Ghetto Celeb

Holy culture

Renee emcee of LVC aka RD(rapping Dj) and Jehra da Kobbla aka Dj Bledz host a gospel entertainment show(Holy culture) on campus FM, a student training radio at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. They are both 3rd year Mass communications students with a dream to start their own Christian Radio under The No-hell minnistries International of LVC. www.nhminternational.bravehost.net

ADVOCATE 4 THEOCRATIC RULE: The Christian Living In Hip-hop Times(part 1)by The Ambassador

www.theambassadoronline.com
www.crossmovement.com

song of songs 8:6

Sermon on Song of Songs 8:6-7

By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman

This sermon was preached on February 8, 1998

Song of Songs 8:6-7

"Keep the Flame Burning"IntroductionI have officiated at 57 weddings. Never once has the bride been dragged kicking and screaming down the aisle. Not once has the groom spoken his vows with the bride's father holding a gun to his head. On every occasion, without exception, the event was entirely voluntary. The man and the woman really wanted to enter into a marriage relationship. The man and the woman, using the words of our text, want to say to each other:
Place me like a seal over your heart,like a seal on your arm ...In the Ancient World a seal was used much like a signature on a document today. Seals were used to make letters and commands official. They were used to close business deals and treaties. They represented power and authority. So, for example, when Pharaoh's ring was given to Joseph (Gen. 41:42) and when Ahasuerus' ring was given to Haman and then to Mordecai after Haman was hanged (Est 3:10,12; 8:2), these men were given the authority of the king. Needless to say, seals were important and valuable. To keep them safe they were either worn on a chain around the neck or as a ring on the finger.When a bride and groom say to one another the words of the lover and the beloved of the Song of Songs they are asking to be treated and guarded as a precious seal:
Place me like a seal over your heart,like a seal on your arm ...They want to lie always upon the other's heart and to be always at the other's side. They want to be united and bound to each other.There is a reason for these romantic words. The reason is love. But not just any love. The reason is marital love.I Marital LoveA In four statements our text describes marital love as the strongest, most unyielding and invincible force in human experience. Marital love is a strong love, an enduring love, a never ending love.What is marital love like? First, marital "love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave." This comparison may surprise you — comparing marital love to death and the grave. But think about it: death is the end of every man; no one can escape it; to it everyone must finally yield. Marital love is like this in that it also seizes upon men and women with irresistible force. Marital love, as it were, kills the person it afflicts in regards to everything and anyone else.
Topic: MarriageSubtopic: Index: 1620-1621Date: 2/1998.101Title: Meadow Larks and RainbowsA story is told of a farm girl who spoke of sparrows that sang like meadow larks and of rainbows that formed in the soap bubbles when the dishwater was thrown on the road. Then in bated breath she gave the reason for such fantasy: "My lover kissed my eyes last night."Marital love means that the one you love has in love chosen you above all others on the earth.
I take you — from among all others —to love and cherish — above all others ...B What is marital love like? Second, marital love "burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame." Think of a red-hot fire. It consumes everything in its flames. Marital love is like that. The lover and the beloved are inflamed by each other. There is a spark between them. Lightning flashes when they come together. Today, books, movies, and soap operas depict sex — not marital love — as a fire that engulfs two people. But God's will is that this flame of desire be within the context of marital love.C What is marital love like? Third, "many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away." Floods can cause a horrifying amount of damage. Tidal waves strike fear into the hearts of those who live along costal regions in Asia. Buildings, cars, and people are tossed around like so many match sticks. When there is a flood or a tidal wave a mighty fire can be extinguished just like that. But the fires of marital love cannot be quenched. No circumstances, no matter how bad they may be, can snuff out the flame of marital love.D What is marital love like? Fourth, "If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." Marital love cannot be bought or sold. A couple of years ago a movie hit the theaters about a newlywed woman who agreed to go to bed with a stranger for a million bucks. True love, marital love, cannot be bought like this. In fact, it is not up for sale. There is no price that can be placed upon it.Marital love is love that lasts. Or, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 13, it is love that "never fails."II Keep the Flame BurningA I hope that every married couple has this love, this strong marital love that the Song of Songs sings about and rejoices in. However, with Valentine's Day approaching, what I want to explore with you is how to keep the flame of that love burning, and burning brightly.It starts off with the Lord Jesus. This is nothing new to anyone here — or it shouldn't be. We can love each other as husbands and wives with a strong, unending, enduring marital love only when we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. To keep the flame burning Jesus needs to be the Head and Center of our home, the Lord of our marriage, the Cornerstone upon which our house rests. Only in union with Jesus can we, as Christian couples, keep the flame burning.B How do you keep the flame burning? I have a word for you. It is an old-fashioned word. It is word that the world smiles about. It is a word that our secular neighbors don't use and don't care to hear. The word is commitment.
Topic: MarriageSubtopic: Index: 1620-1621Date: 2/1998.101Title: CommitmentThere is a custom in an area of the Netherlands where a newlywed couple enter their house through a special door. The door is never used again until one dies and the body is carried out through that same door. God designed marriage like that house. It has one door that is locked tightly. That lock, which keeps the marriage bond secure, is loving commitment for life.Those with the marital love that the Song of Songs talks about make a commitment to each other. They view marriage as a promise that is made to be kept. They realize that God keeps His promises to us, and likewise He expects us to keep our promises to each other.Commitment. This means that Christian couples give no thought to ending the marriage. Commitment. This means they keep the marriage bed pure (Heb 13:4). Commitment. This means they love each other — as the marriage vows put it — for richer and poorer, in health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, as long as they both shall live.Our world thinks we are foolish to have commitment. Our world thinks we are just plain silly to keep our word. Can you imagine a couple saying to each other that no matter what, they will love, honor, cherish, trust, and protect? The world says this but adds the little word "until." The man and woman of the world says, "I will love, honor, cherish, and protect until I find someone better, until I get sick and tired of you, until I am no longer happy."To keep the flame burning, we need commitment.C How do you keep the flame burning? Together with commitment you need to have high expectations for your marriage. Or as Proverbs puts it, "rejoice in the wife of your youth" (Proverbs 5:18). It is possible to have joy and fulfilment in marriage. Don't ever assume, just because so many marriages are falling apart, that yours is doomed. Don't ever assume that just because everyone else seems to be giving up, you must too. Don't ever quit on your marriage. In other words, live under the assumption that the wife of your youth will also be the wife of your middle age and the wife of your old age as well. Assume that you will be happy together. Have high expectations for your marriage if you want to keep the flame burning.D How do you keep the flame burning? To keep the flame burning husbands and wives need to rediscover romance and the language of romance. Listen, for a moment, to some of the words of chapter 1:
(The woman) (2) Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for your love is more delightful than wine. (The man) (9) I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh. (10) Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. (15) How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves. (The woman) (16) How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming!This may not be the language of our romance; yet, men and women today still do and even must talk the language of romance if they want to keep the flame burning.Let me ask: when is the last time you romanced your spouse? I hope this is a daily occurrence in your home. When is the last time you complimented and praised your wife or husband? I hope this is a daily occurrence in your home. When is the last time you expressed your desire and affection for your marriage partner. I hope this too is a daily occurrence in your home.A survey was recently done on what wives want to hear from their husbands. The following list may seem obvious, but men don't say the obvious often enough:
Topic: MarriageSubtopic: Index: 1620-1621Date: 8/1990.5Title: "Put on your best dress. I'm taking you out for the evening.""Let's take a walk together. Just the two of us.""You are always so thoughtful (sensitive, caring).""I love your eyes (legs, ears).""You're the best wife a man could hope for. If I had to do it over again I would marry you.""When I think about you I get a warm feeling all over.""I'm going to town. Is there anything I can get you?""It's just a little something I bought to say 'I love you.'"I can hear it already: the protests of some of the men sitting in front of me this evening, men who think this is totally unnecessary and dismiss romance as an Emily Post kind of thing to do. Hold it, men! You're not getting off that easy. Think back to your wedding day. Remember your promise? You promised to love your wife till death do you part. The kind of love that a woman needs and God's Word demands includes romance. You heard me right: God's Word requires husbands to romance their wives.Men, do you live up to this? Do you romance your wife? Do you look after her emotional needs? Do you make her happy? I'm afraid that America is facing a crisis in the family because too many men renege on their God-given responsibilities. Men, you are called to care for your wives, to make them happy, to love and to cherish, to romance. Instead, too many men think only of their own needs, pleasures, and status. Is it any wonder that low self-esteem is a problem among women today? Is it at all surprising that many women today complain of loneliness, isolation, and boredom?So this message needs to be heard by the man who is a workaholic, the man who works 6 or 7 days a week, the man who comes home every night absolutely exhausted. This man doesn't have the time or energy to romance his wife or spend time with his children. This sort of man deserves the marital conflict and familial discord that is certainly coming.This message also needs to be heard by the husband who spends all his non-working hours on his own pleasures: fishing, golfing, boating, sports, tv, books. Yes, everyone needs recreation, but when these activities come at the expense of a wife's emotional well-being and a child's need for attention, then they have gone too far.This message also needs to be heard by those men who spend all their non-working time on church and kingdom activities or in community activities. Yes, it is important work for the Lord you are doing in these areas. But your wife and children are more important.Finally, this message also needs to be heard by those men who spend all their free time with friends and acquaintances. Everyone needs friends and it is important to be there for friends who need your help, but your wife and children still ought to come first.But I don't want to blame all marital and family woes on the husband. For every complaint women have against men, there is a corresponding bellyache on the other end of the line. Women can be just as selfish and irresponsible as their men. With 700 wives and 300 concubines, King Solomon saw this more than once. Listen to what he says in Proverbs about one or two of his Valentines:
(Proverbs 21:9) Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (Proverbs 21:19) Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (Proverbs 27:15) A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; An old Arab proverb says 3 things makes a house unbearable: tak, nak, and bak. In the English: the leaking through of rain, a wife's nagging, and bugs. A wife who nags, quarrels, and complains is as bad as a husband who neglects, ignores, and forgets. A wife who lets herself go to pot, who looks like she spent the night in a tornado, is no inducement to romance. It should be obvious that neither the husband nor the wife has a monopoly on offensive behavior.ConclusionHelmut Thielicke, in his book How the World Began, made this observation:
Topic: MarriageSubtopic: Index: 1620-1621Date: 2/1998.101Title: I once knew a very old married couple who radiated a tremendous happiness. The wife especially, who was almost unable to move because of old age and illness and in whose kind old face the joys and sufferings of many years had etched a hundred lines, was filled with such a gratitude for life that I was touched to the heart. Involuntarily, I asked myself what could possibly be the source of this kindly person's radiance. In every other respect they were common people, and their room indicated only the most modest comfort. But suddenly I knew where it all came from, for I saw those two speaking to each other, and their eyes hanging upon each other. All at once it became clear to me that this woman was dearly loved.It was not because she was a cheerful and pleasant person that she was loved by her husband all those years. It was the other way around. Because she was so loved she became the person I saw before me.When it comes to sex and romance, our society celebrates the young and the beautiful. Every magazine stand, every commercial, every movie portrays only well-curved young women and well-muscled young men. Yet, the Bible does not think of limiting this to the young. Again I think of the words of Proverbs, "rejoice in the wife of your youth" (5:18).The point is this: it is possible for any couple — young or old — to keep the flame burning. It starts with the Lord Jesus. It requires commitment. It calls for high expectations. And, it involves romance.Why don't you make this your Valentine's Day present to each other?

STREET GOSPEL

Ma Rap band is working on our debut album, STREET GOSPEL, which underlines our whole vision and purpose-Taking the gospel beyond church boarders(da streets). It is gonna be a twelve track album with our first two singles as bonus tracks... LVC(da Levite Clan) was originally composed of 6 members(2 lady vocalists, 1 male vocalist and three emceez((rappers)). Currently, it is composed of 1 male vocalist and three emceez. Considering we is a clan, this number is so small and our desire is to conscript more into the clan for the sake of the gospel of Jesus christ. Other projects include our yet to be rekoding studio, NO-HELL rekodz, LVC Images(web and poster design), Nissise Apparel(clotheline), No-Hell Videos(video production). For info about our other ministries, pliz check out www.lvcemceez.4t.com

The Christian Living In Hip-hop Times(part 1)by The Ambassador

Objective:

I quickly want to address 2 things because they are rapidly becoming FAQ’s:

• Why Are Christians Defending Hip hop?
• "Christian rap vs christian hip-hop"

Goal:

To persuade those of you who aren’t hardened in your bias to believe that there are many Christians who are apart of the hip hop people group but are more interested in the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ than hip hop itself.
To encourage the Church not to shrink back from embracing Christian ambassadors of Jesus Christ who properly submit their hip hop-ness to the lordship of Jesus.
To To explain why “Christian hip hop” is something that is being made too big a deal of.
To encourage greater thought and research among those Christians who have good intentions, but have never biblically worked through the complex issue of the Christian and hip hop.

Q: "WHY ARE CHRISTIANS DEFENDING HIP HOP?"

It’s so villainous, it’s so sinful; it’s got to be demonic! Why are you Christians defending hip hop? Lately I keep hearing this question and I look in all directions as if to say, “who me?” I’m not defending hip hop! Don’t get it twisted, I know that a lot of people are defending hip hop, but I’m not apart of the camp that feels that need. However, for almost 14 years I have been on a mission to reach the hip hop people group with the gospel as an indigenous missionary to the culture. Every so often I am forced to provide a biblical defense for my claim to be called to reach hip hop culture, and more specifically to reach it indigenously (as a native to it). This current defense would not even be necessary if there had not been a recent revival of anti-Christian hip hop sentiment. This sentiment is from of old, and it is an attempt to make the church detest the hip hop culture to the point where the church ceases to be a missionary to it, and ceases to be a haven for those Christians who consider themselves to be apart of the Christian hip hop community. Let’s dive in.

LET’S GO BACK…

Recently it seems as though hip hop has become the new hot topic in the church. Pastors are buying DVD’s and having their whole congregations (not just the youth group) look at it. They are having discussions and forums about hip hop and often the conclusion is “away with hip hop—away with Christian hip hop!” Long before Craig Lewis’ rise to church-fame many Christians like myself were boldly and radically living out the glorious Christian faith with many of the non-sinful aspects of hip hop still visible. There were talks of us looking like the world, but as our Christ-like character shined it became difficult for our critics to deny the fact that our primary allegiance was to Christ. Several of our critics became our allies as they became convinced that we were not advocates of the sins within hip hop, only advocates of Christ being lord of the non-sinful elements of hip hop. Daily we lived out the commands of Christ in the sight of a world that was growing in regards to its hip hop orientation. During that time, the church hailed us as beautiful models of what it meant to be in but not of the culture. It was as though we had become a display of Christ-likeness with a hip hop twist.
One thing had become apparent, we shared a common faith with Christians who had no hip hop connection, and we shared certain aspects of a common culture with those who had a deep hip hop connection. This delicate balance is learned over time and through much biblical searching. When the Christian faith is properly integrated with any culture, a beautiful and biblical combination is there present. The fact that our anchoring faith could be lived out through our indigenous culture was news that we had hoped and prayed for. We had no desire to go off to the side and “do our little hip hop thing,” we wanted to be accepted as apart of the nucleus of the church by our elders and leaders in the faith. We expected to run into some immature people in Christ who would not be able to get beyond our exterior because we see so much of this in the bible. Biblically speaking, one of the marks of spiritual immaturity is a faulty value system. The Corinthians measured value and status the same way their surrounding culture did, so like the culture and unlike God, they despised small and weak things. In our present day, I believe something similar is happening. God sees the Christian in hip hop one way, and the church sees us the opposite way. The church can sometimes tend to esteem the appearance of godliness more than godliness itself. When this happens some people judge our Christianity by our appearance, while others will evaluate us on the bases of our faith, conduct, speech and character.
Until recently the Christian hip hopper was enjoying a time of harmony within the church. A glorious example of Ephesians 2:13-16 was in full blaze—one new man made up formerly opposing people groups. Sure, things have not been perfect, but we experienced a time of relative peace between the older generation of believers and this younger generation of believers. Our connection to the non-sinful aspects of hip hop culture was no barrier to our fellowship; in fact this was the key to a strategic partnership. A ministry like Cross Movement was able not only to rise under these conditions, but also flourish. God used us to spread Christ-centeredness through the means of hip hop music and many believers were strengthened in their resolve to be unashamed Christian witnesses. Hip hop provided us, and groups like ours, the platform to communicate our biblical affections to the hip hop generation and beyond. We were proud to bear the name Christian, and we welcomed being the smell of death to some and the smell of life to others (2 Cor 2:15-16). After many years of faithful service, CM and others were developing “family credibility.” The church was embracing us and we embraced the church. The church encouraged us to glorify God in our uniqueness while maintaining a commitment to Christian unity. We aspired to do just that. We sought to maintain an oneness with Christians through the centuries while still fulfilling a God given obligation to the surrounding mission field of hip hop culture.
Our mission field has been, and will continue to be the very context that God called us in—the hip hop context. We have been informing this contingent that the church at large is taking an interest in their souls. However, true religion as the apostle James reminds us, is not primarily mystical. True Christianity acknowledges a person's spiritual and social needs. The world is not accustomed to seeing a hip hop that has been sifted through God’s word. They only know godless rap and godless hip hop culture. For many of them the thought that God will accept them is far-fetched. To the hip hop generation we announce that they can become apart of God’s family without being totally stripped of their social identity. This great news is now being frustrated by the recent attack on the whole concept of “Christ and hip hop” or “Christian hip hop.” As Christians and church leaders develop distaste for Christian hip hop, the church moves further away from the idea of using the Christian hip hopper as a missionary to the hip hop generation, or making a place for Christian hip hop converts.

SO WE ARE NOT DEFENDING HIP HOP

While we are not defending hip hop, we are reminding people of the biblical principle of unity and diversity, the reconciliation of all things, and the rights of all people to enjoy God within the context of their natural elements (as long as those elements are not sinful). We do not deny the sinfulness that exists in the hip hop culture. We do not minimize the crimes committed by the culture, and we have no intention of defending hip hop in the least bit. We simply want to stress that hip hop needs the gospel, and that means hip hop needs indigenous Christian missionaries. Those of us that are Christians of the hip hop generation, desire to display a version of the culture that is absent of the sins that the secular culture has become known for. We want to surrender our culture to the lordship of Christ so that He can use it for his redemptive purposes. We need the whole church to do this.
Stay tuned…
We are asking the church to stay tuned for the implications of properly viewing the relationship of Christians to hip hop. There are too many implications to even begin addressing at this point. However, don’t let your fear or lack of understanding make you a hard hearted skeptic. Let the Scriptures be brought to bear on the subject. Allow me and many of my associates to lay the issue out for you socially, theologically and missionally, and we will all see God glorified among a people that were not his people.

CHRISTIAN “RAP” VS. CHRISTIAN “HIP HOP”
WHY DO WE HAVE TO USE THE TERM CHRISTIAN HIP HOP, WHY CAN’T WE JUST CALL IT CHRISTIAN RAP?

THE PLATINUM QUESTION…
People often ask the question,
“Why can’t we call it Christian rap instead of using the word “hip hop”.
People are being persuaded that God is cool with Christian rap, but not with Christian hip hop. The argument goes, “Rap is just music, and hip hop is sinful culture, so God will accept Christianized music, but he will not have anything to do with a sinful culture.” This is more than an issue of semantics; this is an issue of Christian perspective. Whether we are dealing with music or a culture, God can transform it and get glory from it.
The transformation of music is as simple as redirecting the music to reflect and promote God’s mindset through the lyrics and goal of the song. The transformation of culture requires the transformation of people because people are at the heart of culture. This process is much more complicated which is probably why many people would rather not even deal with this part. When it’s music—“just change the words.” When dealing with culture you’ve got to change the heart, and this something that only God can do. However he does it through people and that is where you and I come in. The church has to decide whether or not to throw the culture out with the sins, or address the sins in order to see a change in the culture.
Christian Rap vs. Christian Hip Hop
Within the church, the term hip hop is becoming taboo. Even using the term “Christian hip hop” is taboo for some. When people express a desire to substitute the term rap for hip hop I always find this interesting since both terms, rap and hip hop, were coined by the secular world. So if both things and both terms have a secular origin, why are we struggling between which one a Christian can and cannot “Christianize.” Something fishy is going on, and it seems to me that the same people that clearly hate or dislike hip hop, apparently like rap. They can kick hip hop to the curb but they want to hold on to their rap. Since they don’t want to ruin their chances of enjoying Christian rap they convince people that God is not opposed to Christian rap. While they say this, they insist that he is opposed to Christian hip hop. Now we know that secular rap and secular hip hop are both godless. We also know that some Christian rap and rappers are godless as well. So how is it that we keep hearing some Christians say that we can keep rap if it is submitted to Christ, but hip hop can’t even be submitted to Christ?
THE TRUTH ABOUT RAP AND HIP HOP
You say, “Rap is just music, but hip hop is a sinful culture (way of life).” You are right about both things, but many of you refuse to believe that sin is not inherent to the original agenda of hip hop (that can be fully defended another time). Hip hop originally was just a combination of four platforms of expression, capable of serving whoever got the crowd’s attention. Like money—money is not evil, but it simply magnifies the abilities of the one in control of it. In the hands of terrorist money can be used to fund diabolical acts, in the hands of the church it can be used to carry out the Great Commission. Likewise, hip hop (a more comprehensive way of expressing yourself) as well as rap (a single format for expressing yourself) can be used to carry out the agenda of Satan or Jesus.
Another thing that many of you refuse to believe (no matter how many times you hear it), is that hip hop can be distinguished from the sinful acts committed by or in the name of hip hop. Listen to this statement by Africa Bambatta, one of the original organizers of hip hop affairs:
Due to their lack of knowledge about the whole of Hip Hop culture, many of our world’s youth are mistaken in thinking that activities such as: smoking blunts, drinking 40’s, wearing a designer label plastered across their chest, carrying a gun, or going to strip clubs are “Hip Hop.” Hip Hop is being portrayed negatively by many artists who work in the element of Rap (emceeing), and this negativity is usually instigated and promoted by the record industry and various other corporations who exploit the culture at the expense of the youth’s state of mind and morality.1
Did you read that? Even one of the pivotal and earliest influencers of hip hop (who’s not a Christian) declares that there is a difference between what we see being perpetrated in hip hop, and what hip hop really is. Hip hop is a servant of whoever is setting its agenda, and right now the world is setting its agenda. But in Christian hip hop, some of us diligently strive to insure that Christ sets the agenda. Hip hop is no more than the tint through which the light of God’s glory can shine. We know that God’s truth alone changes lives, but preaching has been describes as “truth poured through personality.” The “personality” is not the truth, but it is simply the means of providing variety in God’s diverse world.
People are at the root of culture, and neither people nor their culture can just be thrown away. Aspects of their culture can be discarded when those aspects offend God, but you cannot force total cultural assimilation on any group. You see it’s easy to throw away something you don’t care about, but it’s hard to let go of something you feel an attachment to. It is even in Craig Lewis’ interest to make people believe that Christian rap is ok, because he produces Christian rap and he supports his own Christian rappers (how convenient?). I don’t expect him to relent from his position, but many of you are just being dragged through the mud of his unbiblical positions without really allowing someone who knows both the Bible and the issue of hip hop culture to help you work through a biblical understanding of this issue.
JUST A WORD OF CAUTION…
Please recognize that it may sound spiritual to boycott every secular contribution to humanity, but THIS IS NOT SPIRITUAL BECAUSE THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL! Don’t mistake me for advocating godless secularism, but I do know that many Christians know that everything secular is not inherently sinful or off-limits to the Christian. The term secular can be used simply to describe “that which is not specifically related to religion or to a religious body.” That includes words like “basketball,” “book,” “music,” and other terms that are not necessarily religious in their use. Rap and hip hop are secular, but both can be sanctified by God and made profitable for the Christian.
So simply switching the words rap and hip hop does not help the Christian; they are both secular until Christ gets a hold of them. Christians can use both of these terms and participate in both of these cultural forms without feeling like they are copying the world. God forbids that Christians copy the world’s values, agendas, doctrines, etc., but there is much that we are meant to share with the surrounding world. To distinguish ourselves in this world we modify terms, abandon certain practices, and redirect agendas. This is a part of the reason why some of us even chose to put Christian in front of hip hop, so that we could serve notice that our hip hop has undergone a change in management. Even this decision to put “Christian” in front of hip hop makes other Christian groups mad. They insist that, there’s no such thing as Christian plumbing, or Christian horse racing, or Christian dry cleaning. (“Lord help me I’m in a catch 22!”)
CHRISTIANS DON’T ALWAYS REMAKE, SOMETIMES WE JUST MODIFY…
When people cynically ask, “What is Christian music,” what are “Christian plays,” what are “Christian bookstores?” I believe they are asking the wrong question. The question is, what we mean when we say “Christian bookstore,” “Christian plays,” or “Christian music”? Everyone ought to know that in these cases “Christian” is being used as an adjective or a modifier, which is then placed in front of everyday things, to add to, or alter what you would normally think of when you hear those generic things. For example, music today is normally a carrier of godless ideas, “Christian music” claims to carry godly ideas. Regular colleges are usually full of orgies, cheating, and anti/unbiblical education, but Christian college at least seeks to be, and facilitate the opposite of these things. My point is that the negative aspects of these things don’t automatically force Christians to invent some other word for these things, that is impractical and it is nowhere prescribed in Scripture. However, Christians have often given terms new meaning or higher meaning than the culture around them. The term “church” was a secular term, and Jesus said that he was going to build His church. In the secular world the cross has a negative stigma for being either an offense or foolish, but God did not stay clear of it. Instead he made that which was shameful and foolish, glorious and wise. I AM IN NO WAY EQUATING THE CROSS AND HIP HOP, but I’m just illustrating the way in which believers can take something common, and modify its meaning. In our culture we use modifying words such as adjectives. There is hip hop, but we do Christian hip hop. YOU ARE SPIRITUAL, BUT ARE YOU SOCIAL?If Christian is a term to describe your faith and your true spiritual identity then you are in good standing before God, but what is your connection to your social surroundings? Christians are prone to want to love God, and disconnect from people. We usually do this because we think that they are so sinful that God has given us permission to treat them like they have the plague. Guess what, we were designed to have vertical (God-ward), and horizontal (social) connectedness. We were not left in a totally Christian world, but we were left in a secular world, with a charge to impart our faith into every culture (Matt. 28:19-20; Ac 1:8). That means there will be a social connectedness with mankind (Christian and non-Christian). People are quick to point out the sinfulness of hip hop culture, and I am quick to agree. Hip hop is sinful, but so is every culture. No earthly culture would be cool to identify with if sin was an automatic disqualifier. We could not say that we are African or American because both of these broader cultural contexts, as well as the subcultures within them, are riddled with sin. However, the Bible teaches that cultures are free to develop, but that the sinfulness must be addressed by the transforming power of God’s Spirit.

CONCLUSION
Hip hop does not need a defense, and Christian hip hop is the free choice of the believers who want to use this concept to capture both a spiritual and social identity. Please people, understand the issue. We are not defending hip hop or seeking to imitate the world. We are in Christ, I hope when you see us you can tell. We live in the world, and I hope that when you see us you can tell. It just so happens to be that for the Christian hip hopper, he/she is in Christ and in a hip hop oriented world—that should explain things.1

“Rap and Hip-Hop Guide,” online: http:/rap.about.com, accessed 13 July 2004.

Takin da gospel 2 da streets!

Hi and Praize tha Lord!! Ma name is Renee emcee(MC) of LVC(Levite Clan) but you can also call me Richard.
I was born on the 27th of July 1981 on the western side of Uganda-Mbarara. Am a final year student of mass communications at Makerere University, Kampala.
Got Born Again on the 17th of November 2000 when i was in my freshman year pursuing a diploma in music, Dance and Drama. In 2003, i served at Deliverance Church in Mbarara under Pastor John Yahweh. I was in praise and worship, the intercessory and youth ministries. At the end of that year, i was admitted back to the University for Masscommunication. That's where i met ma brothers and we started ministering in Hip hop music predominantly to the unchurched youth.

Ma vision is to be a minister of God in the travelling ministry and i have a passion and burden for revival. Preached ma first Sermon on revival(preperation for Revival) on the 16th of September 2003 at Deliverance Church in a yservice that the youth led. I used to be prejudiced about hiphop music but when i listened to the Cross movement from Philadelphia PA, Boy! i was delivered! Now i believe hip hop-holy hip hop music is God's hand maid, a tool that God will ultimately use to reach the strretwise generation of today that consumes the junk on our streets and in the media-the violence, pre marital loving, drugs, alcoholism, to mention but a few. I luv hip hop but most of all Jesus christ.

God Bless
Renee emcee of LVC