Last night we held the third day of The Ambassador's 7-Day "Stop The Funeral"LIVE Webinar and boy was it one to remember. Amba discussed at length his collab with Canton Jones on the song "Favor" from off of his upcoming July 12th release Stop The Funeral (pre-order it here), and in case you missed it we have the video for you.
In the video Amba provides great biblical support and reasoning for why believers should unify, especially if both recognize Jesus as their Lord and endeavor to please Him. He explains that it is many times our own pre-mature judgments and prejudices that have caused us to form incorrect opinions of others of a different doctrinal persuasion - and usually over secondary issues. He also talks about Canton Jones as a whole - the person, the artist, and child of God. Lastly, you'll hear him make reference to a recent write-up by Shai Linne, who has expressed that he doesn't agree with The Ambassodor's collaboration with Canton Jones, and even defends a recent collab of his very own with Giano. We've provided the full write-up below.
There's a lot of great truth provided by Amba, and it is a blessing to hear. Thank God we decided to record it. We have no doubt that it will be used to spark discussion, tear down walls of division within the Body of Christ, and bring glory to our Lord. Watch the video after the jump and let us know your thoughts.
Be sure to catch The Ambassador's Stop The Funeral album listening session on July 11th at Rapzilla.com! Read our review of the album.
Shai Linne explains his collab with Giano, and gives his thoughts on Amba's collab with Canton Jones
***WARNING...SUPER-LONG POST AHEAD***
After reading through the posts in the threads about me, Ambassador and Giano, I wanted to address a few things that I hope will be helpful to those who have questions. I'll be honest: I knew the Amba/ Canton thing would cause an uproar, but for some reason, I'm surprised by the response to the Giano collab. I think it's good, though, if for no other reason than to spark some much-needed convos about Christian unity and what it should look like. I've been encouraged by the thoughtfulness that went into a lot of the posts, even the ones that I disagree with. But anyway, here's my take:
What Disqualifies From Co-laboring Musically?
This question is what a lot of this boils down to: what criteria does one Christian use to disqualify another Christian from appearing on a song with them? However this question is answered, it's not simply gonna be a matter of going to a chapter and verse in the Bible. It's more a question of wisdom, prudence and applying biblical principles. Like many things, it's not a simple black and white, sin/ no sin issue. When it comes to Christians partnering together, one thing that I've learned over the years is that different levels of agreement are needed depending on the work being done. When determining whether or not two believers should partner, you first have to ask yourself the question, "What's the goal?" That will help determine the level of agreement necessary.
So, for example, let's say you have two Christians from vastly different denominational backgrounds. One is from a Pentacostal church and the other is from an ultra-conservative Mennonite church. Both believe the gospel. They may be able to serve together at the local homeless shelter and share Christ with them. However, differing views on the gifts of the Spirit would probably keep them joining each other's church. So they could partner in one way, but not another. A believer from a fundamentalist Independent Baptist Church may connect with a Christian friend who goes to Calvary Chapel to pass out tracks downtown on the weekend. But when the brother from Calvary Chapel invites the Fundamentalist brother to their evangelistic outreach featuring Christian hip-hop, the fundamentalist brother may decline because he disagrees with that particular philosophy of ministry. Again, partnering in one way and not another. There are reformed Presbyterian brothers and sisters that I love to death and would gladly partner with in doing an event or a conference. But I won't plant a church with them because they're wrong about infant baptism You get the point.
So when it comes to music, what should disqualify two Christians from working together musically? Some would say, "Theology is where we draw the line. If someone is "off" doctrinally, you shouldn't work with them" or something to that effect. My question to that is how "off" are we talking about? And where do you draw the line? (And just know that however you answer that question, anything short of the person not being in the faith is a personal conviction, not necessarily a biblical one) I had a lot of convos with/ Amba when I found out about the Canton feature (Btw: For the record, I disagreed with Amba doing that feature because of #2 below, based on what I've heard of Canton's music. After going back and forth with Amba many times, I still disagree with his decision.) One thing that Amba stressed that I think is important is that we can be mad narrow and use arbitrary double standards when it comes to partnering.
What he discovered during the season after his fall (and I noticed it as well) was that there were many people who were supposedly "solid"- on point doctrinally, great at articulating the gospel verbally- but not so good at practically walking out the implications of the gospel. His point was that everyone would be up in arms about a Canton feature, but no one would raise a fuss if Amba co-labored with a "solid" emcee who actually denied the gospel by walking in unforgiveness towards his brother. Love for God (1 John 5:17-19), the pursuit of righteousness (1 John 3:10), and love towards other Christians (1 John 3:14) are THE key biblical signs of being in the faith. We all know 1 Cor. 13. Being "solid" or "reformed" means absolutely nothing if you aren't characterized by humility & love. Who cares if you can defend the five solas from Scripture if you can't even forgive a brother who has repented and asked for forgiveness? And yet, many don't seem to consider those things when it comes to musical co-laboring, as long as cats hold to the same theological distinctives. So even though I disagree with the Canton feature and think Amba could have have made his point in a different way, I agree with him on that point.
Christ Trumps All
So now to the Giano collab: There are a couple of questions I ask when considering doing a track with someone.
1. Is the person a Christian?
This, for me, is by far the most important thing. Someone in one of the threads said something to the effect of, "Giano being a Christian is irrelevant" I disagree. I think that generally speaking, In America, we have a low view of what it actually means to be a Christian. But whether we realize it or not, every true Christian was chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in the sight of God. God loves every Christian with the very love that He has for His own Son. Jesus Christ had every individual Christian in mind when He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane, was betrayed by His closest friends, beaten and flogged, spit upon, crowned with thorns, when He stretched out His arms and spilled His precious blood for us.
Jesus Christ Himself identifies with every true Christian in such a way that He could say to Saul on the road to Demascus, "Why are you persecuting me?" Not "them", but "me". Every Christian, at this very moment, is indwelled by the Spirit of God Himself in such a way that that we are empowered to grow in conformity to the very image of Jesus Christ. Each Christian is part of the Bride of Christ, a branch connected to the Vine, a friend of Jesus for whom He laid down His life, part of a royal priesthood and a holy nation, a soon-to-be-glorified creature who right now shines like a star in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. The God of the universe Himself is at work in each Christian for our ultimate good and His own glory and He has promised to personally destroy every last one of our enemies, including death itself. These things and much more are true about every single true believer, regardless of denominational background!
So, for that reason, I actually have more in common with a brother who is Arminian in his theology but displays the fruit of the Spirit than I do with someone who says they believe TULIP but consistently walks in unforgiveness, which the Bible says is a sign of being unregenerate (Mat. 18:21-35). So, having met Giano about 4 or 5 years ago, the aroma of Christ has always been evident in our interactions. Even his response to seeing these threads about him was humble and Christlike, and only confirmed my original assessment of him.
I guess it's easier to just call someone an "SDA" and dismiss them, as if that settles the case. But to me, Giano is not just an "SDA". He's a Christian brother named Rob with whom I have a lot in common- musically, culturally and yes, theologically. We both affirm the Trinity, the deity and Lordship of Christ, our deadness in sin and inability to save ourselves by our works, the reality of heaven and hell, Christ suffering the wrath of God on the cross for our sins, His bodily resurrection and ascension, His second coming, and the fact that we are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law. In other words, we both believe the gospel. We are both are seeking, by God's grace, to know and love God more, and to love others. We are both seeking to grow in godliness. That may not be enough for others to do a song with him. For me, it was. Let every man be convinced in his own mind.
Another thing I consider is:
2. Do I feel good about recommending their music to others?
I love Giano as an artist. I think his album "Beautiful World" was brilliant and that he represents some of the best that CHH has to offer, in terms of intelligent, creative, thoughtful, Christ-exalting lyricism. And he consistently points the listener to the supremacy of Christ. As far as Seventh-Day Adventism, as I've said on Twitter, there's a range from orthodox to heretical, just like there's a range in all evangelical denominations from conservative to liberal. So for one example, in the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) denomination, you have everything from pastors who have remained faithful to Scripture to congregations with lesbian elders. I think it would be wiser (and more loving) to actually interact with an individual Christian from the PCUSA before disqualifying them from co-laboring together because of their denominational background.
Also, with Giano, simply posting up the SDA statement of faith from a website is not going to be good enough because he has told me himself that he doesn't agree with some of the things in the statement outright and the way other things were worded. He's also told me that some of his views have changed over the past few years, but that he doesn't feel the need to justify his Christianity to those who seem to be on a "witch hunt" to disqualify him. And I understand where he's coming from. So, like before, I still have no problem recommending his music to others, just like I would have no problem recommending Stephen the Levite, even though I completely disagree with his end times view articulated on "My Funeral Soundtrack" (one of my favorite songs on TDIG, ironically lol).
What's the Goal?
As I said before, I believe the level of partnership between Christians is dependent on the goal in mind. So what are Giano and I coming together to do on my album? To proclaim the glory of God's character on a song- as it relates to His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. Giano is my brother in Christ and I'm glad to link up with him for that purpose. If the purpose was starting a church together, we'd have a hard time because we wouldn't agree on which day to meet lol. And you know what? That's somewhat sad, but it's ok. It's a fallen world. Only in heaven will we achieve perfect unity.
As a side note: Only in places like America (a place of no persecution, and ridiculous wealth and ease compared to most of the world) do we draw such sharp lines within the Christian faith. Believers in persecuted countries especially find that strange about us. Imagine being in a country where it's 99.7 percent Muslim, you can be imprisoned or killed for evangelizing and there are only 3 known churches in a country of 100 million people (This is a real country that a missionary sent from our church reported back to us about last Sunday). I guarantee that if we served over there, we would encouraged to simply meet ANY genuine believer! The fact that they came from a SDA church or Pentacostal church or Methodist church or Reformed baptist church would not mean nearly as much as the fact that God blessed you with a person who actually loves Jesus in a God-hating environment. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying doctrine isn't important. It is. I'm not immune to having in-house debates. I've had more than enough battles with other believers over doctrinal differences and philosophy of ministry. I get it. But we should just remember that a debate about one Christian appearing on another Christian's hip-hop album is a debate that is only possible amongst the ridiculously privileged. That's not what Christians in the Sudan and Indonesia are debating right now.
Switch in Philosophy?
Even though I think we need to leave room for Christian artists to grow and have our views tweaked, I'm trying to understand those who say this is a switch in philosophy for me. Yes, I see what I and the other cats on Lamp Mode do as ministry through the arts. But what have I ever said that gave you the impression that I would never collaborate with a Christian artist that I differed with doctrinally? I wrote one spill on co-laboring a few years back, and the main thing I stressed in that article was relationship coming first. Theological uniformity was not mentioned in that spill. What have I ever said in a song? I'm open if anyone has examples from my lyrics.
Someone might want to point out who I've co-labored with in the past. But think about it. In addition to my labelmates, I've either been on tracks with or shouted out by name on my songs: J. Johnson, M.O.D., Corey Red, Precise, Sistah Dee, Ackdavis, Todd Bangz, R-Swift, Tecniq, MuzeOne, 2-5 the Hood Reverend & Japhia Life to name a few. If you know where these cats stand doctrinally, you know they're all across the theological spectrum.
But here's where it gets really deep. If I ruled out partnering with all who are a part of the SDA movement, I would have never signed to Lamp Mode at all because deejay essence was part of SDA when Lamp Mode started! I had my disagreements doctrinally with SDA back then. Still do. But I saw that esso was a young believer who was growing in His love for Jesus and He demonstrated mad evidences of God's saving grace in His life. So I was glad to partner with Him for the glory of God, and looking back on what God has done through esso and Lamp Mode, I don't regret it at all.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'll stop here. I'm willing to answer more questions about it, so I'll check back in on the thread. Thanks for reading this long post.
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