( Latest interview from Ms. KiKi Sheard)

Audiences around the world have been listing to the artist formally known as KiKi Sheard since before she could reach a mic stand. But our little sweetheart isn’t a girl any more. Kierra has become a beautiful young woman who is about her fathers business.

(Kierra arriving to a BMI event)

Over the last few years Kierra has been traveling the US with Bold Right Life(Boldly living Right, getting ready for Life) a youth organization “that tackles the spirit of ignorance forced upon today’s youth, by nurturing them spiritually and naturally;”. A God inspired innovation of Kierra herself; she developed the organization to provide teens with a source of accountability and a place other than the streets for recreation.

( Television Personality Sherri Shepherd,Media Guru Jawn Murry,and Kierra Sheard)

Originally planted in her home state of Michigan, the movement has exploded attracting kids from across the county. This popularity motivated Kierra to start a yearly conference and this year’s events will be held in Detroit at her home church Greater Emmanuel Church of God In Christ August 12th-15th.

(Kierra and brother J.Drew)

The Bold ! Right ! Life ! Conference will highlight some of America’s favorite singers and preachers including Bishop Hezekiah Walker, Tye Tribbett, Prophetess Janet Floyd and Pastor Jonathan Miller. Sure to draw large audience, this conference is in great timing for the promotion of Kierra’s upcoming Mix Tape release that will be mass distributed in stores everywhere. You’ll be able to cop the album produced by her younger brother J. Drew Sheard late September. Check out the rare interview with J. Drew below.

This is such a great interview with J. Drew.His youthful joy is infectous.  We look forward to hearing more from the newly appointed President of A&R for his mothers new label KAREW Records.

(Sunday’s Best season two winner Y’Anna Crawley,and last two finalist Jessica Reedy,and Latice Crawford)

Sunday’s Best, an American Idol style talent search that premiered on Black Entertainment Television two seasons ago has been a big hit nationwide. With two $100,000 contracts awarded and ratings through the roof it’s safe to say we’ll be getting another season. The brain child of Kirk Franklin and co-produced by Benjamin BeBe Winans, and the Campbell sisters of Mary Mary it’s no wonder why good talent has not been hard to find. But the OC has learned that talent was not the only thing floating in the air last season. What rhymes with ‘dove’ and is also at weddings???LLLLLLOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE!!!!!Love silly!!!

During a recent interview on WIDU Rejoice Radio Network (where I am the official Gospel Entertainment News correspondent) with the Jeremy Wright Morning Show, last season’s Sunday’s Best finalist Latice Crawford informed America that she “was good”. In fact,in a very happy tone she said “I got my Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, all weeks best …so I’m good” referring to Jeff Spain fellow Sunday’s Best contestant and now her fiancé. Her husband to be, an Atlanta resident and member of New Birth Missionary Church was a contestant that made the top 10 and appeared in the first four episodes of season 2. Latice a resident of St. Albans, NY has been spending a lot of time in Georgia and plans on making it her permanent home after there wedding.

(Sunday’s Best Season 2 Top 10 Contestant Jeff Spain)

The OC is so excited about this union in the Lord and prays that we get the official engagement and wedding pictures ((wink;-)). Until then enjoy the pic below. Both singers have also taken promotional photos since the show that you can view after the cut and we must say they are both looking really good. The new couple is working very hard since the show. Latice is traveling and singing while Jeff is in the studio working on his debut album.Of his first album he says ” I have experienced being on both sides of the fence. First, being in the world and now wanting to live for Christ and the Kingdom. I want to do an album that is truly a reflection of me and that lets people know exactly who I really am, and what the Lord has done for me.”

To hear hot gospel celebrity interviews for yourself, log onto http://widurejoice.com every Saturday morning for the Jeremy Wright Morning Show. Show starts at 10am, I go on at 10:45.We’ll talk then…

(Latice Crawford and fiancé fellow Sunday’s Best contestant Jeff Spain)

(continue reading…)

(Bishop Paul S. Morton performing his new single “Don’t Do It without Me”)

During GMWA in Cincinnati, OH last week Light Records President, Phillip White, and Tehillah Music President, Pastor Jerry Parries presented Bishop Paul S. Morton with a surprise birthday cake.

(Bishop Paul S. Morton receiving his surprise cake)

GMWA (Gospel Music Workshop of America) is one of the biggest events in Gospel Music frequented by over 30,000 people each year. It is truly the yearly conference of all conferences, where dreams are born and legends are made. Everyone from Kirk Franklin to Byron Cage to JJ Harrison of Youthful Praise established their music carriers on GMWA stages. But the conference is not just all about the music of the industry but also about its message.

To highlight the message of the Gospel of Christ the daily agenda of GMWA conferences start with daily sermon services called ‘Daily Bread’. For this year’s ‘daily bread’ service the keynote speaker was none other than the Bishop Paul S. Morton .Bishop had a very full day performing his new single “Don’t Do It without Me” and signing copies of his new book ‘Unemployed Faith’. Check out more pictures below and from the OC to you we say:

“Happy Birthday Bishop”

(Bishop later at book signing for new publication ‘Unemployed Faith’)

(another performance pic)

The minister known as Reverend Ike, who preached the gospel of material prosperity to millions nationwide, died Tuesday July 28^th 2009. He was 74 years old.

His mentee and family spokesman Bishop E. Bernard Jordan (best known for his “Master Prophecy” broadcast and foretelling of the television success of Reverend RUN from Run DMC) told The New York Times that the Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, who suffered a stroke in 2007 and never fully recovered, died in Los Angeles where he had lived for the last two years.

Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, known as a pioneering prosperity preacher, in the 1970s, he was the first African-American evangelists to reach audiences of millions through television and radio as he toured the country preaching in over 1,770 stations in all major markets.

(The late Rev. Ike doing a television interview)

Born in South Carolina to a poor elementary school teacher and a Baptist minister from Dutch Indonesia in 1935, his town’s Pentecostal congregation made him a leader in the ministry at a very young age. By age 14 he became assistant pastor in his father’s church. He attended the American Bible College in Chicago and spent two years in the Air Force as a chaplain. When Pentecostal authorities excommunicated him in 1959 sighting heresy for his mention of “Lord Buddha” in his college thesis he moved to Boston and founded a faith-healing temple. After he came to reject the belief that God was a complete satisfactory solution to the problems of everyday people, he moved to New York in the mid-1960s to establish the wealth-focused church that would make him a multimedia televangelist.

(outside view of Rev. Ike’s church “United Church Science of Living Institute”)

By 1970 he moved his church into a Harlem movie theater with a narrow marquee that forced him to shorten his name to “Rev. Ike.” Naming the church the “United Church Science of Living Institute” he preached the power of what he called “positive self-image psychology” to his 5,000 parishioners. He was also the first minister to introduce “prayer cloths for pay” as a point of contact saying “You can’t lose with the stuff I use” during every broadcast.

(Quotes adorning the walls of Rev. Ike’s church nicknamed the”United Palace Theater“

This didn’t sit well with traditional Christian ministers and civil rights leaders who felt that Black pastors should focus on social reform rather than self-fulfillment. Yet this never stopped Reverend Ike who preached, “Who was Jesus?”Jesus,” Rev. Ike often explained, “was a capitalist.” Raising more eyebrows he was also known for telling hundreds of thousands of followers to do such things as close their eyes and “see green” – “money up to your armpits, a roomful of money, and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.” Or more alarming he preached “If it’s that difficult for a rich man to get into heaven,” he said, riffing on the famous verse from the book of Matthew, “think how terrible it must be for a poor man to get in. He doesn’t even have a bribe for the gatekeeper.”

It’s safe to say that Rev. Ike was very controversial. His critics said he preyed on the poor and conned the faithful into giving him donations that he spent on cars, clothes and homes. In 1976, according to the Los Angeles Times, his church owned 16 Rolls-Royces “My garages runneth over,” he said. Alternating between six homes; at one point, the Times reported, he wore “a gold watch, a silver-and-diamond tie pin, a silver bracelet and a large gold ring studded with more than a dozen diamonds all simultaneously.” His businesses were later investigated by the IRS and Postal Service but never prosecuted.

(Balcony view of a “United Church Science of Living Institute” service)

Giving him is flowers while he was living Bishop E. Bernard Jordan produced a documentary style video tribute to Reverend Ike that he provided via his YouTube Channel last year.You can view the 3 part video below (the background music selections are very interesting).

Rev. Ike is survived by his wife, Rev. Eula May Dent, and his son, Xavier F. Eikerenkoetter, also a Reverend who took over the ministry when his father retired.