"Speak It In The Atmosphere"

The New Gnostic Thought

In 2007 I featured a post called "The Divination Of Detroit" in which I highlighted the efforts of Juanita Bynum II  (or whomever she is currently named) pointing to her practices during a prayer service at Greater Grace Temple, Detroit Michigan. Juanita was presenting a 3 pronged strategy as a key to receiving your blessing and seeing a "manifestation of the Spirit", "in the earth realm". 

Now, I want you to know that the terminology is suspect to begin with. There is no other "realm" whereby we can perceive a "miracle" from God. So cliches such as this aren't really worth their salt and certainly aren't inspired by the spirit...at least not the Holy Spirit! 

Back to the issues...Juanita's strategy was to :

1. Praise the Lord intensely
2. Wait for the anointing to come.
3. After the anointing "arrives" call out your name in the atmosphere to attract or draw what you need in the spirit.

As I pointed out then and still do now, Juanita's teaching in this regard was a repackaging of PAGAN ideas and teachings on the "Law Of Attraction". Her teaching was froth full of scripturally unsupportable assertions and dangerously ungodly implications.

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The Legacy Of The Modern Church

Time To Air Some Dirty Laundry

The 21st Century church is undergoing a modern metamorphosis of epidemic proportions and if it were not for the prayer of Jesus:

Lk. 22:31-31~ "31-And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat: 32-But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

The church and all believers would certainly be without hope.

If it were not for the promise of God, I would also be confident that the mutations that we see are irreversible. Why? Because what is emerging does not look like, act like, taste like or even smell like what the apostles and early church died for and what the pioneers of the faith contended for. In fact what is emerging doesn't even resemble any part or type of the dedication that the church had 50 years ago.

Pt. I: Pastor, We've Advanced So Much

Yes we have made our advances in the 21st Century. As noted in my post What Does 21st Century Holiness Look Like?, we as a people, now look better than ever. We live in better homes, we are more mobile and more adept on an array of issues. We are regular thespians in our Platonic and Socratic understandings of the world in which we live. We have made progress in networking, information exchange, systems upgrades, ecumenical ministry target marketing and all, but at what cost has this success come? What has the church paid in return for many of the advances that we have made? Has it cost us a debt that we cannot pay?

One only need to look around to see why I'm even asking the question. From leadership on we seem to be

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Hip-Hop, Idolatry & The Church Pt. 7

When God's People Pay Tribute

If I were to say that gospel award winning producers and artists such as Donald Lawrence, The Clark Sisters, Kiki Sheard, J. Moss and other modern gospel industry artists were gathering themselves together to give a special tribute to someone, many of us would ask which gospel personality, minister, singer or otherwise would they be coming together to commemorate? That would be a good question.

But what if I said that they were not coming together to celebrate anyone or anything that had to do with the gospel in any manner. What if I said that gospel artists were going to render their gospel talents in celebration of a person and group who has never preached one gospel word, saved one soul for Jesus Christ, and in fact have consistently contributed to the kingdom of darkness spanding for over 32 years???

Well, here it is. In another of the more strange developments within the gospel community, Frankie Beverly, founder of the secular group Maze, (who has never won a secular industry music award) has chosen Donald Lawrence as a member of his production team to place together an all star cast of individuals to pay special tribute to Frankie Beverly and the works of the group called Maze, called the "Silky Soul Music...An All Star Tribute to Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly". As part of this homage, top gospel music producer, Donald Lawrence, has also agreed to rewrite and release a Maze song, "I Want To Thank You".

Now, there is some confusion over when the song (I Want To Thank You) was originally presented to the world and I think I know why. The song that Donald Lawrence is rewriting, wrapped up as a gospel song, was originally released with another song called "Southern Girl" in 1980 on a 12" 33.5 RPm Promo through Capitol Records. The song was re-released in 1983 on the album 'We Are One' by Capitol Records and later by EMI Music (Netherlands) Although my accounting of release dates and times are listed on their website, the following is stated in the Press release:

• Beverly has also secured an “all-star” production team to join him in the studio with this collection of great artists, including Grammy nominated producer Rex Rideout and Grammy and Stellar Award winning producer Donald Lawrence. Lawrence is producing a gospel rendition of the Frankie Beverly classic, “I Wanna Thank You,” originally released on Maze’s 1983 “We Are One” LP.

Whether Beverly knows it or not, there is a message being sent through this song and it's rewrite and the association of the rewrite with the 1983 date. This song and this event will effectively make many of the top gospel artists ONE with the world for and during this event. That has happened on occasion and many of the gospel artists themselves promote such currently. Kirk Franklin produced a project based off of the same standard of 1970's and 1980's rewrites, so this is nothing new. The problem here is that Maze has an unusual intoxicating appeal partially because of the subject matter that the group enjoins and also because of the spirit of seduction and mysticism that he (the group) promotes.

(Update 3/30/2010: Thanks to Paul, you can see the gospel singers pay tribute to this idol for themselves: HERE is the video. All I can say is what a SHAME!)

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