Don’t know exactly what to make of Kanye West’s supposed conversion to Christianity? Neither do I.
If you ask me, it seems to be genuine. Kanye already had immense popularity, why would converting to a religion that seems more unfashionable in our culture help him? His Sunday service events have clear gospel presentations by a preacher who attended The Master’s Seminary. Other reports say Kanye is being discipled by the same preacher. (On the other hand, Kanye also has recent ties to false teacher Joel Osteen.)
God doesn’t need celebrities to accomplish His will. But does that mean that God would never use a celebrity to preach to a celebrity-obsessed culture? Nope.
I don’t know exactly what is happening in the Kanye conversion saga and I don’t need to know specifics to pray wisely with eternity in mind. Please pray with me in the following four ways:
Praise
Praise God that His gospel is being preached! Praise God for His sovereignty in salvation! Praise God that it seems like Kanye is bearing some good fruit in spreading the gospel through events and music!
Adam Ford’s review of Kanye’s new Jesus is King album describes its contents: “[Jesus is King is] a legitimately Christian, Bible-verse-packed, cuss-word-free, not-heretical, seemingly very sincere work of art…more Christian than the stuff you hear on K-Love.”
And what if Kanye isn’t sincere? Than we can still rejoice that the gospel is preached as Paul did in Philippians 1:15–18.
Protection
Assuming Kanye has had a genuine experience of Christ, let’s remember the Parable of the Sower and pray that the enemy, persecution (which will come from an angry secular world), the love of money, and the care for other things won’t choke out the seed of the Word in his life. Pray for persevering faith empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Proclamation
Pray God would use Kanye’s influence to have tens of thousands come to saving faith. Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian[1], was recently baptized with her kids. Could God be doing a greater work in his family? I have no idea, but certainly hope so. It would be just like God to take a family known for shallowness and convert them to repentant proclaimers the world’s most important message. Nothing (not even the conversion of Kanye and the Kardashians!) is impossible for Him.
Platform
It’s usually not wise to give a new and untested believer a megaphone to the world. Pray for Kanye to be wise about how he stewards his platform and influence as a baby believer (if indeed he is one). Pray God would grant him wisdom, maturity, biblical discernment, and godly counsel as he moves forward.
Time will tell how genuine Kanye’s conversion is. In the meantime, let’s be a praying people with our hope in our all powerful Savior.
[1] I never thought I would mention Kim Kardashian’s name on my blog, let alone have a whole post focused on praying for her husband. What a time to be alive.
“Kanye West”by dpwolf is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0