It may already be in your church! If you don't have a strong pastor with good character and a desire to see your children make it in this life, then it's probably already happened or well on it's way to happening. It's hard to believe that any pastor in their right mind would sit back and allow this, without any concerns, apprehensions, or discernment! I'm talking about the pastor that embraces the demonic, sorry men/women producing, bad image creating, success in life hindering, black folks mocking, aids and abortion producing, genocide promoting, immorality embracing, violence supporting HIP HOP CULTURE! I'm sure many of you sat back one youth service, or sunday service in some cases, and you watched as a gangsta for Christ took the platform to use broken english, gang attire, thug gestures, prison imagery and effeminate decor to mimic and mock the street pimp or hustler that was once labeled destructive to our community. Now, while the so called "presence of the Lord" is in the building and people are suppose to be changed from the destructive lifestyles they were a part of, they are being taught by the decisions of leadership that the street life is okay as long as you are reaching other street folks by acting like street folks?
As if the black church needs anything else making them look impotent! The secular world mocks and makes fun of the church like it means nothing to them. Black comedians like Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, DL Huguley, Cedric the Entertainer and others make fun of church folks and opportunists Pastors all the time, so the image of the black church is a powerless one. The church is suffering at the hands of these comedians and also at the hands of the celebrity pastors that are nothing but robbers and thieves, using the church as a place to get paid and take advantage of the issues that plague the black communities. The sad part is that a new crop of pastors, that are nothing but opportunists are following these celebrity preachers methods in their infancy and making complete fools of themselves while trying to blow-up and make it big in this life.
You've seen them. They come out to speak to 50 people wearing a headphone mic, doing the hand gestures like they are talking to thousands and then totally re-preach what Jakes or Long said the night before. Then, they start sending these celebrity Bishops YOUR money and claiming that these guys are their fathers or dads in the gospel. And then, they want you to start calling them father even though their real children are possessed by devils!! Then they start with the money thing so they can look prosperous like their "fathers". They want to drive the expensive car, live the lifestyle of a rock star, and brag about their accomplishments so it can "get on you"! Then that start saying, "whatever gets on the head will get on you", to make you give them things that make them look prosperous in the natural. You fall for it, but don't see the return on any of it because that statement is not true in the natural. It's only true in the spirit realm and if the spirit of being seen, known, and making it big in this life is on them, IT WILL GET ON YOU!
Then, once immorality sets into the pastors heart and they start living that double lifestyle, their churches flourish! People start coming from everywhere and they grow a church full of hundreds of people in a years time. Why? Because the bible said that people in the last day would be turned to fables and would heap on themselves teachers, having itchy ear for lies and deceit. So, if you wanna grow a quick church and pack it out in no time, follow the example of the celebrity preachers and you will have folks flock to you. Remember, Bishop Jakes filled a church of 5000 members in a few weeks time with no evangelism at all! These weren't people that were on the streets, unsaved, and needed a church home. These were all other pastor's members!!! These were folks that wanted whatever was on the head to get on them! You see, when Jakes and these guys started preaching that lie on TBN, Black pastors everywhere, that did not study the Word, or wanted to sound good, started preaching it too. But they didn't realize they were being set up Jim Jones style! They started preaching that but the trick was, people want the best stuff to get on them! So, when Jakes came to town, he took all the folks that were sitting under pastors with a little money and no fame, because he had a lot of money and fame, and folks wanted the most money and fame to get on them. So they all just changed heads! And this has become the pattern for the black church ever since. Churches with 10,000 members and churches with 10 members are following this model to grow quickly.
- Don't preach holiness
- Don't preach against sin
- Don't preach the consequence of sin
- Don't preach Hell
- Don't preach against the entertainment industry of America
- Don't preach against abortion, homosexuality, or fornication
- Don't preach against the influences of the world
- Don't minister effectively to the youth. Just baby sit them with worldly devices.
And if you really wanna grow the church, just join up with a spiritual father that embraces secular recording artists and movie stars to boost their memberships so that you can get up on Sundays and brag on who your FATHER knows and what he has accomplished. This will make the people feel you are a sure thing and one day, they will have what you have right? But the truth of the matter is that most of the small church pastors claiming their "son-ship" to these celebrity Bishops don't even know them! At least, not until their churches reach a certain membership level! So, the easy way to do this, is to take your members hard earned money out of the bank and pay one of these mega celebrity preachers to come to town. Once they come, in the name of your pastor or church, then the pastor that brought them will be remembered and possibly positioned to be called a son of one of these celebrity preachers. Then, they have arrived at their destination! They can now sit back and watch the money pour in. They can preach blessing messages all the time and just keep remixing it to make it sound like a different one than the one before. But heck, who wouldn't want to feel that money was coming every week? People will hear that message everyday if possible because it only makes them feel like one day, they will strike it rich and be able to drive what their FATHER drives who is gonna one day drive what his FATHER is driving so they can all be like Christ and drive what Christ drove right?
This is how Holy Hip Hop was born in the church. The idea of it was taken to Bishop Eddie Long and from that point it became the model for black churches to follow. Eddie Long is the covering for Holy Hip Hop and his own son is a Holy Hip Hop rapper called "Young Dirty!" He even has a radio program where he plays Holy Hip Hop and secular Hip Hop! Would you want your son to be young and dirty? I thought God cleansed us? Then the megaflesh, mega-mess, Megafest came and brought in the Holy Hip Hoppers to perform and throw up gang signs for Jesus! And black churches everywhere saved up their money and went to mingle with the world to possibly meet a famous actor or performer! And while they were chasing their dream preacher to get a breakthrough, the youth where being indoctrinated to believe that HIp Hop is good and God uses booty shaking as a tool to minister!!
Holy Hip Hop is a product of these celebrity preachers that mix and merge secular music and themes in their ministries to draw crowds and validate their own passions for knowing celebrities and being in the mix of Hollywood actors and famous people. So, while they are chasing stars, the children need a babysitter. This is where Holy Hip Hop comes in. It acts as a sitter and replacement for real youth ministry. What kind of person would put a gospel gangsta, holy hoodlum, preachin' pimp, or theocratic thug up before a dying generation suffering from immorality, abortion, aids, gang violence, impurity, etc? A very selfish and self centered person!
So, if you are sitting in service and the announcements comes to the church that at the next youth conference or youth day, the Killaz For Christ are coming to minister to the youth, then you already know what your pastor is up to!
What a shame,
G. Craige Lewis
