An Emcee's Gentle Word
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Curtis ("Voice") Allen writes in Boundless about the fallout of his rapping at Bethlehem Baptist church. I pray that God would give me a similar sort of humility and graciousness.
(HT: Challies)
Update: For those who are interested, here's the video of Curtis's time at Bethlehem:
And here's a write-up about the controversy in World Magazine. (BTW, the picture in that article is not from that evening!)
(HT: Challies)
Update: For those who are interested, here's the video of Curtis's time at Bethlehem:
And here's a write-up about the controversy in World Magazine. (BTW, the picture in that article is not from that evening!)
posted by JT at Tuesday, March 20, 2007
16 Comments:
Wow. What a godly young man. I wish I had that kind of humble wisdom.
Wow, That's an awesome testimony and example. Thanks for posting that.
Blessings,
Bryan L
I grew up in the rap generation. Like many my age, I felt the music and could hear its passion. However, as I matured in my faith I began to realize what the lyrics were doing to my mind and heart. It had become a foothold for sin.
I thank God for Curtis "Voice" Allen and his ministry. He is redeeming a powerful from of art and giving it a voice of true passion that points to something of ultimate power...the cross of Jesus Christ.
Now, to read this article, I'm even challenged and encouraged to seek greater humility in my own life. Praise God!
Grace and Peace
ummm....wow...
put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience...
Col 3:12
What a great example
Justin,
Thank you for posting this on your blog. God's kindness in HIS timing is amazing! I have recently been unjustly criticized by a close friend and sister in Christ. I was before God today expressing my sadnness and not knowing how to respond in my heart to the situation.
This quote in Curtis's article brought me right where I need to be.. at the cross.
"By agreeing with God's criticism of me in Christ's cross, I can face any criticism man may lay against me. In other words, no one can criticize me more than the cross has. And the most devastating criticism turns out to be the finest mercy. "
Thank you for posting. Thank you to Curtis and Praise be to God.
I should preface this by saying that I am not a fan of rap. But when JT linked the video a while back, I was curious, especially since Dr. Piper had allowed him to "minister" at Bethlehem. I can't remember the exact lyrics, but I do remember that my reaction was WOW. This is really good. It made me wonder what the catechisms would sound like set to a beat. So if this is the future of "some" expressions of worship, then I say let the "emcee" lift up his voice, and I'll say the AMEN.
thanks for posting this.
thanks for posting this Justin - Curtis is an example to us all.
Q
Great lesson from that post. Rap is like anything. It can be a powerful tool for good or for evil. Glad that he responded in such a Christ like fashion.
Curtis, praise God for the grace He has worked in your heart brother. What an incredible opportunity He afforded you in your moment of having your name brought low, that He would use you to exalt His name through your response to the criticism!!!
A great article. The Sat night concert Curtis did was also good.
That was a great essay. I really like Curtis' album also.
I predict that the NEXT set of "worship wars" will be over rap.
Maybe I can't "thump," or even hold a beat for more than two seconds, but I'm certainly glad that I worship the same God as Mr. Allen does.
JT,
I don't know if you remember me, but I had lunch with you and Pastor John in Charlotte the weekend you were in town for the viewing of The Passion. We drove you guys to the airport as well and talked Reformed Faith and Racial Reconciliation. Anyway, if I knew you were even mildly a Christian Hip Hop fan, we would have talked about that some. A group/record label that has been very influential for 10 years now, and is throughly reformed is Cross Movement (www.crossmovementrecords.com). Check out my CrossCultured blog for tons of links. Curtis is great, just wanting to expose my (mostly white) reformed brothers of the other resources that are available for ministry.
The war over rap has been going for some time. The problem is all rap gets lumped in with gasta style rap and the reality is that rap has many genres and it's unfair to lump it all into a neat group.
Thanks JT. That did me a lot of good.
For anyone interested, the article by Alfred Poirier is reprinted here.
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