Awaken 2020, Kanye West, and the Sunday Service Choir

So a few weeks ago I got a chance to see Kanye West in concert.

If you’re surprised to hear those words come out of my mouth, well, so am I! 🤣 I never would’ve imagined I’d be at one of his events, nor did I ever aspire to be.

Although I’ve listened to some of his music in the past, most of it I disliked or avoided because of the explicit lyrics and all-around attitude of arrogance. Quite honestly, I didn’t find him or most of his songs to be very likable.

But then things changed. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Kanye surrendered his life to Christ and has gone in an entirely different direction over the past year or so. He recorded a gospel album – he has said he will never release another secular album – and he began hosting Sunday Services, traveling with an amazing gospel choir, the Sunday Service Choir. You may have seen them on Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.

When I first heard Kanye’s latest album, Jesus is King, I laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe it! Kanye, the guy who was famous for stealing other people’s thunder at awards shows, marrying into reality show fame, and calling himself “Yeezus” was now singing about Chick-fil-A, speaking against Jezebel, and praising Jesus. Talk about a 180-degree shift!

So how on earth did I end up at one of his sold-out events?

A few months ago, my mom heard about a free event in Phoenix called Awaken 2020 through David Herzog Ministries. She reserved tickets right away and convinced me to fly out and go with her. We’d both read books by a few of the speakers, so we were intrigued, but I really wasn’t sure what the event would be like.

Just after I booked my plane ticket, it was announced that Awaken 2020 had added a new headliner: Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir!

Once, again, I found myself laughing in disbelief. Tickets disappeared as soon as his name was attached to the event, but all this time, my mom, of all people, had had Kanye tickets and none of us knew it! 😂 Now we were really intrigued about the event, to say the least.

It turned out to be a great day and I’m so glad I got to go. We waited in line for over an hour to get into the stadium for the 12-hour event, and we got to hear Cindy Jacobs, Brian “Head” Welch, and Jerame Nelson speak, among others. Eddie James, Jeremy Riddle, and the other musicians also did an awesome job. People were experiencing healing and miracles throughout the entire day.

And then there was the Sunday Service Choir. AMAZING. 🔥 They are so talented and completely anointed. It was pretty surreal to hear them singing “hallelujah” and praising Jesus at Sun Devil Stadium, of all places. You can’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor!

Kanye truly let Jesus have the spotlight, and he was very humble throughout the performance. He contributed to a few songs and often stayed to the side of the stage or turned his back to the audience while he rapped. It really was apparent how much he’s changed.

It was so cool to see what God is doing in Kanye’s life and, I can’t believe I’m saying this about a Kanye album and a gospel record, but definitely check out both the new albums (Jesus is King and Jesus is Born) if you haven’t already! I never thought I’d have either one of them on repeat, but I do. I totally do. Kanye West, the Sunday Service Choir, and Eddie James are my top three artists right now…who even am I? Haha.

If you wanted to attend Awaken 2020 and couldn’t get tickets or you just want to see for yourself what I’m talking about, you can watch the replay for free on GodTV.

I can’t think of a much cooler way to start this new year and new decade than hearing Kanye West and a stadium full of other believers speak about God and worship him. 2020 is off to a pretty great start and I’m excited to see what else it brings! I’ll say it again: it’s gonna be a good year! (If you have any doubt, read a few of the prophecies from Elijah List or Charisma Magazine and hear what God is saying to his people about the new year!)