The BBC reports on a major hoax pulled by Scottish rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd. The college friends pretended to be Americans and lived a lie for three years in order to secure a record deal and tour the UK and eventually the world as rappers. The hoax lasted until the truth caught up with them […]
Editor’s Note: This is a short article for the purpose to generate conversation based on the book The Good Life by Trip Lee. Please join us on each Thursdays for our book discussion.* Last week we looked at some of the lies we believe when we consider what the good life should look like. Today […]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past 48 hours, you’ve probably seen the video by now. Sunday, during a service at T.D. Jakes’ Potter’s House Church, Tyler Perry stood before the congregation and announced a sizable $1 million dollar donation to a youth center the church is developing. Before he took his seat though, he […]
Editor’s Note: This is a short article for the purpose to generate conversation based on the book The Good Life by Trip Lee. Please join us on each Thursdays for our book discussion.* We don’t want to admit it, but we fall for lies every day. Each day we are presented with a promise of […]
What exactly is the good life? Is it retirement, riches, relaxation, minimal responsibility, ease? Sounds rather good to me. But maybe there’s something more. I want to find out and I’d love for us to discover it together. Over the next several weeks we will be going through The Good Life, written by hip-hop artist […]
Most churches find teaching the Scriptures to be a daunting task in an increasingly unbiblical culture. Add to that the difficulty of sharing God’s Word with the illiterate and the church’s growing wariness over a tech-saturated gospel and the difficulty increases. However, there are some who display a keen desire to bear the burden of […]
Kendrick Lamar has single handedly challenged every rapper to get better! At least that’s what I’m supposed to believe after his featured verse on Big Sean’s song, “Control”. For those who don’t know, Kendrick is a young, up and coming rapper from Los Angeles known for his ability to weave words together in complex ways. He’s a talented […]
As a twenty-something year old African-American and native of Jay-Z’s hometown, Brooklyn, my cultural surroundings were embedded with Jay-Z’s music. To say that Jay-Z was celebrated among my peers would be an understatement: the reality is that I had friends who digested his brilliant lyricism for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And many of them, as most inner-city kids […]
Recently, The Gospel Coalition published an article written by Joe Carter called, “Preachers of L.A. Brings the Prosperity Gospel to Reality TV”. I appreciate what Joe Carter had to say in this article, and know that it is going to take many more articles, sermons, and books like this to expose the prosperity gospel for what […]
Since 2002, Jim Ward has been the Director of Music at New City Fellowship, a Reformed, multicultural congregation in Chattanooga Tennessee. Ward is a highly skilled musician with a love for God, a passion for sound theology, and a great respect for the musical expressions of other cultures. Add to that mix the chops to […]
I recently read my brother Odd Thomas’ blog entitled, “We are a Kanye,” which was written in response to Kanye West’s song, “I am a God.” I applaud Odd Thomas’ astute observation of the pervasiveness of idolatry in our hearts as well as the tendency to see ourselves as much further along than we actually […]
Last week, Huffington Post contributor Yvette Carnell published “Why Black Liberals Need to Take Back [The] Black Agenda From The Black Church.” In it, the founder of the Breaking Brown media hub felt she “made the case” that the Black Church had outlived its political usefulness, and should take a back seat to Black liberals […]
Earlier this week Hip Hop artist, Lecrae, visited the set of 106 and Park. As someone who grew up watching the show, it was a bit surreal to see one of my favorite artist on that set, though he has been on the show a few times now. Most Christian hip hop fans thought that […]
How do you respond when you are racially profiled? Maybe this has never happened to you, but it happens to me all the time. The offenders of this kind of racial profiling aren’t racist white police officers. They aren’t white TSA agents looking to find a person with the “right” skin tone to hassle. The […]
In 1978, Andrae Crouch released his project “Live In London”, his seventh album with his group at the time, the Disciples. Crouch, a very influential composer and musician in the Gospel genre, broke new ground with each and every song he penned. With songs such as “The Blood (Will Never Lose Its Power)”, “Through It […]
Muslim Christian Dialogues held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates every two years. Three hours of engaging discussion between experts in their respective faiths. Watch live streaming video from mcdialogues at livestream.com
Here is a good article by George Weigel over at First Things entitled “Tribulation Compounded by Blasphemy.” As the Revised Standard Version renders the fourteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas remind the proto-Christians of Antioch that it is only “through many tribulations” that we enter the Kingdom of God. The New […]
Recently, Pastor Eric Mason released his new book entitled Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole. RAAN is excited about this book and we intend to do whatever we can to spread the word about it. As promised, we will release several excerpts from the book hoping that our readers will become intrigued by its content. We […]
