They say nothing stinks like success!

And boy, hasn’t the Gospel industry experienced its fair share of successes. It wasn’t that long ago when you’d be more likely to experience a UFO sighting than hear a Gospel song on high rotation on mainstream media. Toss in crop circles and a streaking comet for decent cover in the local dailies.

How times have changed! Today, pubs, clubs, DJs, writers and media outlets can hardly get enough of the stuff. Back then, if you wanted your music video to see the light of day, only the monopolistic colossus ‘The Stomp‘ could help you. Bat an eyelid, and Gospel music shows have exploded like the pox. Today, only TV stations hopelessly trapped in the dark ages have neither Gospel videos on heavy rotation nor dedicated Gospel video shows.

You don’t have to think too far back to remember when Gospel had only 2 or 3 credible DJs. Today put out a DJ competition and see who comes tops!

Anyone remember a time when artists could barely scrape together a living? Now DJs, Dancers, and good grief, even hype men, have a shot at being professionals. Think about it, aren’t some of the biggest endorsements and pay-days associated with the likes of well-known Christian acts?

And it wasn’t that long ago when getting a Gospel song or video produced meant enduring mistreatment from the handful of secular producers out there. Today many are running to the Christian beat-makers and videographers for their ‘help‘. It wasn’t that far back when Gospel artists were the token participants at award ceremonies. In 2011 they cleaned out all but one of the major Kisima Awards categories.

Truth be told, in many ways Gospel music has thrived! We definitely have the spins. We have the shows. The radio hits. The club bangers. The big name artists. The endorsements. The media penetration. The amazing videos. The ring-tones. We’ve got the video producers. The audio producers. The award shows. The best bands. The tightest musicians. For crying out loud, we even have the music sales to boot! It seems we got this thing on lock.

But has Gospel music TAKEN OVER? I ask because that’s the proclamation I keep hearing.

I don’t know the answer to that, but there’s a little passage tucked away in Luke 10 that may provide a clue. Here, Jesus receives some 72 disciples whom he had earlier dispatched on evangelistic door-to-doors that would have made Jehovah’s Witnesses blush. They returned excited, gushing at how they saw Satan drop like lightning from Heaven. Jesus responds by affirming them, and reminding them that He has given them powers even ‘The Avengers‘ would envy. But He gives them big picture. Don’t rejoice at that, rejoice that your names are written in Heaven. Now that’s ‘big picture’!

Has Gospel music TAKEN OVER? Well, we sure do have the bells and whistles. But what is OUR big picture?
Here’s are some questions that help keep things in focus for me?

• Are the attitudes and lifestyles of our generation being radically turned upside down?
• Have the pubs and clubs began to empty out, as conviction puts more bums on seats in our local churches?
• Are mainstream media overhauling their programming so that kingdom content is front and centre?
• Is positive and Godly content completely dominating mainstream consciousness?
• Are marriages and relationships falling apart, or are we seeing reconciliation and restoration?
• Are we seeing hordes of people coming to true repentance and a saving knowledge of Christ?

If the answer to any of these is ‘NO‘, then maybe we need to slow our roll on audacious proclamations.

The Gospel music industry in Kenya has undergone an amazing metarmorphosis in recent years, and I firmly believe it is nothing if not God’s favor on us. We now have the bells and whistles to compete with the best of them. And I have little doubt that lives are being transformed. But is the job done? Far from it. The battle for the hearts and minds of our generation is only just beginning. The fight for mind-share with spiritual ‘dark forces’ is greater than its ever been.

As an industry, we must celebrate the small wins, and appreciate the strides made. But if we sit on our back sides and measure our success by all these non-essentials, we miss the forest for the trees and give in to superficiality. We must measure success based on one thing – how large is the size of the harvest out there, and how much mind-share have we achieved!

I pray that every Gospel artist would be eager for that next radio hit, that next club banger, that next out-of-this world video, that next media interview.

But big picture? I pray that every one of us would look out the window at a dying generation and grieve. I pray we would be so apalled by their condition that we would toss aside our petty differences and beefs and work together for the sake of the harvest. I pray we would spend more time on our knees, calling out for transformational lyrics and sounds, than we do scouring the net and tabloids for mentions.

I pray that as an industry we would see our Facebook friends and Twitter followers not merely as fans, but as an army we can train to be powerful catalysts of change.

I pray we would dial down our time spent on the road doing gigs, events and media appearances, and knuckle down, spending more time attending service and faithfully serving in our local churches. I pray we would substitute time spent at the hairdressers and at designer shops and more time in discipleship spaces.

I pray we would be much hungrier for our lost generation.

When that happens, Gospel will be well on its way to taking over!

Until then…