The Lounge as defined by one of its organizers, DJ Soxxy of the Kubamba fame, is a Christian hangout with varying themes; DJs, karaoke, spoken word or featured artistes held every Friday at Petma Restaurant which seeks to provide Christians with an alternative to the club scene.
Courtesy | Google
Adawnage were last Friday’s featured act. In my previous post I shared what a pleasure and blessing it was to watch Adawnage perform LIVE at The Lounge.
It was my first time at The Lounge. As a student of human nature I was intrigued by what I saw and I had to share with you.
Let me digress, I had spent that Friday afternoon listening to the Adawnage’s Safari album in anticipation of their gig. This resulted in an interesting incident with my colleague.
My colleague is a young staunch Christian lady. Those who in days gone were called Dada katika Yesu (Sister-in-Christ). She was quite surprised nay shocked that a) I knew of Adawnage b) I was jamming to their music and c) I was planning to go for their concert.
Now while I am not by any stretch of imagination be a Ndugu katika Yesu (Brother-in-Christ), I do have a relationship with God. It may not be ideal or textbook but it is there. So I certainly did take offense at the judgement and I told her as much.
While we are on the subject, let me just say I am tired and put off by saved guys who throw judgement at me and preach to me. Let me also say I am truly thankful to my saved pals who show their Christianity to me by their actions. End of rant.
Back to The Lounge. I have to say at first impression, the only difference between it and a regular club in Nairobi is that there was no sale of alcohol.
Every other element you expect to find in a club was present. Beautiful women, all dressed up and made up. Couples. Ladies and gents on the prowl. A DJ playing very loud danceable music. Folk dancing provocatively.
Let me be clear. Adawange did NOT dance or sing provocatively. During their performance guys were mostly seated except the random person seized of the spirit who would stand and sway to their music.
The dancing happened before Adawange went on stage and during the interlude of their performance lead by Zionists dance group.
This resulted in a big culture shock for me.
I may not be Ndugu katika Yesu but I was raised Anglican and church in my mind is solemn and reflective.
In this I am not alone. Muslims have women and men praying in different places at the mosque so as to reduce temptations. In ‘conservative’ churches women are required to wear long dresses and cover their hair. These measures are put in place so as to ensure that when worshiping, distraction and temptations are reduced to a minimum.
I wondered where Jesus was in the crazy dancing which in all honesty was no different from that happening in the pub next door. I was also trying my best not to have sexual thoughts while in ‘church’ but the ladies shaking what they mothers gave them were making it quite hard for me.
For me, it felt awkward and not right to dance and party like that in ‘church’. I stayed only for as long as Adawnage were performing and left immediately after.
For the regulars, they were in a zone. It was a ‘party don’t stop’ kind of situation with Adawange’s performance seeming to be a blip in their raving. When I left at midnight, DJ Sanch was getting ready to take the party to the next level.
With the provocative dancing, high energy levels and relatively young age of party-goers/congregation, it was not far-fetched to imagine hanky-panky situations ensuing.
This got me thinking.
The Lounge is meant to take Jesus to the people and provide clean wholesome Friday entertainment for those who are saved. But I wonder whether in taking Christ to the masses, the message is getting diluted. Whether the ‘cool gospel’ which is all the rave now may be doing more harm than good.
Or whether like my aforementioned colleague who did not think that as an unsaved guy I could listen to gospel I was being judgmental on saved folk who want to party and shake their booty till morning.
I am aware of an instance in the Bible where King David danced for the Lord in joy. I am also conscious that Christians were asked to be the salt and light of the world.
From what I saw at The Lounge, I was left with question marks.
I have written previously on Gospesecular music but to see the Christian raving for myself was pretty unsettling. Hence writing and sharing my experience at The Lounge with you.
Maybe out of the ensuing discussion I will get enlightenment.
GOD BLESS KENYA!
Moderate Kenyan 
November 4th, 2012 at 16:08
hi moderate Kenyan
Whatever you have written here is absolutely not new. I think its as old as the gospel itself!
Once during a discussion with a friend on religion he made a comment that I will never forget. He noted that people, including the followers of the faith, confused Islam and arabic/ middle eastern culture. This has led to a whole lot of ugly prejudices against the believers based on the latter. It has also led to a lot of justification of wrong deeds as acts of faith based on misconceptions.
I would be as bold as to say the same applies here. There has been a lot of confusion between the Christian faith and conservatism . Although one has elements of the other , they are not the same. For example in the US, Republican conservatism is often labelled by both the opposition and some ‘christians’ as true christianity. Back in Kenya this conservatism comes a lot under the labels culture and tradition or as i have seen, conservative Christian culture -which we inherited from the colonialists. For example, why do many churches insist that you must be formally dressed to attend the service. That men should not wear shorts or no one should wear jeans. There are also expectations like you should absolutely not drink alcohol.
I may have brought up a thorny issue with the last part there…..
Included in that line of thought is that Christians should not be seen in the places that you have mentioned because they must be separate.
This then leads to a whole discussion on secular vs Sacred. I’ll link you to the David crowder band blog for an excellent article on that :
http://www.davidcrowderband.com/bios/david/david/sacred.html
My point is this, many expectations of what a christian in Kenya should or should not do are based on african culture or colonial conservatism both of which are NOT christian. This is not an excuse to do whatever you please. after all Paul writes we are dead to sin, how then can we who have died to it still live in it.
TImothy Keller put it this way. The devil is a judo master. In Judo as your opponent lunges forward towards you ,you use their momentum to lunge them even further forward to throw them off balance and thrust them to the ground. Thus the bigger you are the harder you fall. The devil uses the good things God has given us(or strengths), music, sex, dancing, yes even alcohol, to lunge us forward and pin us down(very paraphrased). This then leads to not so ideal situations (you called it hanky-panky), based on the choices of individuals, Christian or not.
I do not know what was in the hearts of those people who were at the lounge but I do know that God gave us good things to enjoy. Be it Music, beauty, fellowship, whether its just hanging out or actually studying God word. This then transcends the definition of Christianity set forth by cultural expectations or conservatism as I mentioned earlier.
This is my understanding and take on it. I hope it paints a better picture
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November 7th, 2012 at 15:18
Kibobo,
Thank you for reading.
Your comments have provoked further thought which is a good thing.
You are right, one cannot tell what is in someone’s heart.
Christianity and morality are in the final analysis individual.
Please keep visiting.
Moderate Kenyan
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November 5th, 2012 at 12:43
This is really an very individual choice. Like where the Bible says if you would do something that causes someone else to stumble; forego it. Two sides of the coin weigh equally here in my view. Christians are the salt of the earth and should not lose their taste (sometimes that’s what we have become as Christians). In the same vein, I also believe that as Christians (even non Christians) we are judged by what we know. Bible says something like if someone does something they know is wrong, for them it is sin. If people don’t know different, then they just don’t know different.
However, the other side of the coin was articulated very well by Jesus Himself. He wasn’t to be found among the Pharisees or the teachers of the law. He was to be found among the tax collectors and the prostitutes in His day. He may very well be found among the ‘heathens’ in our day. I think that in many ways we have lost the meaning of Grace as a church. We categorize people and their sins then know how we ought to deal with them.
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November 7th, 2012 at 15:52
EWK,
You have hit the nail on the head.
Love your analysis.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Moderate Kenyan
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November 5th, 2012 at 23:52
Its called in theological terms “Apostasy” – the falling away from the true, as evidenced by the moral decadence of the day, which has sadly entered the church.
All that you aforemention here are all the deeds and cravings of the sinful nature of man, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh ; the eyes want to see bums shaking, the flesh wants to be satisfied by vigorous worldly dancing.
Ask yourself one thing sir, if Jesus walked into the lounge, with what you are describing, do you think in one bit He would join along in such worldly practises? Definately no, its sad that many modern christians do things that even ashame Christ, and moves unbelievers far off from the truth; for lets say an unbelievr who doesnt drink but attended the lounge, he would conclude that if that is salvation and those guys are doing exactly what you find in a club minus alcohol, then i’d rather remain as i am!
Its also true what you note about secular music masquerading as gospel music, inorder to sell, all from worldly patterns such as Deejaying and Veejaying and mixes and what have you! The saddest bit is that through such acts man easily develops his own type of righteousness, a “self-righteousness” – phillipians 3:9 and will justify such of their actions by misusing verses such as “There is freedom in Christ – Galatians 5:1, In Christ there is no condemnation – Romans 8:1 etc.”
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November 7th, 2012 at 16:20
Ogola,
Wow.
You certainly raise poignant points.
Thank you for availing further food for thought.
What would you suggest as the way forward?
Moderate Kenyan
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November 24th, 2012 at 16:43
Moderate Kenyan,
This has nothing to do with this post but its just a matter of concern, I watched a shocking KTN news report titled ‘maovu ya mayaya’ and maajabu ya mayaya -highlighting the mistreatment of children by nanny’s. This investigative feature showed footage of nanny spy cams installed in some houses and the shocking things that nannies were doing to the children. One involved a nanny raping the child! one blogger is circulating the video which doesn’t hide the identity of either the nanny or the child- which i think is vulgar and distasteful.
I bring up this issue here because I could’t find your email address. But I would like to ask you, since you already have a platform for discussing these issues, to ask if KTN did the follow up on these nannies by reporting them to the police and also bring this issue as a discussion to those who follow your blog.
I find it sad that these issues are highlighted but there is no follow up on them and the injustice of the matter becomes even greater.
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February 6th, 2013 at 12:59
WOW, that is really sad…
I think like Kibobo, I would like to find out whether or not this nannies were followed up and arrested.
check out….booksfromus.org
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