When I first stepped out to be a full-time missionary through music and to artists, I pictured things going a little better than they did. A few days after I informed the right people of my decision, it seemed as though God was beginning to open doors to do what I loved – ministering through music and mentoring artists. Things were starting off with a bang! I shared the stage with some of my favorite worship leaders, and I went out of state AND out of the country to do music in a three-week span. I was offered an opportunity to mentor an artist that would have paid me considerably more than I was making at the church. I thought it was all God’s plan.

Then things started to turn. Concerts stopped coming… which meant income stopped coming. The opportunity with the artist never materialized. After talking and waiting for about nine months, I eventually had to cut off the expectation of any kind of partnership. My wife and I prayed about what to do and we agreed that God wanted to do something with our RISE community and with the music he had given me. We decided that my wife would begin working for a season until we were able to build something that sustained us. While she was glad to help, my identity as a man took a heavy blow.

To add to all of this, I underestimated the toll that life had taken on my emotions. There were some things that I didn’t take the time to deal with on an emotional level. Years of hurt and offense came to resurface as this transition was taking place. I was tired. My whole family was tired. I was in a dark place where my faith was shaken in a way that it had never been before. I still tried to press on and create an album in the middle of the pain. I felt like I had to press on and try to keep what little momentum I had left. I set a date for the release of my new CD and I failed miserably to meet it. I was so disappointed in myself. I came face-to-face with my own limitations and I felt inadequate to minister let alone lead. I was on the verge of losing hope. Then Jesus did a thing.

A church asked me to do a spoken word for their Easter services and the theme was “Hope”. I found myself in a situation where I had to write about God’s power in the middle of tragedy… and I was mad at God for allowing my personal tragedies to happen. I felt like He abandoned us. But something awesome happened. As I began to write, the Lord began to remind me of who He was. He is God and He is Sovereign. And He is Love! As I wrote, I could feel the healing begin to take place. Then, in His mercy, the Lord showed me where I went wrong and how to get back on track. He also showed me that everything that I was seeking was already around me. He placed all the right people around me to help me in this season. It was me that closed the door to His blessings by not participating in genuine community with others.

I’m happy to say that I’m coming out on the other side of this valley. I’m coming out with a new perspective. I’m coming out with a new passion and new energy to work. And I’m coming out ready to RISE. Things that bothered me don’t bother me as much anymore. I’m not chasing the validation of people. I know longer want to be in the “in” crowd with people who tolerate me instead of celebrate me. Getting left out of things and circles can only mean that God has something better. My hope is not in idols and temporary saviors when I serve a God who is so much greater.

I want to encourage you. When everything that you put your hopes in falls apart, just know that God allowed everything to be shaken so that you’ll know the difference between the temporary and the eternal. The shaking revealed the foundation. The shaking came, but it didn’t take you out. You’re still standing along with everything else that was supposed to remain. It’s time to rise, my friend. RISE.

TO LISTEN TO THE SPOKEN WORD THAT I WROTE DURING THIS TIME, CLICK HERE.

“And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grain. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.'”

Before being asked this question, I never really gave that idea much thought. I had to go back and read exactly where God placed the concept of work in the garden of Eden. It didn’t take long to see that God put Adam to work before the penalty for sin. And it sounds like it was pretty hard work too! Genesis 2:15 lets us know that God placed Adam in the garden “to tend and watch over it”. In verse 18, we see that Adam needs a helper so God makes Eve. So yeah, there was a lot of responsibility and work going on. So what’s the difference before the curse and after?

The difference was that, after the curse, the work that they were used to doing wouldn’t result in fruitfulness. They would actually have to work MORE and get LESS in return. As farmers, they would sow into a ground that was fighting against them and refusing to give them what their work was worth. (You know where I’m going with this.) The scripture tells us that mankind would still be able to eat grain from an unwilling ground. That was God’s mercy on display. But when the curse isn’t involved, we have a picture of hard work PLUS an environment that is willing to be a blessing to the sons of God. We see the investments of our work and time ALWAYS resulting in fruitfulness.

The key to fruitfulness is in the gospel. Do we really understand what Jesus did when He conquered sin and invited us to abide in Him? He is not a weak Jesus who sheepishly asks us if we would let him come into our heart. The Word made flesh rose victoriously, called us by name, transformed us, and baptized us into Himself. We are sons and daughters of God and JOINT HEIRS with Christ. This is the same Christ that ran up on a fig tree and was like, “I AM the Life. If you don’t want to be fruitful while I’m around you, then you’re the one cursed and not Me.” He flexed on a tree, y’all! He refused to live under the same curse of an unwilling ground that Adam did because fruitfulness has always been a top priority for God. “Be fruitful and multiply”, remember? And here’s the key: Jesus worked HARD. During one of His claims to be God in John 5:17, he says “My Father is always working and so am I.” But he only invested His time into what His Father told him to do. That’s why He was always producing fruit.

I want to encourage you as an artist. Don’t settle for working hard and barely getting a return. That’s not your portion as a son or daughter of God. And don’t let the world OUTWORK you. In one of her songs, Rihanna says “we sweat for a nickel and a dime, turn it into an empire.” If the world can make careers in music and artistry with limited resources and limited revelation in a world that is hostile to fruitfulness, then the people of God can do so much more. Remember who you are!

#RISE

When hurtful things happen to us, sometimes we truly believe that we’ve dealt with the situations and are able to move on. We never really take the time to grieve or heal. We just brush it off and go on for the sake of the family, the ministry, or whatever context we may find ourselves in at the moment. Transitions provide us with a space to breathe, examine situations and, most of all, examine ourselves. It’s at that place of examining ourselves that we find out that we’re not really ok. That was me.

My wife told me once that “the way you leave one season is the way that you’ll enter the next season”. I really do believe that to be true. I knew that if I left mad at everyone who did me wrong, then I would enter this next season unable to fully step into this new role of service that God has placed in front of me. There was just one problem. As much as I tried, I couldn’t let things go. I tried to remind myself of God’s love for me and how he forgave a sinner like me when I didn’t deserve it. But it didn’t work. I really needed God’s POWER to get over this stuff. Believe me, I felt like I had solid reasons to stay offended. I even used scripture to back up the fact that I didn’t have to forgive anyone who didn’t ask for my forgiveness. But the hurt and the ugly feelings towards people stayed. I had to give this whole thing to God. I told God that I couldn’t forgive even though my spirit wanted to. I told Him that I also knew that this unforgiveness would hinder me if I didn’t let it go.

On my way to a concert, I was praying in the Holy Spirit and I felt a huge weight lift from me. At that moment, I felt like I actually got the revelation that I was no one to hold anything against anyone else. I also felt something very special. I felt God’s love for me and His power to help me forgive everyone who hurt me. It was awesome! Only God gets the glory. Now I feel like I’m ready to receive everything that God has for me because my prayers aren’t hindered by an unforgiving heart. It gave me the confidence to know that God is for me so much that He would, in His grace, position my heart to be able to receive everything that He has for me. God is good.

I want to encourage you. A lot of friends, especially in our RISE family, are going through transitions. Reevaluation is happening. We’re beginning to rethink relationships, friendships, job situations, even theology… and basically life in general. God is moving us to a higher place. In the mind of God, the promotion was always going to happen. This new place that God has for was always reserved for us. The question is: are we really ready for it or are we going to hold on to the past by holding on to unforgiveness? You may never get the apology you need in order to forgive. As Jesus did, we must forgive those who do us wrong. (FOR)GIVE and GO do everything that God has called you to do. Live free! Greatness awaits.

#RISE

During the soundcheck for my concert last weekend, one of the volunteers came up to me and asked me how many people I would be attending the event with me. I started to add everyone up. “Well, I’ve got my family with me so that’s four total. Then I’ve got my drummer and his wife are with me.” My friend (who was also performing) had two people with him as well. The volunteer said to me, “We’re just gonna reserve two rows for all of you. Is that ok?” Two rows equaled about 14 chairs. I told the volunteer that it was great!

After the soundcheck, the service starts. I do my concert portion of the service, and then I go to the green room to cool down. I grabbed some water and headed back out into the service. If you know me, then you know that I don’t really like to draw attention to myself. I try so hard to be unnoticed that it’s to my hurt most of the time. There were over 500 people at this particular event… and here I am in the back of the building walking around in the dark and trying to find a seat in the back so that I wouldn’t bring any attention to me.

I finally found some seats that were blocked off. The event hosts obviously didn’t want anyone to sit there, but I’m one of the guest artists, right? So I snuck into this row that was blocked off and I just sat down. Oh yeah, there was this huge pole that was blocking my line of sight to a part of the stage and I was wayyy in the back. But I was unnoticed so I was good. Then the Holy Spirit whispers to me, “You have reserved seats in the front.” I totally forgot about those!  But the message had already started, and I couldn’t get up and walk to the front. That would bring too much attention to me when people should be listening wholeheartedly to the message. I decided that I was gonna stay right where I was… but that thought wouldn’t go away. I knew that God was actually challenging me to sit in the front. I stood up, walked to the front, and sat in my reserved seats. Something crazy happened when I did.

I didn’t hear anyone complaining about me distracting them as I was walking up to my seat. I didn’t hear anyone say, “Who does that guy think he is sitting in the front row?” I had plenty of room and I could see the stage clearly without a big pole in my way. Then came the lightbulb moment. People weren’t ever gonna be upset or even surprised that I sat in the front. In fact, people EXPECTED me to be in the front. In fact, some people probably thought that it was WEIRD that I WASN’T sitting in the front with the other guests. Then God started speaking to me again.

He told me that He has reserved places for me. These are places of influence. These are places of “more than enough” for me and for those who are with me. He told me that people are actually waiting for me to step into the places that God has reserved for me. Then He told me that I have actually been (1) holding myself back from receiving God’s full favor and (2) robbing others from receiving what God has given me… and I’ve been calling it humility. Ouch! In an attempt to blend in and feel like I’m no better than anyone else, I’ve been sabotaging my own mission. I wasn’t walking in humility as much as I was living by the fear of other people’s opinions and a mentality of lack.

So here I go. I’m embracing everything that God has called me to be. I’m not average. My life is a unique story that God is writing for all of eternity to read. And guess what? Your life is too. It’s time to RISE.

There, in front of me, was a telephone pole about 15 feet high. It had these metal rods sticking out from either side of it so that I could climb. My objective: climb the telephone pole and stand at the top. Easy, right? They attached me to a harness that looked like a pulley so that I wouldn’t fall and die. Guess who had the other end of the harness? Yeah. It was the TRAINEES! These were the same trainees who needed me to model the way for them. Now, my life was in their hands. I decided that I was going to do this without the need for their assistance. So up I went. As these things go, the people on the other end of the harness are supposed to give me lots of slack so that I couldn’t feel the safety of the harness. I felt like it was all up to me. No worries, though. I’m a pretty athletic person. I was doing great until about 10…no, maybe 11 feet up. I felt like the wind started moving the pole. I started thinking, “The trainees aren’t trained well enough on the harness to catch me.” “If they do catch me, I’ll probably swing back around and hit one of these metal rods.” “Wow, that’s a long way to fall.”

To give you some context, I actually love the birdseye view! It’s one of my favorite things about plane rides. Taking in the scenery from that high up can be encouraging and inspiring. So, for me, I’m not really afraid of being way up in the air. I love it! Knowing this about myself, I had to question what I was really afraid of on that telephone pole. The answer was that I was afraid of trusting whatever was responsible for keeping me up in the air. I was afraid that the telephone pole could blow over. I was afraid that the trainees couldn’t keep me safe while I was up in the air. I was afraid of the possibility of a painful fall if I couldn’t stay in the air.

I’m at a place in my life where this is true again. Two years ago, I began a climb called “Between Dreams and Reality”. The tagline was “there is glory…if you can endure the story”. And so my family and I began to climb…higher and higher. We’ve done some amazing things so far. God has carried our music ministry across the U.S. I’ve personally ministered to thousands of people, performed with some of the best artists out there, and recently partnered with Eddie James to bring rap into the conversation of today’s worship culture. Things are starting to get a little scary now. God is asking us to do more. He’s asking us to go higher. the “what if’s” are starting to creep in. And there’s a lingering fear that the grace that got us to this point may not be able to sustain us at the top. “Are we really made for the top? If this is where we are supposed to be, then why does everything seem so shaky? Why do I feel like the people who I need to trust the most may let me down?” We know it’s a lie in our minds, but it feels real.

As I got to the top of the telephone pole, there was one more awkward step for me to take before balancing myself on the top of the pole. This step took the longest for me to take. I was trying to figure out how I could do it without falling completely off of the pole. There was plenty of room at the top for both of my feet to fit, and I promise you that I would have taken that step quicker if I was 14 feet closer to the ground. After some encouragement from the trainees, I decided to take that final step. My legs were visibly shaking and everyone saw it. I took it anyway. I DID IT!

I want to encourage you right now. You may feel trapped between the urgency of climbing and the fear of falling. Don’t make your way down the pole of life. Don’t be afraid of heights. You were born to RISE.

If you’ve been following my story, then you know that this whole thing started out with a dream. Figuratively speaking, I’ve had a long-time dream of one day being a full time recording artist and minister. Although I’m currently employed at a church, my ideal situation would be to serve without the need to be paid as a staff member. I would love to make a living by doing what I love the most – music. In my pursuit of this dream, God would later give me a night dream that would map out the course of my family’s life for the next EIGHT years. It sounds crazy, but it really reminded me of some Joseph or Daniel type of stuff from the bible! To make a long story short, the dream started playing out in real life. Each season of my life, from then until now, can be categorized in certain scenes of a night dream that I had years ago.

So here we are today. A lot has changed since that dream. I’ve been blessed to be a part of some great opportunities. I’ve been the opening act for some of the best artists out right now. I’ve toured through different parts of the country with my own music. Beside the fact that I feel like I’m juggling a million things at once, I feel like life has been pretty good! It’s in this time of blessing that I’ve received my “aha” moment. I’m called to be a forerunner, and this journey wasn’t just for me. While I have a God-given dream of making a career out of music, God has a bigger dream. He has a dream for the city of San Antonio and beyond. He has a dream for the world. As grand as my dream may be to me, my dream is really just a dream WITHIN a dream! With this in mind, my question then becomes, “God, what is your dream and what is my part in it?” I believe that He’s answered that question for me.

First, God has a dream for my first ministry – my wife. As much as I love her, God loves her even more. He wants to see her become all that she was created to be even more than I do. My part to play in His dream for Jeneil will be to help lead her into her destiny while using my platform to give her voice the greatest reach that I can give it. God has given her a well of wisdom, and it’s her time to share it!

Second, God has a dream for His people to reach and strengthen the arts community in San Antonio and beyond. My role in God’s dream for the arts community is to create, strengthen and equip artist communities to intentionally live on mission in the arts space.

You’ll see how all of this unfolds really soon.

One of my bible school teachers used to say, “Someone is waiting on the other side of your obedience.” It’s a sobering thought that someone is counting on me to reach my full potential so that they can reach their full potential. Losing cannot be an option. For God’s glory and for the good of humanity, I MUST RISE. I want to encourage you to RISE UP! People are counting on you to win.

In the dream, I was in a pretty clean grocery store. It was a pretty well lit facility, and  I found myself stacking boxes with some of the workers. Have you ever had a dream where you knew certain things even though they were never directly communicated to you? In this dream, I knew that the job was super easy for me. I also knew that I was going to be getting a financial raise by choosing to work at this job. My family wasn’t in this part of the dream. It was just me and the workers. I also felt that my life calling wasn’t being fulfilled in the grocery store. I was just going through the motions. Then the scene switched…

My family and I were in the lobby of a business complex. It looked like a real shady place. The room lighting was really dim (like that dim yellowish kind of lighting). Between the lobby and the business area, there was a row of rooms with mattresses in them. I got the sense that, in order for people to get to business area, they had to spend some time in those rooms. My wife was dressed in business clothes and was headed towards the business area. I was sitting in the lobby with my daughters and a few other people. There was a lot of profanity being used in the lobby. I was concerned about the safety and innocence of my girls. Then the dream ended.

I woke up and knew what the dream meant. I would be presented with two options:

1. I could continue doing what I was used to doing (church leadership). It would be a nice and neat job that would come natural to me, but my family wouldn’t be active participants with me. I would get a financial raise.
2. I could go into the business sector. This would be a place that would not come natural for me (represented by the dim lights), and my wife would play a major role in leading this journey. It would be a place where we would encounter a lot of opportunities to compromise. I would have to become more intentional about the discipleship of my wife and kids in order to survive there.

Well, the dream is real. I was soon presented with the choice in real life. I can choose comfort or cultivation.

(click here to read part 2)

Well, the dream is real. A few weeks later, I received a random message from a church leader in Kansas. They wanted me to come and be their youth pastor. That one was easy to decline because…yeah…I didn’t feel like Kansas was for us! Shortly after that, I received another offer from another church here in San Antonio. A good friend told me that he heard about the position and the Holy Spirit brought my named to mind. This opportunity was a different story. I had old friends who attended the church. The staff is full of amazing people that I knew I could work with. I really liked the vision of the church. I even mentioned some stuff that I was reading in my personal time and they were already aware of the materials and seemed to be on the same page. After going back home and doing some calculations with my wife, I found out that I would also be getting an amazing financial raise with some great benefits. There would finally be some good margin in my family’s financial situation. We went to check out the church. The people were friendly, the facilities were nice, and there were great upcoming plans for expansion. We reconnected with old friends. The service was nice and neat…and it ended on time. It seemed like it would be something we could fit into. But then I remembered the dream. This was the well lit room where everything would come natural to me…and my family would just be tagging along for the ride.

During this time, my wife Jeneil was becoming more and more interested in…you guessed it…BUSINESS. I haven’t seen her this passionate about something (besides me) in a while! LOL! Seriously though. She’s been listening to podcasts, reading articles, and watching videos about entrepreneurship nonstop. The dream is real now. Do I commit to something that I know will help a particular part of the body of Christ and ease some financial strain for my family? Or do we blaze an unfamiliar trail together and see what happens?

Fulfilling my wife’s dreams has become very important to me. When we were married, she uprooted from the comfort zone of her family and friends in Florence, Alabama and came to join me in an unfamiliar city. I respect her so much for that. After almost 12 years, we are still trying to find out where and how she fits. She is a person who will serve anywhere behind the scenes. However, we both know that she has so much more passion and potential inside of her. I want her to find that place where service meets purpose. That’s where passion is ignited. It’s also important for another reason…

Growing up, I’ve seen many women follow their husbands around in ministry. They do stuff that they would never want to do in the name of submitting to their husbands. Years and years go by without them ever feeling like they have a unique calling from God. But I don’t see that in scripture. In the bible, I see the bride of Christ living in full submission to Jesus while discovering who the Father has uniquely created her to be. The bride of Christ isn’t tagging along on God’s global mission in a semi-depressed state. Unfortunately, this is what I see in a lot of ministry marriages. I vowed that this would never be us. I want to be like Jesus – intentionally leading my bride on a journey of discovery and adventure.

In the spirit of the dream and my convictions surrounding it, I declined the second youth pastor offer. I did it knowing that something would necessarily need to change with my current situation. We’re at a crossroads and it’s time to pull the trigger on some decisions. “Burn” and “GO!” have been on heavy rotation for me lately. I feel like it’s time for that leap of faith. It’s time to RISE.

Prayers please.

Let me say that the process of getting comfortable in our own skin is just that…a process. It’s a process that we have to be okay with. Until we’re comfortable with being ourselves, we’ll always run the risk of trading originality for acceptance. I’ve learned a lot of lessons about this. One story in particular comes to mind.

About 4 years ago, I was in a place where I really wanted to be busy with my concert schedule. I frequently did shows with a particular group of artists, and we would perform at various outreaches.  It was great, but there was just one problem: I came to a point where I didn’t want to travel with this group of artists and do the outreach concerts anymore. And that actually scared me. If you’re an aspiring artist, then you know that sometimes we’re just grateful to have shows. The more shows you have, the better it looks on the calendar. Everyone wants to look like they’re in high demand, right? This connection was where a lot of my concerts were coming from at the time. But while things were looking good on the calendar, I was dreading the next event. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1. The events were never really done well. Sure, the sound was decent…but that was about it. Reaching people in excellence seemed to be an afterthought.
2. I was doing the concerts out of guilt. I thought that if I declined an invitation to do a free event, then I must be in it for the money.
3. The group of artists started to be seen as some special group who got all the shows. I got this feel from a promoter too. I didn’t want to be a part of that.

There was one more reason why I dreaded the concerts. It was because they were mainly street evangelism events. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that street evangelism is needed. But at that time, I was questioning if I was the one to do them. My passion was (and is) to help strengthen the body of Christ for ministry. Maybe my upbringing in the church environment has something to do it. Maybe that’s just how God wired me. Either way it goes, posting up outside with a speaker system in hopes that people will hear the message is not really my thing. I can and will do it if God directs me. In fact, I do a couple of yearly outreaches that are pretty much like that. God always shows up and blesses it. However, I don’t wake up thinking, “Man, I can’t wait to post up on the next block for Jesus!” It took me a while to realize that these feelings did NOT mean that I didn’t love Jesus or souls. I’m not a lover of money if turn down a free outreach with 100 other artists on the lineup. I finally got to a place where I was able to tell one of the guys not to book me for any more events with the group. It was uncomfortable, but in the end I was okay. The energy that I used to “fit in” could now be redirected towards carving out my own lane.

The journey continues. Today, I find myself being faced with challenges that feel more like barriers to me fully expressing what God has put inside of me. Working for a church (and specifically in children’s and youth ministry) is awesome, but it can also present a few challenges to me as an artist. I feel like there is this unspoken expectation to say nice, kid-friendly things all of the time. I also feel like I can’t say too much about struggles within church life. People might think that I’m talking about my specific congregation or specific people within the congregation. And if I were to talk about specific things that I’ve experienced, where is the line between authenticity and putting church people on blast? I try to be a very honest person, but will I ever be okay with being honest in these situations? The answer is simple: I have to be okay with being truthful.  I have to be authentic. It’s who God calls me to be AND it’s what good art is all about. It will require humility and honor, but I can’t just remove honesty. I also have to be okay with my music being explicitly centered on the gospel when a lot of Christian rap artists seem to be steering away from that. I have to be okay with making music that doesn’t sound like a stereotypical rap project. Mixing genres and experimenting isn’t for everyone, but it is for ME. In choosing to be true to who God made me, I’m doing my unique part to display God’s greatness while introducing a new normal to the culture connoisseurs around me.

What are the areas in your life where you need to be a bit more comfortable in your own skin?

I’m excited to announce that my video “Dreamers” won Best Music Video at the Christian Worldview Film Festival! You may have already heard the good news, but you may not know why this is so special. I know that a lot of you who are following me on this music journey are true supporters…which may mean that you might be excited just because I am! Lol! (Thank you for that, by the way.) I want to share as much of the details of this journey as I can because, well, we’re basically traveling this road together. If you’ve ever supported me, then you’re invested to some degree. And I don’t take that lightly. So please check out our “award-winning video” and then I’ll share with you why winning was so cool…

I don’t know if you recall, but last year I actually performed at the film festival. It’s one of the largest Christian film festivals in the country! That performance was actually a big deal because, up until that point, they had never experienced rap at the festival. I was the first, and it was an honor to add a different flavor to the festival. Unfortunately, not everyone was as excited as I was about the inclusion of hip hop. First, I heard that there were a few complaints after my performance. Others came up to me personally and told me that they didn’t like the style of music but appreciated the message. That was kind of funny to me because I toned my performance waaaay down for that occasion. Like…I transitioned from rap into an all out worship set and everything. I started to realize what a bold move it was for the founder of the festival to invite me to perform.

During last year’s festival, I also couldn’t help but make a few observations while there. One observation was that I stuck out like a sore thumb lol! There wasn’t a lot of racial or cultural diversity represented at the festival. I don’t think that this was an intentional move. I just think that it was something that naturally happened over time. We all have a natural bend to gravitate towards what is most familiar and comfortable. The funny thing is that they shared more in common with this rapper than they thought. After talking with some of the people there, I found out that many of the young people grew up with a similar experience to mine – homeschooled and living in the bubble of Christian culture. (I distinctly remember being young and thinking that rap music was bad…until I saw it on TBN.) Needless to say, I walked away from last year’s film festival thinking, “Wow, that was fun! It’ll probably never happen again, but it was fun.”

Well as God would have it, some of the young people reached out to me after last year’s festival and asked if they could shoot a video for me. Among them was Patience Pennington. We ended up collaborating on the “Dreamers” video with another guy named Bear Hanrahan. The video turned out incredibly well! Sometime later, they asked me if they could submit it to the film festival. Me and my optimistic/pessimistic self agreed to it with excitement but didn’t think it would get very far based on the reception of my last performance there. There were too many similarities. “Dreamers” would have been the first rap video submitted to the festival. I attended a breakfast during this year’s film festival and it appeared that the demographic hadn’t changed much since last year. The people were super friendly but for some reason I didn’t think that this crowd was ready for the cultural leap. I was wrong.

The “Dreamers” lyric video ended up winning Best Music Video in the festival making it the first rap video to win an award there! Since the win, I’ve been able to connect to other great movie producers and actors who’s films have hit the “silver screen”. And while winning the award is great, I’m more excited about the prospect of the Christian film industry beginning to recognize God-glorifying art coming from the hip hop culture. I’m no activist for hip hop, but I am an activist for kingdom expression here on the earth which includes worship from every tribe, language and people group.

We all come from different backgrounds and cultures. That’s awesome because it means that the kingdom of God can effectively reach many cultures from a place of authenticity. I’d love to hear from you. What are some things that you are currently doing to add your distinct flavor in today’s culture?  Let me know in the comments.