yeezus and Jesus.

kanye. kim's baby daddy/fiance. yeezus.
whatever you call him he is a dude with an overinflated ego and a full tank of self importance.
but he may be doing a better job at presenting the gospel than you and I.  maybe.

like any concert, kanye brought along an opening act. for this go-round he chose kendrick lamar. whatever. i don't really care who he brings because i'm not a fan and i'm not going to go to his show. however, he's also brought along a guest that doesn't come out until the end of the concert. he's brought along Jesus.

what?

yeah, Jesus. according to various magazines' reviews of the concert (because like i said, i'm not going to his show) there is a character representing Jesus that comes out at the end of kanye's set and goes through a bit of dialog that includes Jesus saying He has been here all along and He has come to bring light to the darkness.

well that sounds like pretty solid Christian Truth, right?
you're right, it does.
but here's the catch...millennials are leaving the Church in droves (i am sure the barna group could give you all the reasons why) and are now finding their sense of hope at the temple of yeezus. and this truth that yeezus is giving them isn't the whole picture. yeezus is giving them a snapshot of what Truth is and then packing up his bus and leaving. maybe that snapshot is enough to really get to someone's heart to have them dig deeper for the whole Truth but i think it's probably no more effective than the guy standing on the street corner shouting turn and burn messages through a bullhorn. this way is just a little easier to swallow than that guy. but is the Church doing anything to reach out to those hurting/misguided/scorned/'too-intelligent-for-the-Church' twenty-somethings to tell them that Jesus has come to bring light to the dark? does the Church need to? i don't think we need to sell Jesus but are we doing enough to tell people He is here.
and i don't think that kanye is really looking to be the next poster-child for the Christian faith. i think he's probably just capitalizing on trend and trying to be the most shocking thing out there. too many people are talking about miley...not enough are talking about him.

i don't really know where to go from here. i have been thinking about it for days and the only thing i can come up with is to charge people hundreds of dollars a seat to get into church because people are paying that to hear a slice of the gospel from kanye and churches have the whole pie. i don't know if kanye is doing more harm than good or good than harm. any thoughts?

xo

royals

if you have listened to radio at all over the last couple of months it seems that every, and i mean every, station is playing a song called 'royals' by a 16 year old new zealand girl who goes by the name lorde. it's this anti-anthem singing, "and we'll never be royals, it don't run in our blood. that kind of luxe just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzz."
i literally don't know one person who doesn't like the song.
and like every good summer mega-hit after a week or so of being a single along came the slew of covers. there are always some incredible covers and some that are straight-up terrible but one that stands out above the rest is the cover of 'royals' by the one and only paper route.
it's ethereal without being sleepy.
it's got great gang vocals.
it's got a breakdown that feels like space.

now maybe i am biased saying that it is the greatest cover of this song because i love paper route and i clearly haven't listened to every cover of the song that has ever been done but it is fabulously great.
here's the link:
'royals' (cover) by: paper route
go listen to it. right now.

xo