Category Archives: Church

Posted on

Kanye West & Montell Jordan to lead Easter Sunday Services…

Hello World,

Two weeks from today, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the triumphant resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday! And even those Christians who may not make every single Sunday service will find themselves gathering among the saints on that special day! And there are two more options to choose from as of now!

I’ve been hearing about Kanye West’s Sunday service and recently the Kardashian sisters – Kim, Khloé  & Kourtney – described the Sunday Service, which is essentially a gospel concert for celebrities from what I can tell, in their recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel. This is what the sisters said about it:

“A healing experience,” said Kim.

“We have so many friends that maybe feel a little too judgmental when they go to church or something like that, but when they come here, they feel so free and safe is what everybody says,” Khoe said.

“It’s Christian,” said Kourtney.

And below is a video of one of Kanye’s Sunday Services.

And now Kanye will be taking his Sunday Service to Coachella on Easter Sunday, April 21! It will happen at sunrise! I’ve always felt that Kanye had a relationship with God from the time he made “Jesus Walks” and maybe as his celebrity status increased, he somehow lost that connection. But God uses everything to draw us back to Him because nothing separates from the love of God even when we walk away. Although it’s not a traditional church service, they can still praise and worship God, and God will honor their praise and worship by showing up! And many black men are burned out on traditional services. That’s the reason that Jomo Johnson founded Church for Black Men through which he encourages people to have church services at home which is what Kanye West is doing! So good for him…

But Kanye West is not the only celebrity who realizes we all need Jesus and will honor him on Easter Sunday. On the  East Coast, here in the A, Montell Jordan will deliver a sermon on Easter Sunday outside on top of Stone Mountain, the AJC is reporting. Montell used to be an R&B singer and now he is executive pastor at Victory World Church in Norcross, Georgia.

It’s funny how God works because Montell Jordan once told TMZ that Kanye needs to reconnect with God in his life after Kanye had a mental breakdown back in 2016…

Do you think that Kanye somehow saw this interview and heeded Montell’s advice? Maybe so…

Wherever you find yourself two weeks from today, whether in a home service or a traditional service or on top of a mountain, I hope you will praise God for the resurrection of His son Jesus!

Any thoughts?

Posted on

Hope Carpenter, former First Lady of Pastor John Gray’s Relentless Church, Threatens Greenville News With a Knife, Saying ‘I Cut People!’

Hello World,

Pastor Hope Carpenter aine no Beyoncé or Hillary Clinton for matter. There is no hot sauce in her bag. On Sunday, the former First Lady and co-founder (along her with her husband Pastor Ron Carpenter) of Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, South Carolina, returned to her church renamed Relentless Church under Pastor John Gray and told the congregation, “I cut people. I got a knife right there in that pocketbook. Greenville News, come on.”  That’s right Greenville News, pull up on the pastor if you want to…(I can only imagine the discussions taking place in the newsroom about this…)

If you don’t believe me, see for yourselves…Go to about :35…

Her sharp (LOL) words were part of an overall public show of support for Pastor John and his wife Aventer Gray, who took over the church after the Carpenters left. As you probably know, the Grays have been really going through some thangs in terms of the all of the media coverage they have garnered. She told the Grays, “I love you, Pastor John and Pastor Aventer. I believe in you. I’m praying for you. I’m rooting for you.”

As far as The Greenville News is concerned, the media outlet recently ran this story: John Gray asks Relentless Church members to give $250K to help pay for church roof. Daniel J. Gross reported that, “Redemption had accrued substantial debt that Relentless has had to assume responsibility for when Gray took over. ‘(Ron Carpenter) handed us keys. The keys were not to a paid off building, the keys were to an opportunity, an opportunity to continue the work,’ Gray said. “Nothing you see is paid off. It wasn’t paid off when we got here.'”

The article ended with this paragraph: “Gray and Relentless Church came back into the spotlight in January when The Greenville News reported that Gray was living in a $1.8 million home in Simpsonville that was funded by the church. Church leaders said the particular parsonage is what was needed to entice a pastor of Gray’s ‘caliber’ to Greenville.

As a journalist with a journalism degree and over 20 years of experience, I will say this: journalists don’t make the news, they simply report it. Sometimes, people will like how they are covered by the media and many times, they will not. (Thus the term “fake news.” Anything that you don’t like is fake…SMH…) That is price of being in the public eye. What you do will be reported and as a result, you will be praised and or criticized. That being said, there are many people (notice I didn’t say journalists) “reporting” on the news and various issues who seem to not want to present facts or even fairly presented opinions, they seem to want to tear people down. As a Christian first and as a journalist second, I will not do that. Yes, my critiques (and I have critiqued many on this blog) may not always be liked but no one can claim that I called them everything but a child of God or that I tried to send them to hell with my words.

As THE Word says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) While this verse applies to spoken words, I think it can be applied to written words as well.

As far as Pastor Hope Carpenter’s words are concerned, a Relentless Church spokesman Holly Baird told this to The Greenville News the following day:

“While we believe Pastor Hope was joking, we completely understand how her comments could be received in today’s climate,” said spokeswoman Holly Baird, in a written statement. “Neither our pastors or anyone in our leadership would agree with any type of communication that would encourage or incite violence against another individual or entity.”

Ultimately, I believe Pastor Hope Carpenter was joking as well, but with the way the media is being attacked right now, this needed to be said…

So what do you think about Pastor Hope Carpenter at Relentless Church this past Sunday?

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Why Pastor Jamal Bryant Should Get Married Following Tweet’s Announcement That She is Done With Church…

Hello World,

Back in November, shortly after Dr. Jamal Bryant was named the new pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, I penned this post ‘Should Divorced Men Such as Dr. Jamal Bryant, Newly Named New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Pastor, Be Allowed in the Pulpit?’ Many people had varied opinions and I understand why. But after all that New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has been through, at the end of the day, I wished and do wish Dr. Bryant well as he puts his stamp on this well-known but beleaguered church. And I’m taking notice of what he has done thus far. I wrote one complete post about one of his initiatives, ‘New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant & Members Give Approximately $300 Each to Members Affected By Government Shutdown…’ and I mentioned the FREE City Wide Wedding the church held in another post.

I enjoyed listening to his recent interview with Dr. Rashad Richey, a local radio show host, at Beulah Heights University!

I found him to be very transparent about himself and his ministry. (And he is too charismatic!) He mentioned that while he was a student at Morehouse College, education, in the traditional sense, wasn’t his primary goal. He said, “On paper, my major was political science, but in actuality, my major was Spelman.” Ha! He also revealed that being called to ministry does not mean you are not flawed. He said, “I’m anointed, but I hate sleeping alone.” He offered this as one example of being a flawed person in ministry. He didn’t say he was referring to himself when he made that statement, but given his past, you have to wonder. I mean this was the man who had to address a random paternity allegation just three years ago!

And now his most recent girlfriend R&B Singer Charlene Keyes known as Tweet (that we know of anyway) is saying she is done with church! Remember when he called her his last lady! And that was just in 2016…

Well, chile, in a Instagram Live video from a few days ago, Tweet and her daughter Shenice discuss their dislike for the church. Without apology, Tweet said she will speak her “truth.”

“It’s coming out in the music, it’s coming out in interviews, It’s coming out. I’m saying what I want to say. I’m not shading nobody. I’m telling my truth. And church has been the worst, I will not do church anymore. I love God like you said, and I have a relationship with God, but you won’t see me in nobody’s church house, not giving nobody my tithe, not giving 10 percent to nobody, period.”

Tweet explained that people presented themselves one way in a public setting but acted in another way in private. She said it really shocked her because her pastor that she knew while she was growing up had integrity. She also mentioned another pastor in Atlanta that she feels has integrity.

“Bishop Weeks, who was an incredible man of God, integral, Bishop Weeks, if he still had his church in Atlanta, I would drive there and go to his church. He taught me integrity.”

That statement to me was very telling. Does Tweet live in the metro Atlanta area? Her former man’s church is in the metro Atlanta and she didn’t say anything about driving out there!

You have to wonder what went down in their relationship. It’s not a good look when your former boyfriend has been named the new pastor of a church in another city and now you’re done with church and talking about it! They reportedly broke up last year! And Tweet mentioned going out to have a cocktail twice in that video! She was once a heavy drinker by her own admission and now she’s joking about going to have a cocktail after going off about church…What’s really going on?

Smh…chile….I fear that a scandal is waiting to happen at New Birth…And if it’s one thing that New Birth does not need it’s a new scandal. That church is not over the old scandal yet…

I’m not saying that Pastor Bryant should just pick the first woman that he sees, but the Word says that it’s not good for any man to be alone (“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18) and this man in particular it seems…

So if Pastor Bryant meets a nice woman who has what it takes to be a First Lady (And it kind of messed up that Pastor Bryant and Tweet didn’t make it because she would have been a saaangin First Lady too) and after thorough premarital counseling (because pastors need counseling too), he should go ahead and get that done sooner rather than later. As the Word says, “Now to the unmarried  and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” 1 Corinthians 7:8-9

He’s a man of a particular age so he should know what he wants by now. And it shouldn’t be that difficult to find her with all of the suitable woman we have in Atlanta 🙂

So what y’all think?

Any thoughts?