There are only a few Gospel/Christian artists that are currently on the Walk of Fame. BeBe and CeCe will join Rev. James Cleveland, Amy Grant and Mahalia Jackson.

Other 2011 recepients include Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, The Muppetts, Tina Fey, and Will i. Am. The dates of the induction ceremonies have not been announced yet. Recepients have up to five years to schedule their ceremony from the date of selection. I will post an announcement as soon as I hear about BeBe and CeCe’s ceremony.

This is great news. I am very happy for BeBe and CeCe. Who do you think will be the next Gospel/Christian artist to get selected? My short list would include Kirk Franklin and Michael W. Smith.

Post a comment and let me know our thoughts.

Stand 2010 is part of The Stand Campaign that CoCo Brother launched in 2007. The purpose of The Stand Campaign is to promote Jesus Christ through love and evangelism.

When you listen to Stand 2010, you quickly realize that CoCo Brother does not sing on the project. Instead, he gathered artists like Joann Rosario Condrey, Isreal Houghton, Tye Tribbett, Kevin LeVar, and James Fortune to participate on the project.

This album features a number of quality worship songs. I listened to Prophetic Worship and Joann Rosario Condrey sounds different. Not in a bad way, but in a good way. I could be crazy but there is a certain authority in her voice that I never noticed before.

Kevin LeVar gives good performances with Moving Forward and Such An Awesome God Let’s Come Together. Tye Tribbett and Joann Rosario Condrey make a very nice pairing in the song Moving Forward.

If you’re the type of person that needs to hear lively and energetic songs you’ll need to wait towards the end of the album to hear them. However, when you do hear them, you won’t be disappointed. Stand And Take The City and My Name Is Resurrection are really good songs. They feature tons of energy and catchy hooks.

A little bit of spoken word is also sprinkled in this album. Paula White, Smokie Norful, Darwin Hobbs and Bebe Winans all offer special moments of inspiration throughout the album.

Overall, Stand 2010 is a unique album. I highly enjoyed it. The worshiped touched my heart and the spoken word inspired me. You can get your copy of Stand 2010 on Amazon.com or iTunes.

For some reason, the network executives chose not to air the interview on TV. You can see the entire interview for yourself where Debra shares what is on her heart.

What do you think?

I know that nobody is perfect and I’m not expecting perfection out of anyone. In my opinion, when someone decides to take on a public ministry they become representatives of the body of Christ on a different level than other Christians. They travel around the world urging people to come out of their sins, but then something unfortunate happens and they fall into sin themselves. For many people outside of Christianity this only perpetuates the stereotype of hypocrisy that they have towards Christians.

I’m so grateful for God’s forgiveness. I’m grateful that doesn’t he look at us the way man does.

I could go into further detail about the importance of focusing on God rather than man. I could also talk about how being a Christian is not a call to perfection but rather a call to a relationship with God. For the time being, I will save this discussion for another post.

In one way or another, every believer is a minister of the Gospel. Some of us just have much more public ministries than others. After thinking and praying I decided to post some information for all of us regarding sin, sex and relationships. Those of us that are married or have a desire to be married will likely benefit from this the most. However, I believe that there are things in here that will benefit everyone in some way.

So, for the next 10 business days I will be posting what I call The Minister’s Guide to Sin, Sex and Relationships. My hope is that you will find this series thought provoking and it will cause us all to pray for each other and love according to God’s purpose.

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Lesson 1: Know Your Opponent

I am not a big fan of “the Devil made me do it” philosophy. I believe that many times we bring problems on ourselves with very little to no effort on the Devil’s part. That being said, let us all remember 1 Peter 5:8.  From the time you get married, the enemy would love nothing more than to bring destruction to your marriage.

Think about it. The Devil has been around a whole lot longer than any of us. If Jesus delays his return, the Devil will still be roaming the Earth long after we are all gone. He is intelligent and cunning. He has seen it all. There is very little we can do to shock or surprise him. He probably uses the same tricks on us that he used hundreds of years ago. He knows what formula can break up a choir. He knows what formula can dissolve a youth ministry. He also knows what formula can crush a marriage.

Don’t underestimate how he can help you destroy your marriage. All he needs is a little crack to enter in. He’ll use that small crack in your marriage to create a big gaping whole.

I’m sure you’ve read the scripture that says “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) If you talk to any professional in areas like sports, business, or the military they will all tell you the same thing about underestimating your opponent. If you underestimate your opponent, then he or she is likely to defeat you. I believe the same can be said about the Devil. If you underestimate him, then he will defeat you.

It is important for us to resist the Devil (James 4:7). We have victory of over the enemy because of God’s grace and mercy. Because of God’s power we are not consumed by our enemies.

They key ingredient here is God. His word contains plenty of information about our adversary. God gives us strong guidance regarding what to do and what not to do. If is important for us know and understand what we are up against. We must realize that the minute we try to do things under our own power, we will face defeat.

The Challenge
I would like encourage you to join me in prayer. Let’s join together and pray for the relationships and marriages of every Christian (public ministry or not) over the course of the next 10 business days. Let’s pray that God helps us keep the focus on Him and not our own wants and desires.

What’s Next
Tomorrow, I’m going to offer suggestions about engaging in personal interaction with other people; the how, when, where and what. I hope you’ll join me then.

What is your opinion on all of this? Do you feel that it is important for us to understand how the devil operates?

BeBe Winans has been exonerated of all charges of allegations that he assaulted his ex-wife Debra Winans. On December 4, the judge dismissed all charges with prejudice. This order concluded the entire matter and it cannot be reopened.

While in some ways I am happy for BeBe, I continue to find stories like this sad. I long for the day when the words assault, ex-wife, charges, and divorce will no longer be associated with Gospel artists. In a perfect world, these words wouldn’t have much weight in our society at all.

My mother once told me that none of us are exempt from life. The older I get the more I realize how right she was. This situation is a reminder that no matter how great of a minister someone may appear to be, they are still succeptible to the snares that can entangle us all.

The good news is that BeBe Winans won’t be convicted. The bad news is that his children will need to grow up in a house without both parents. In the end, they are the ones who will likely be affected the most by this. Parents don’t get along, get a divorce, but the kids suffer. I’m not a theological scholar, but I know that is not what God intends for any of us.

Please keep BeBe Winans and his entire family in prayer. There are some wounds that only God can heal.

Let me know what you think about the video.

I must say that the finale left me scratching my head a little bit. The two contestants sang a duet to New Edition’s “Can You Stand the Rain” that was arranged by Donald Lawrence. The arrangement/performance was nice, but it wasn’t gospel. Somebody please tell me why this song was part of the show. For Sunday Best to be a gospel show, there have been quite a few R&B performances this season.

Gospel music gets such little air time, I just don’t understand why the producers would use the little air time that gospel gets and have an R&B song performed. Just because Donald Lawrence arranges a song, that doesn’t make it gospel. Call me crazy, but I tune into a gospel music show to listen to gospel music. If I want to listen to R&B, I know where to find it.

Let me make one additional point about the duet. Just because two people can each sing well, that doesn’t mean that they should be doing a duet together. I’m sure you’ve seen a duet where it looks like the two singers are about to try to see which one can out sing the other. If you watched the show, there was a point in the song where Y’Anna start riffing and running and Jessica didn’t want any part of that. I can’t blame her at all. Their styles are too different. A Karen Clark-Sheard and Y’Anna Crawley duet would be a good idea. A Kiki Sheard and Y’Anna Crawley duet would be a good idea. A Jessica Reedy and Y’Anna Crawley duet is not such a good idea, especially when the song is “Can You Stand the Rain.”

The two contestants each gave good individual performances. Watching Jessica Reedy live must be a completely different experience than watching her on TV. She sang “I Surrender All”. The performance left BeBe Winans almost in tears and it left Erica Campbell speechless. Although I thought her performance was good, I didn’t have anywhere near the same emotional response that they did.

We also got to see the beginning of the BeBe and CeCe Winans reunion. There is a lot I can say about that, so I’ll save my comments for another post that is coming soon.

When people think of the words Sunday Best they think of someone who can walk in your church and sing the roof off. That is one of the big reasons why America voted in favor of Y’Anna Crawley. If the name of the show would have been America’s Next Gospel Star Jessica Reedy probably would have stood a better chance. I’m not completely sure why, but there are a lot of people already saying that they will not be watching season 3 of Sunday Best.

There is no dobut that Y’Anna Crawley is a derserving winner. She finished the show with her new single “The Promise” and it sounds pretty good. I’m not sure how much success Y’Anna and Jessica will have as gospel artists. I pray that they both achieve great success and do big things both in and outside of gospel.  I can’t wait to hear each of their albums when they come out.