My twitter friend @SewIntoHem posted this video the other day. She was considering blogging about it, and after watching it, I was too. We decided to tag team it by posting about it on both our blogs. Check out the twitter convo we had below, and her blog at mouthofbabes.wordpress.com.

Her: What that man said was so powerful, because we often get caught up in what we’re entitled to–especially the black community.

Her: When we finally get our piece of the pie, we think we’ve accomplished something. However, that’s not what matters to God or to people.

Me: i think the first thing about it that was powerful was that he said it in front of a black audience! that #fail, was an ultimate success!

Her: If all you have to show for your life is how rich you were, your legacy means nothing and, most tragically, God will not accept you.

Me: Well, i think the size of some churches that Cone says have “lost their legacy” would suggest it matters to people a lot

Me: but i think that’s part of the deception. we took the easy route by throwin money at ppl, like the devil. instead of showin them a cross

Me: i think part of that fail we should be expecting is that some ppl won’t like the cross, and turn away from the church

Me: but the ultimate success would be seen in those who were drawn and changed by the cross

Me: Cone didnt really elaborate on that whole “fail” idea for the church. what do u think it might be?

Her: That’s very true. A lot of pastors pat themselves on the back for creating Jesus fans, but what we need are Jesus followers.

Her: I think for us it would mean losing the celebrity endorsements, being ridiculed by the general public by being too conservative.

Her: For some churches, it would mean losing the majority of their membership or suffering a hit to their bank accounts.

Me: Yes!

Me: i gotta say, Cone’s words and courage encouraged me deeply in allowing ppl to see my weakness when i present Christ, rather than polished up

Me: i think the ridicule we get nowadays is more bcuz our claims of belief dont match our actions on a wide scale

Me: i think the world would go nuts if we showed the power of God behind the scriptures we quote

Me: How did u find this vid?

Her: Amen! I totally agree & I have no idea lol I was just palling around on Youtube

[a few hours later...lol]

Me: Sorry for the late response. Lol at palling around tho. Pop culture at it’s best. I’m gonna try to make Cone my e-mentor. Need that support

Her: lol there’s another video on there too from the same panel discussion and he went IN!

Me: FYI i found the video of the whole conference on CSPAN’s website. Def plannin to watch/skim thru it ~> http://cs.pn/aKnuCT

Her: Oooh! I wanna watch the whole thing! lol Well, a good chunk of it.

Her: Ummm 4 hrs….maybe not lol

Me: lol right. realizing this all took place in 2003, i really wonder what has taken place since this discussion

Her: Not jack has happened! Just like every other panel discussion, conference, etc., nothing gets solved. It’s probably gotten worse.

Me: yeah. if secret meetings between Black church leaders really started in 2003, we’d start to see the results, at least a little by now

Her: it’s just sad because so many people talk about what needs to be done, but very few people take the time to do it.

Her: That’s why i like what Cone said about loving God w/ ur mind, because so many ppl just go to church just to shout and be entertained.

Her: And when it’s all over, they say “the spirit really moved”. No it didn’t, b/c if it did there would be a genuine transformation in ur life.

Me: i wonder what his church home is like, and who they collaborate with in their city

Me: this dude’s Wiki is something interesting. some real controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hal_Cone

Her: Yea, I read that lol I found it interesting…& then I said to myself “Does anything that I’m reading affect what I got from that video?” No

Me: ha, right. it’s funny though how it’s always the slightly extra ministers that speak with the most urgency and boldness

Me: the ones who are most popular seem to have real chill verbage

Her: Yeah, they don’t want to say anything too radical or convicting. It might upset their fans….I mean, members.

Me: yeah. whats crazy is with everything the way it is, this is just what God wanted for this point in history

Me: it really makes me wonder what’s going to happen next to shake things up

Her: i’m excited for God to set the church straight, the process is already beginning

Me: what gives you that impression?

Her: I’ve spent a lot of time around a couple of them & my church is under one of them. They’re part of the problem, so they’re gonna play nice.

Me: really? what exactly do you see progressing with them?

Her: pride and watered-down gospel

Me: hmmm what’s been the congregation’s response to the changes?

Her: People seem to be so caught up on personalities that they never raise questions about the direction the church is headed in.

Me: Word. and THAT is a blog post in itself, so what do u say we wrap this here? this was tight!

Her: Lol Yeah it was, I have enough to write about for a month. I’m glad I watched this.

Me: glad u shared it!

PLEASE NOTE: I have no affiliation with this job opportunity. I’m just posting it for other people’s sake. DO NOT contact me looking for more information.

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FedExField Job Fair

Sunday, June 13, 2010

1600 FedEx Way

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11:00 am – 4:00 pm

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Free parking will be provided in Lot A. Please enter the stadium through the administrative lobby at the Sprint Suite entrance, next to the Ticket Office.

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I really enjoyed this video from Yaves The Street Pastor and Slingshot Media Group. This video fit the vibe of the song so well. It’s not often artists in the Christian rap genre attempt videos for songs this chill, my guess is because they’re harder to make appealing. But this is daringly expressive of the mood. I wish other elements were introduced along with the glass that fit the black and white minimalist vibe, but this was an impeccable use of resources. You can really tell when a video is made a certain way because someone thought a gimmick looked good versus when the artistic direction was for the sake of the song. This was definitely the latter.

I started paying attention to The Street Pastor on the song “Go Harder”. Honestly I’m picky when it comes to the UK accents I like in songs, right down to the track. This to me was a great delivery by Yaves. Find this track and more on his latest mixtape “It’s Pronounced Yah-ves” on the Slingshot Media Group website.

The poster and trailer for the project I shot, Hopes and Schemes, have just been released. The director, Avery “Byword” Smith posted the video today on YouTube and has had the poster up on Facebook for a few weeks now. Check out Pyramerica.com for some good laughs, and visit BywordSmith.com to learn more about the comedian and new director. Leave a comment on YouTube too!

I get asked this question by almost every person who is interested in my deejaying. The simplest answer is yes.

There is indeed truth, beauty, and goodness outside of scripture; so is the case outside of scripture-based music. So if a client specifically requests music by a secular, not anti-Christ, but simply non-gospel genre artist, I will consider on a case-by-case, song-by-song basis. But otherwise I stick to Christian artists.

Usually it’s a situation (all the requests have been from Christians by the way) where the client will be hosting a spiritually mixed crowd, and wants to cater to everyone.

I cater to one. My priorities don’t change.

I spin what will honor God and spiritually uplift listeners. So if I’m putting on anything remotely secular, it’s going to be free of profanity, degradation of either sex, sexually suggestive themes… you get the idea. Unless it’s a married couples thing for that last one… awkward….

Of course there are those exceptions like the youth group or gospel rapper that wants me to play a clip from Jeezy or Wayne to make a point about what they say in certain songs. And they’re providing the CD. I’m not buying/supporting that trash.

I don’t play secular instrumentals for artists at Christian outreaches either. So don’t call me. I think it confuses people on the street listening from a distance and actually keeps them from realizing there’s something DIFFERENT going on. Too much good stuff out there that doesn’t already have someone else’s rep attached to it.

Some Biblical examples of using secular “tools” for God-honoring purposes:

Acts 17:22-28 – Paul referring to an idol and secular poetry to bridge his revelation to his audience

Romans 8:3, Heb 4:15, John 1:14 – Christ taking on a temporal, corruptible, “secular” presentation in order to fulfill his mission and encourage us

There’s actually some music by professing Christians that I WON’T play. It’s just not as common. But’s it’s all a personal judgement call.

As another Sunday comes to a close a daunting and yet familiar feeling starts to come over me. I usually don’t think it through this far, but I felt like it was time to resolve it. Usually I just chalk it up to knowing that I have to go back to a 9-5 job for another week, while my heart and passion want to stay free to pour into the things I really want to do with my life.

But it goes a little further than that. It’s the feeling that going back to work means walking in the building, and leaving my dreams at the door. And I know me. Some people might hang up their dreams Sunday night, others leave them next to their bed Monday morning. But for me, I carry mine right to the door. And for me, it’s because I’m so… close.

I shouldn’t feel this way right? I mean, unlike most of my colleagues, not only am I working, but I’m working extremely close to my field and career path of choice. I get to mess with cameras, direct programs, edit projects, and develop graphics every single day. But the longing kicks in when I’m reminded that those more interesting things I have to do are also accompanied by the mundane.

In my own (fake) little world, none of the boring things exist. I’ve either taught someone else to do them, or a computer takes care of it. Because outside of the 9-5, after the “employee” chapter of my life is closed, all I wanna do is dream, and then make it happen.

But this is just impatience speaking, and I know it. Once again unlike most of my colleagues, I’m also very much on pace to exit the 9 to 5 world and do my own thing. I hope to freelance free time, keeping my current employer as a client. But I want to be free to get up and go when I’m ready, make the rules, and make my money. If I didn’t have the kind of job I have now none of this would be possible, which is why I took it, over the jobs that would pay more but require my nights and weekends. In the few years I and my friends have spent in the workplace, I’ve seen what that does to people’s dreams. They get home, no energy, no desire, no fire left in them. They gave the best of their days and hours to someone else, and their dreams never got to benefit from it themselves. I really hope and pray that that’s not where my friends are headed; that they really do have a practical plan for getting back to what they love to do.

There’s nothing more tragic to me than a life unlived. A life in reach to attain, but never realized. But for me right now it’s about loving the ordinary from an extraordinary perspective. I see deeply every day how what I’m doing in and outside of work is preparing me for what is to come, and that excites me. For that, I thank God. I’m not in there dead inside. I’m just preparing to live.

Transcript of the above video for the reading-types:

Let me tell you guys what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been talking with my dude Rogers (he’s a writer). I’ve been talking to him about doing a web series as my next project. I’d really like to see what he could come up with and I told him I’d shoot it, you know, I’d do the visual end of it. The premise that he came up with: a Christian small group in which the members of that group are each connected in different ways, related to their different struggles or vices or sins that they’re dealing with in their own lives, but they don’t know it, and each thing is revealed as the story goes on.

Kind of just an idea of what we’re aiming at: you have the ministry leader, the small group leader, who is leading some sort of double lifestyle and that somehow is enabling or funding the drug addiction of another member.

What we need for this right now, while we’re just in this design stage is are ideas. Testimonies, little snippets of things, stories maybe you’ve heard…and that’s where we’re really looking for you guys to give some input.

Email me (deandre@deandrevidale.com), hit me on facebook (facebook.com/deandre.vidale), hit me on my Twitter (@JoyisWar), we’ll take it from there, and we’ll see what comes out of it! Aiight? Thanks!

I’m planning on answering everything that comes with that question regarding events that I DJ, but I don’t have any events right now, lol.

I run into a lot of good music that others may not be aware of, especially in the realm of Christian Hip Hop, so I’m going to start highlighting those artists that I think you guys might like. Stay tuned.

I’m returning with this new website layout to what really matters at this point: deejaying. That’s the current focus, and it’s about time I got back in touch with my priorities. That means new mixes, videos, and even a new visual identity (logo, etc) for DJ Blaklyte.

In this downtime I’ve been busier than ever, but I’ve got little to show for it. A lot of dust in the air, but little built. And I’m ok with that. Learn while you’re young, right?

So I’m going to focus on what I really care about, stay in my lane, and partner with people who are gifted in the stuff that I’m just competent in. That way everybody’s happy, and if everybody’s happy, the only thing that’s missing is the music