me, would it be appropriate to go to a baptism service and as people come out of the water, you comment on whether or not their salvation is real and has God really changed them? NEVER. At the same time, would you meet those new believers drying off and tell them that their Great Commission in all its fullness now depends on them to enact? What unnecessary pressure. We know that this is wrong, but because Kanye is a public figure, all and everyone feels like it’s their right to “weigh-in” on what they think is going to happen.
I prayed to ask God why I was so bothered about this and since I heard nothing, I said nothing. But He did speak to me about it. I got a free ticket for a concert, but I didn’t know the artist, his music or the language he was singing in. I still attended, so I could be with my friend, and suddenly, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about this. This is what he pointed out.
Like me, Kanye was designed to create and perform art. When he gave his life to Christ, this didn’t change. His attitude and point of view have been transformed, but the desire to create is even stronger than it was before. If we are all meant to do what we were made to do for the glory of God, then what else was he meant to do but perform? I wish people would stop talking and start listening to him. I wish they would stop trying to categorize what he is doing. He isn’t preaching, he isn’t leading praise and worship, he isn’t giving sacraments, and yet he is doing all of the things naturally that come from his design to express his love and gratitude to Christ. And it’s moving. It’s beautiful. It’s working.
In the Spanish concert, although the artist is world renown, he was moved to tears that every seat was filled with a screaming fan who readily sang along. Three times he stopped on stage, overwhelmed by this, and the Lord opened my eyes to see the fragility and vulnerability of the man, despite money, fame and success. More than anything, I could feel the void beating in his heart for wanting something more. Artists are indeed special people. They need a special kind of love and tending to.
Love him but leave Kanye alone. Pray for him quietly, that whatever plan God is moving through him will be accomplished in Jesus name. Enjoy his music, appreciate his music, but stop playing his music like it’s your new liturgic thang. Stop crediting what Kanye does to your side, it’s embarrassing to me. I thought by now you’d know that this is a true spiritual war, and we don’t boast carelessly, instead we raise banners for Christ in solidarity and we support from the back and the bottom, not just with lip service. It’s the lofty Christian who forgets that enemy is real who has all this idle time to talk people’s business.
Being a deliverance minister, I don’t have that liberty and I don’t take for granted anything. I see on a daily basis what people are fighting, and the goal of this blog is to support those who need more than fluffy love and grace or religious fire and brimstone. There has to be an in-between, and understanding that if you really care about souls being saved that you recognize salvation is something that is walked out and that we are not equipping people with “how to walk”. This site seeks to answer some of the real life questions and deal with the mess of what happens when the revival tent moves to the next city or the deacon locks the front door Sunday night. Real people are still out there, living real challenges. I am praying that everyone who finds this and reads it feels motivated to turn around and check to see who is running this race beside you, and thinking of how you can encourage them. That’s transferrable and within your reach. Kanye may not be, but don’t worry about him. He has a pastor, who understands and values deliverance, he has church family and he has his real family. He also has old ladies like me (you young cats make me feel old!) who understand what it means to see things and to just keep it in prayer. If you want to help him, that’s the best thing you can do for him.