S4 Ep. 234 Holy Disruption: Why Today's Christian Music Is Reshaping Everything

Speaker 1: Hi there. Yes, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good, everything. Wherever you are on the surface of the earth, is it around on the surface? Whichever? Yes, listening to me and seeing me, how are you Welcome to the Word Cafe live show? I will always ask it. Yes, I will always ask. It is not rhetorical, it's the truth. I will always ask it. It is not curtsy, it is the truth. Well, I'm okay, I'm fine. It started raining where I am. It's the city of Abuja, the federal capital territory of Nigeria. You know, sometimes when I look at it, I'm in Nigeria and I am a Nigerian. So it's exciting. It's been. This season has been an interesting one. Yeah, interesting in the sense that life is happening every day and, by God's grace, we are where. We are Super excited. Have you been listening? Have you Go ahead? Share it? What are we going to be doing today? Something interesting, exciting . So I've had this thought for a while. I've stayed on it, or it has stayed with me. But you know this feeling, or this knowing, or this, what I call a sense that the minute a thought hits you, everything around you begins to point to it . You, you turn on your tv, it's like boom, a piece of it comes. You're walking on the street, boom, a car goes by with a sticker. Boom. You go on social media and you like, boom, and it's like okay, what's happening, that's happened to you. Somebody says superstition? Well, it's not. It's not, it only tells you that you're not alone in that world. So I'm going to be talking about a culture Unapologetically . I always tell people, whoever cares to listen, I'm a Christian , I'm a person of faith and my faith is in God through Christ. So each time everything about me goes through that lens Culture. How do we build? So I have two things to read and after that let's hope we'll have that time to talk. I wrote it, I think I shared it on my social media handle, but I think it's something we should talk about Taste and see, not test. Not like you're trying to validate something, you're trying to check the strength of something. No, taste and see. I was telling my wife this morning, right over coffee and the quiet home of Awaken House Taste and see, for the Lord is good, not just read about it, not hear it from a pulpit or quote it on social media. Taste it, you see, when a man tastes something, truly tastes, it ain't just flavor dancing on his tongue. It's a whole experience, crushing in memory, feeling revelation. That's how the Lord shows himself. Experienced, not explained. Self experienced not explained. One generation told another, not by memos or manifestos, but by fire, side stories, by songs sung from sore throats and grateful heart, by bread broken and tears shed. And from that steady telling they built something, a culture, the cultured, they built the future. I told her sell cult, that is sure Culture. You can't fake a culture, you can't just manufacture it with hashtags and hype. It's lived, you breathe it. It's when value, you steep so deep into the bones of a people that even their silence speaks. Now all our senses play their part in this wild dance of knowing. But taste, oh taste. It holds, caught like a king. It makes things real, tangible, undeniable. You can smell truth, maybe you can see glimpses of it, but when you taste it there's no arguing . That's why he said taste and see, because tasting settles the matter. So if you're going to build a people, a future, a kingdom that reflects him, we've got to let them taste. Let the children taste of grace , the weary taste of rest, the broken taste of healing, and let every bite remind them the Lord is good. Yeah, I'm going to read another , and these I in cause of my preparation, as in preparing for today. I saw it and I was like, really , I'll read it. It was done by. It was written rather by, lakey Alder One mind I follow closely , brilliant mind and when I saw it I was like, okay, this goes to further, would I say, corroborate my thoughts and what I'm about to share with you. It is titled Stum, and what I'm about to share with you it is titled Stum. Every generation has a program. God is into generationalism, yes, generationalism. I know I've said that on the show before he walks in generations. A generation expresses itself through culture. You hear that Culture influences religion. There's thus a linkage between culture and Christianity. It's like we shared the same notes. When a new generation takes center stage, it expresses itself in lingo, fashion, music, social convention and technology. It is not uncommon for the older generation to struggle with the new culture, but when, more often than not, it's because it has forgotten its own history. I remember he's talking about history, the Jesus Revolution. In my generation, the epicenter was Christ's chapel. It was pastored by Reverend Tunde Joda. For those of us who grew up, I used to listen to Tunde Joda as a child, as a kid. Every Sunday, my father's transistor. It was a radio, but not a transistor, not a small one, quite big. I used to sit down and listen to Tunde Joda, a then medical student. The older generation didn't get it. I read a punch newspaper review , salvaging Christ Chapel. It spoke about young girls in scanty skirts. And can you imagine a church, a church service, in a cinema? Can you imagine Suruleri Super Cinema, saka Blue I think that's the name of the cinema. We wanted spirituality. We were rebelling against orthodoxy, which was okay for our parents. They experienced British colonialism. We didn't. So we couldn't flow with the subdued culture of hymns, you know, canticles and silent prayers. We had energy, expressed our spirituality passionately. Sermons were, ah in passion. Jazz sets were introduced in church. Out went the two story pipe organ. There was a lot of dancing. The older generation called our service discos. But those boys and girls in short skirts took Nigeria by storm. They established the elite churches we see today, exported Christianity back to Britain, stormed Western Europe, america and even Eastern Europe. As missionaries they indirectly reformed the Orthodox churches through spiritual osmosis. I love the way he expresses himself we drink from the same brook. I guess here's the irony. Members of that generation are now complaining about the younger generation. Some have gone back to those same orthodox churches in their search for institutional order. Each generation has a program. David served God in his generation. Let the youth serve God in their generation with their music and dance. You were once them. You sang and danced Kirk Franklin's remember. You remember that song? So that's what I came to talk about today culture, god's kingdom. Culture permeating the earth through the generational sequence. God walks in generations. I know I've said that on the show before, but to reinforce it , when I was preparing, like I said, reading Lake Alder's piece , I said, yes, he walks in generation. Reading Lake Alda's piece, I said yes, he walks in generation . I see from hindsight most of the things he expressed here. I experienced them. So there is another generation. This generation has not come on the scene to undo the previous generation, but rather it is to reinforce what has been given to them. Yep, to reinforce it. And one way to reinforce this is through culture. Now let us look at the word culture. You know what I said a cult, that is sure. That's how I describe it. Culture, the first four letters , c-u-l-t. That's a cult. It's called cult. And what's a cult? Basically, cult stems from religious beliefs around an individual or an entity that more often than not, runs off the tangent. It always ends in disaster. But come to think of it, the kingdom has a king. But come to think of it, the kingdom has a king, and the king , his presence, his ordinance, is what his domain operates in. So we call it kingdom. So you begin to see people who capture the mind of the king, translate it into daily living, their activities. You see it in the singing. They're dressing their conversations, the way they eat, the way they snack, and all of that. You see, it is very conspicuous , it's obvious, it's apparent. But there's always this mistake they shift their focus away from the king. They shift their focus away, and the minute they shift their focus from the king, what happens? And the minute they shift their focus from the king, what happens? You begin to see wrong, what I call it antecedents, wrong or following. That's what you begin to see. But if they keep their focus, their gaze, on the king, you come to see the culture begin to play out. You come to see the influence begin to play out. Now there's this thing we fight with in our not just this generation now. But in our society, in our world, pop culture and kingdom culture, pop culture is the popular, what is popular. So let me paint a picture for you, for those of us who follow music closely. Michael Jackson was one individual who influenced popular culture. Let me take a walk with you on this now. You know, when Michael Jackson left the Jackson 5 and started as in his own career, the solo career, his first release was Off the Wall. Off the Wall, the way he was dressing Off the Wall. Off the Wall, the way he was dressing Off the Wall, if you look at it white stockings, white shirt what again? Bow tie, afro. So go back to that generation and see when Off the Wall came, all of a sudden you see people Afro Hair, jerry Coyle, what you call it now. All sorts of products are coming out. The next that followed was Trilla. Yes, the next album, trilla. And on Trilla he had Trilla. You Gotta Be Starting Something . Billie Jean girl is mine. Yes, you're wondering how did I get to know all this? I grew up in that environment. Now Thrilla was talking about somebody who turned us into he's a werewolf anyway, had a girlfriend, went for whatever and boom, she saw the true self. Now go to Hollywood, check the movies that started coming up Werewolf, american werewolf in London. The werewolf whatever started. Then his hairstyle changed from the Afro to the flowing. You know. Then his jackets so the kind of jackets is where he would the sleeves. You pull up the arms and all of that. And all of a sudden you see that song, that music influenced that generation, billie Jean for the first time. Michael jackson was a person that turned mtv to the black uh, musicians, because mtv never played any black song. But michael jackson single-handedly changed that. Now, if you watch the, the billy je Jean movie or music video, I beg your pardon, michael Jackson did something that when I read and understood what he did there at that time, you know , when he came out he stood by a pole seamlessly into a cup. Green screen was not available then. How did they do that? Okay, there was no green screen . And the man he saw, a guy lying on the floor. He was poorly dressed, like a homeless person, and all of a sudden there was a transformation. He changed all white, wearing a white tuxedo with a waistband, and all that. Then each step he took lights. You know, at that time we were thinking those steps Michael Jackson was taking. Each of the boxes, whenever he stepped on, them, turned, lights came on and all that. So we thought these things were wired and all that. So when he stepped on them, they come on. No, do you know what really happened there? The director told him take precise steps. So, post-production, each step he was taking, the director was introducing lights in post-production. Each step was taken, the director was introducing lights in post-production. His videos were out of this world. It influenced cinematography. Should I go on? After that word came, he did bad. Yes, he did bad. Yes, he did bad. The album bad brought another style the bling, blings. You see him, heavy chains and all of that. That generation bad, the bad, whatever. You see, everybody started dressing that way and all that. What came after that was Dangerous, the album Dangerous. Now, when you look at the album Dangerous, each of the songs became a cultural piece. He did Black or White, where you see the way images change, the music video and all that. But this one caught my attention when he did do you remember when he had Eddie Murphy and what's her name now on set and all of that? You see the queen. The pharaoh said he wants his queen to be entertained and they brought all so she wasn't. Then a man walks in wearing a black hoodie top to down. He came, brought out the purse, dipped his hands into the purse , lifted out something everybody thought was like sand, threw it on the floor. He did that three times walked into the center, disappeared and came up the mommy story. After Michael Jackson did that, mummy story became so strong it's like seeing in Hollywood they're producing mummy movies. Oh, you didn't know that. What followed after that History? Or the album History? Another thing he did in Dangerous was the ghost story, where he played more than one entity than history. Let me tell you what he did with history. Michael Jackson introduced a sound in history. Let me tell you what he did with history. Michael Jackson introduced a sound in history, that album that EPL stole it after that I use the word stole it conservatively. What's that sound? When you watch those of you who listen, I mean follow football and all that the champions. Watch those of you who listen, I mean follow football and all that, the champions there's a sound that comes before it. Go and listen to michael jackson's history. When he stood, his boss stood. You see helicopters flying all over that sound. He created it. They took it like the Greconian chant very soft, solemn, but all of a sudden you hear this energy come out of it. Now, why am I using this? To explain to you that popular culture and we all came under that influence. But there's God's kingdom culture. Yes, there is. Kirk Franklin's album changed a lot in the music arena. It challenged the popular culture. There's something about God's kingdom culture it renews, it restores and it refreshes. That's how God works Restoration, renewal. Now we how do we get it? There's a wave I see now from Nigeria to the world. We need to hold it. We need to be careful. We need to hold it like Lord, help us keep it. To hold it. We need to be careful. We need to hold it like Lord, help us keep it. We hear names like Lawrence Oyo , nathanael Basi we know already . We hear names like Lawrence Oyo . We hear names like Great man Tackett. We hear names like TY Bellow. The sound they produce is a shape shifting, culture shifting . Now. The latest one, I mean, is everywhere. We're listening to it. I'll never go back. It's a song we all listen to. But if you know the message behind that song, the story, it was about an Indian Christian in a village somewhere in India who believed in God through Christ. And they said what faith are you talking about? The chief of the village was like what is this? He came to change the culture. He shot his son. I said you must renounce this ideology. And all that he said no, I will never go back. Yes, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus and I have decided to follow Jesus. No, turning back. No, turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me. That's the origin of that song. They killed his wife. He said I have decided. And they killed him. But the end of that story is the man who ordered the killing ended up believing in Christ. The village ended up following Christ Culture. So this sound coming is not just about the dancing, it's not just about the excitement, it's about terraforming. Do you know what terraforming means? Let me allow you to go and discover that Terraforming simply means bringing a new atmosphere. You change in terra, you terra. It's like a geological morphology. Whatever, let me not confuse you now. For those of you who did geology, you understand what I'm talking about. You terraform. For those of you who did geology, you understand what I'm talking about that. You terraform, you bring another, not just another, a superior. So that's what we're experiencing in Nigeria and that's what we're experiencing in Africa. So it's beyond the likes, friends. It's beyond the following. It's beyond the likes, friends. It's beyond the following. It's beyond the streaming. It is about God's kingdom culture. There's something that precedes divinity. I know, I've said it on this show before sound, before you were announced, before the coming of a great entity or whatever. The king is coming. You know the pomp and pageantry and everything. You hear the sound and you see the king. You think I'm preaching. I'm not preaching, I'm only telling you that is what we're experiencing now and I feel compelled to share this to the church, to the I mean to believers, to Christians. It's our responsibility to protect these ones, to guard these ones, to guard these sounds, to hold them with this, because it's generational. It's generational, yes, it is. You may not understand it because it's not from your generation, but listen, look back to your generation and from your generation. But listen, look back to your generation and what your generation did. It is what set the stage. So you know, when you read the Bible, when you hear about the coming, the second coming of Christ when Paul talked about it , if you remember. I'm not going into the details now, but there's something he said there will be a loud, what Trumpet sound. Sometimes we try to imagine it is going to be like a sound pa-pa-pa-pa-pa. It's not that. These are the sounds you're hearing, unique sounds, sound that will make you park your car , if you're driving, just to like be in that element. So we need to protect them, we need to cherish them. So let me tell you something More are coming, more sounds. We've not seen anything yet. There are sounds coming, sounds that, when we hear them, the taste of divinity will not leave our tongue. The taste of divinity will not leave our tongue. The taste of divinity will not leave our lives. The taste of divinity will stay with us because he has come to change our culture. He has come to teach us true culture, yes, god's kingdom culture. So I'm going to end with this and I want you to listen. You know when Abraham took Isaac to offer him as a burnt offering to God and when his son asked him Father, the fire is here, the knife is here, where is the lamb? Or where is the main dish, the sacrifice His father told him the Lord will provide. We all know the story, but this is where I'm going with this. When God told him stop, don't harm the boy, and showed him what to do, do you know what followed? Look at that story very well. Isaac never had any other conversation with his father Like about God. He saw God for himself. So that culture Abraham got from God. He didn't need to explain to Isaac who God was or God is. Isaac saw it. He saw it. Yes, he did. And all of a sudden he just, you know, followed that path. That is what is happening to us the sacrifice, no explanation. Like I'm not trying to explain God to you, but I am allowing you to experience him for yourself. I said the last thing I'd be. I'm sorry, this will be the last thing. In course of the week preparing, I saw this video. Somebody sent it to me and was like there's this problem we're facing in this generation Parents who go to church. They don't hang out with their children in church, they don't sit with their children during worship. They find it very difficult. He said how would your child experience this God you always talk about when he or she has never seen you worship him, dance before him, give Ah, it touched me Taste and see, For the Lord is good. And that's what I came to do on the show today to encourage you , to challenge you, to provoke you as a parent, as a man, as a woman, as a boy. God's kingdom culture. Yes, for us to terraform our society, for us to change the narrative, then we must embrace these new sounds. They have come to shape and shift the culture. How Bring in God's kingdom culture? Thank you, and super excited doing this, super excited. I'm so, so glad that you're there listening, All right, before I go. Yes, I have to tell you we are available on all the social media platforms. Yes, it's part of our way of shaping the culture. On Facebook, instagram X, we have a YouTube channel. Have you subscribed? Go ahead, subscribe, be part of this community. Hit that notification button so that whenever fresh conversation like this comes on, you'll be the first to know. You know how we say it. My name is Amakri Amakri Subwe Till I come your way again. Bye, for now.