Relevancy in Today’s Church…How Much is Too Much?

Recently, Dr. Jamal Bryant, of Empowerment Temple, in Baltimore Maryland, used the word “h*es” in the pulpit when preaching to his congregation on the sermon entitled “I’m my own Enemies Worst Nightmare”.  In his sermon he attempted to relay his point about men ignoring the words of good, godly women and instead following the advice from women that may not have their best interest at heart.  He relayed that simple statement above by quoting the hook to a very popular secular music artist, Chris Brown song called “These H*es  ain’t loyal”. This sent both fans and frenemies of Dr. Bryant into a frenzy causing all types of outrage and admiration from all types of believers and non-believers on social media.  Now mind you when I saw the video, it was before it had hit the internet and I have to say that when I heard it my jaw dropped.  You would think that we would know that h*es ain’t loyal, but by putting it this way in a church setting, it seemed  to have resonated  in the minds of both men and women as they where they are jumping up and down, saying “yesss Lord” and praising god.  Although shocked, and taken aback by his choice of song and hook, I have to admit, I got it too.  But then I wondered…in an effort to get the message to the masses and to remain relevant…how much is too much?

 5 months ago, a You Tube video of Senior Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel Church in Gainesville Georgia was posted in which he was preaching a sermon entitled “The Boaz Family Tree”.  Here the Pastor admonishes single women to wait on their Boaz and not to fall victim to the members of Boaz family.  He relays a posting he found on Face Book with the type of men Boaz’s cousins were, you know his cousins “broke-az”, “dumb-az”, “cheating-az”, “drunk-az” and my personal favorite “beatyo-az”.  I can’t say that I can remember everything in the bible, but I certainly would have remembered Boaz’s cousins when reading the Book of Ruth if they were like that!  I can only assume that Boaz did have cousins, but since in the bible that I read they were never mentioned, I really didn’t give it any thought.  But thanks to Pastor Franklin, I now know that he did and as a single woman would have not one of them as my husband.  Again although shocked, and taken aback by his choice of words and the Face Book posts he placed on the church big screen for all to see.   I have to admit, I that got that.  But then again I had to wonder…in an effort to get the message to the masses and to remain relevant…how much is too much?

Reaching our young people with the message they can relate to of hope, love and never giving up god’s goodness is vital but even my 25 year old daughter when seeing the videos said “mom, that a little too much!’.  This showed me that there is a line that can and perhaps has been crossed.   With that, we all have to be careful as leaders, citizens and parents in teaching and sowing the right seeds and “messages” in our children’s minds.  We are in the year 2014, and things they are ‘a changing’.  The messages being imparted in churches are often times laced with overtones of secular beats and godly words, face Book post and twitter rants.  Words evoke power and so does music so I can see why it’s important to change things up a little.  It’s the age of social media; it is how we communicate with each other.  But for me, sinner that I am, I am still a firm believer in self-control, modesty, setting apart from, and moderation especially from a pulpit or platform.  I’m just saying.  Until next time my lovelies…

Peace and blessings,

Phaedra