The world is astir with the news of Kanye West’s dramatic profession of faith, his new worship album, and his “Sunday Service” worship meetings. Many conservative evangelicals who have listened to the new album believe that it is truly God-honoring music. I saw a tweet from one of my old seminary professors last weekend: “I never thought…[we] would be blasting Kanye throughout our house, but we are (and really liking it!)…”
An interview from West’s pastor is also going around the internet. The pastor believes this is a legit conversion. (And most conservatives would think this pastor is legit.)
Of course, people have strong opinions about the situation. Among the unsaved—and the saved—there are those who assume this is a publicity stunt to sell albums. Some in the church, who are perhaps not quite so cynical, are still a bit skeptical: “We’ve seen celebrity conversions before. They tend to be among the seed that fell on rocky ground. No root, no fruit.” Others aren’t sure what to think at all.
How might the Scriptures guide us to think about these things and to respond?
First of all, we should believe the best. Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 13:7, “Love bears all things, believes all things…” If anyone makes a credible profession of faith—and it seems to me that Kanye West has—we should take the individual at his or her word. We should treat them as a believer until the fruit of their lives removes our ability to affirm their profession. The parable of the sower does indeed teach that some professions of faith will not stand the test of time and testing. In a sense, the jury is out on all of us. However, that should not cause us to hold every profession of faith in suspicion until it has been proven with godly fruit. We should believe the best and hope the best for that person. I’m not sure why we would do any differently when that person is Kanye West.
Second, we should rejoice. Luke 15:10: “I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Having believed the best, we should act accordingly, which includes rejoicing that the Lord has liberated another soul from eternity away from Him, and in doing so, has brought Himself glory. You and I had nothing more to commend us to the Father prior to our redemption than does any gangster rapper. Before the Almighty Judge, there is no hope to merit an eternal respite from hell. Only the blood of Christ brings life and liberty to the person dead in sin. When He does that, all glory goes to Him for His magnificent grace. We must guard against the attitude of the prodigal son’s older brother (Luke 15:11-32). If I believe that God’s grace extended to another means less grace for me or less Christ for me, I don’t understand my own sin, the Father’s grace, or the sufficiency of Jesus…and I don’t love the gospel. Praise God when He saves sinners!
Third, be patient. 1 These 5:15d, "Be patient with them all." Most of us were not world famous when we were saved. We were able to hide our relative immaturity in obscurity, dealing with it in the safety of a normal church environment. We didn’t have our theology squared away on day one. We didn’t look as much like Jesus as we do now, by God’s grace. We were able to learn and grow without the world and the church universal watching our every move. Believing the best, we should recognize that West is a baby Christian. He’s going to say and do baby Christian things. He may not have the wisdom right away to be careful with his words or to use his platform appropriately. He will likely say things that strike us as theologically off…just like any other new believer. We should afford this man as much patience as we would any new believer, perhaps even more, given the fishbowl he lives in, and reject the impulse to declare him a fraud the first time he makes a mistake. Or the second time, or the third time…
Fourth, pray. Ephesians 6:18b, "...keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints." Pray for Kanye. Pray all the things you would pray for a new believer: that the Lord would keep the enemy from snatching the seed of the gospel from his heart; that God would bring good, godly influences into his life to disciple him to maturity; that he would find a biblical church and serve there; that his mind would be daily transformed by the Scriptures. But we should also pray for him what would not be necessary to pray for a typical new believer. We should pray that he will bear up under the terrible scrutiny likely to come at him from all sides, both the unbelieving world and millions of professing Christians. West has a platform that is difficult to get away from, even if he wanted to. However, he seems determined to use whatever he has for the Lord. That means that whatever he says and does will be known by all and used against him. One thing is certain: the world does not want this conversion to be real. If it turns out to be real, if they can’t expose him as a hypocrite, they’ll settle for maligning him as a crazy zealot. Persecution is coming. Pray for him.
We should also pray for the church that we would take advantage of this to engage people with the gospel. This is a great opportunity to naturally turn conversations toward spiritual things. We should be as bold and enthusiastic about the gospel as Kanye seems to be.
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