Czar Thoughts

“I put on for my city!” Okay…really, I don’t like that song much. But I do like the sentiment. Doing what I do with my city constantly in mind.

But a lot of times I feel the need to talk to my city. Share my heart with them. Share the pain I feel for them. Share the joy I have for them. Share my dream for them. A dream I believe is rooted in what God has put in me to do to serve them.

But like most bloggers, I try to talk to everyone BUT my city. I try to talk to other emcees, other ministers, frustrated Christians…yada yada yada. I still want to talk to them too because there’s some stuff that I want to say that my city won’t always connect with. But I need to talk to my city more.

So, with that said my blog will be 70-80% directed to the city of Newport, RI and the surrounding areas. This probably means that most you won’t be reading my blog anymore. Which is bittersweet because some of you I met via blogging. But its sweet because my highest blog traffic has been on my opinion on some controversial stuff and I never wanted to become a TMZ of the faith. And since most of my city knows nothing about the goofy culture of evangelicalism, I won’t be posting too much here about that kind of stuff.

So if you’ll be sticking around anyway to see what’s happening in the Kingdom on this little cul de sac of society called Newport, I look forward to seeing you here. If you wont be reading here anymore, hit me up on Twitter @stevenpatton

So cue up the Jeezy/Kanye beat because its time to put on for my city – on, on for my city!

As a ministry leader, Acts 6 messes me up. In Acts 6, the Greek speaking believers felt they were being discriminated against in the distrubution of food by the Hebrew believers. The Apostles said it wouldnt be right if they left the prayer and preaching the Word to serve tables. (Lots of lessons there but I’ll skip those in this post)

The solution? The Apostles told all the other disciples to pick 7 men full of good reputation, full of the Spirt and wisdom (Acts 6:3) to buss tables. Did you get that?!?! The criteria to BUSS TABLES: 1. Good Reputation 2. Full of the Spirit 3. Full of wisdom

Let’s be honest, we don’t have this kind of criteria in our churches to serve tables. Most churches BARELY have this much criteria to be ministry leaders and directors. I know youth pastors, small group leaders, worship leaders, children’s ministry directors, media directors and more that don’t meet these three benchmarks. Be honest, how many people in your church serve tables at the church pot luck or at the soup kitchen that don’t even believe in God let alone are FULL of the Spirit?

This brings me to the question: have we set the bar too low? To we allow too much to slide by under the guise of grace? To we allow lesser quality people to lead because they have a gift? Do we too often quickly fill a need with able bodies that have unable hearts? There are pastors of churches that would NOT be serving tables at the church pot luck in Acts 6. Think of the pastors with bad reputations that continue to lead churches or start new ones after they were kicked out of their last church for banging his assistant.

My question is this: have we lowered the bar in the name of “grace?”

What do you think?

Hey everyone.

Dropping a spot on the blog to let you know that after much thought and preparation, I have OFFICIALLY come up with the title of my next album and teaser projects.

The teaser project I’m working on will be a FREE project that will  be a lead up to the album. The official title for the teaser is “Bait & Switch.”

The official album which will release a couple months after Bait & Switch will be called “*The Fine Print.”

I’ll be doing some video blog posts as well as typed blog posts to explain the concept behind both the teaser and the album.

Also, to all of my pastor/youth pastor/party promoter/club manager peeps – I’m available for booking. If interested, email me @ czarmusic@gmail.com

Check out this vid of me w/ Jonathan Stockstill & Deluge Band last year at The Awakening youth conference. This was all spontaneous, spur of the moment. It was a fun time. I join the fray at about the 1:50 mark. You HAVE to see my dude Marco Debarros take an EPIC fail at the end of the vid in front of about 1,000 people.

So, here we are – the return of Czar Thoughts aka Collision Course. Why bring it back? 1. Because “Its Messy” isn’t the best platform for the stuff I want to share. “Its Messy” is still alive but only selective content will go there.

2. Because I want to make an announcement right here and I figured that this was a great place to do.

3. Cuz I felt like it!

On a serious note, I know Saturday I was BLOWING UP everyone’s Twitter feed with a conversation between me, @LionsandLiars and @DMWalking about my consideration of retiring from doing rap music. And today I’m making my official announcement: I’m going to do ONE more album. Even though @Thriceborn doesn’t believe I will only do ONE more, its true.

Why do one more album? Here are the 3 main reasons I’m going to do this last one:

1. to get this last bit of stuff off of my heart and in to music
 

2. I don’t want the last bit of creativity in the form of rap to die inside me. I’d rather let it live in infamy than to rest with me in the grave

3. my wife convinced me that I’ve been at it too long to not complete what I started

So there you have it. One more for the road. I’m working with some awesome people to make this happen and to make sure I go out with a bang.

Check back here for more musings on life, ministry, leadership, music and more.

Oh, and if you haven’t gotten my other solo release ‘ “Life Support EP” download it right here for FREE for the next 7 days!!! Looking forward to the wild ride ahead.

Dowload “Life Support EP” NOW!!!http://rcpt.yousendit.com/844598521/76f884a101fadf050623e8e794710172

Hey everyone, if you’re reading this via my wordpress page, you may have been coming to see the “What If – Part 2.” But then again, you’re probably not reading this via wordpress because no one really reads my wordpress page. So, I’m closing the doors to czarthoughts.

I’ll post notes on Facebook but the blog is closing.

Its been over a year and its been a great run but, I think its time to close the doors. One person once asked”what would happen if you closed your doors? Would anyone notice? Would you be missed?” In the case of czarthoughts, the answer would be a resounding NO.

You can still hit me via facebook and email.

God bless – now go shake up the world.

“Out of business”

Hey blog world. Usually, when I post a comment about my personal life its usually doom and gloom. Like this one or this one. But this time – good stuff.

The first one – in a complete reversal of the first link in this story – I got promoted on my job. More money and the chance to do what I do best – development and leading.

Second, in a complete reversal of the second link – I’m gonna be a dad! That’s right folks, my wife Nichole is 15 weeks pregnant!

Good times in the Patton household. Life right now isn’t perfect, but its been some pretty good news lately. Praise God!