God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive' to Feature 'Duck Dynasty's Sadie Robertson

(PHOTO:COURTESY OF PURE FLIX)

Melissa Joan Hart and Jesse Metcalf star in "God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive."

God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive," the sequel to the $60 million grossing 2014 film, hits theaters on Easter of 2016 and will feature a slew of cameos from well-known celebrities, including an appearance from "Duck Dynasty" star Sadie Robertson.

Robertson will follow in the footsteps of her parents, Willie and Korie, who made a cameo in the original "God's Not Dead" film.

The sequel to the faith-based mega-hit stars Melissa Joan Hart, who's best known for her roles in the TV series "Clarissa Explains It All" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," and actor Jesse Metcalf who made a name himself as the adulterous landscaper on ABC's "Desperate Housewives."

Other cameos include Hayley Orrantia of "The Goldbergs," Ernie Hudson from "Ghostbusters," model Robin Givens and singer Pat Boone.

Stars from the original "God's Not Dead" film Trisha LaFache, Benjamin Onyango, Paul Kwo and David A.R. White will be returning for the second installment. The Newsboys will also have a cameo.

"God's Not Dead 2: He's Surely Alive" takes place in the fictional town of Hope Springs, Arkansas, at a high school where teacher Grace Wesley, played by Hart, faces opposition when she tries to speak about Jesus Christ openly in her classroom.

"With the principal and superintendent teaming up with a zealous civil liberties group represented by an attorney with no love lost for God, Grace faces an epic court case with the help of sympathetic and charismatic defense lawyer, that could cost her the career she had always dreamed of — and expel God from the classroom once and for all," reads a description of the film that was shared with The Christian Post.

While the first "God's Not Dead" film dealt with an antagonistic atheist professor, the new film will address the freedom of religion, a topic that has become even more prevalent since last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made state-level bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

"God's Not Dead" is arguably one of the most successful faith-based movies of all time. The film cost just $2 million to make, and grossed over $60 million at the the box office.

The film also received the GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Film of the Year, beating out other faith-based heavy hitters including Roma Downey and Mark Burnett's "Son of God," and "Heaven Is for Real."

Pure Flix producer Michael Scott was floored by the overwhelming support of "God's Not Dead" and discussed it in a press release last year.

"We are humbled and grateful for the support of audiences, pastors, church leaders and those that saw the greater message of "God's Not Dead," said Scott. "The making of this film has been an incredible and poingant journey, and the success has been an even greater surprise."

Kevin Sorbo, who played atheist professor Radison in "God's Not Dead," the films main antagonist, boasted about the film's success in comparison to all of Hollywood shortly after it was released on DVD in September of last year.

"'God's Not Dead,' dollar for dollar, has been the most successful movie this year by far and the most successful faith-based movie," said Sorbo.

The film also debuted at No.1 on the Nielson Christian Videos Sales Chart, and No. 2 Nielson VideoScan First Alert and Blu-ray Disc sales charts in August of 2014.

How Cece Winans Married at 19 and Kept Love Alive For 31 Years

Popular gospel artist, CeCe Winans and her husband, Alvin Love, are celebrating 31 years of marriage this summer. Their holy union has been an inspiration to couples across the country in the midst of a divorce-ravaged generation.


Winans, who is sparing in her Twitter posts, wrote, “Happy 31st Anniversary Bay! You’re the best husband in the whole wide world! Thanks for Loving me well!! I really really Love you!!”

What many people many not know is that there is a significant age difference in the two lovebirds—16 years. Winans was only 17 when she met 33-year-old Love through mutual acquaintances.

“I met Alvin while bowling,” she laughs, “but we didn’t even talk that night. He was cute, but my mind was on singing, not dating.”

Love ended up spending a weekend with the Winans family while they were in South Carolina. During that visit, sparks began to fly.

“He was just himself—and I could be myself,” Winans recalled.

It would be less than a year of courtship before the couple tied the knot on June 23, 1984. In a 2008 interview with “Today’s Christian Women,” the couple shared that it took them about 10 years to discover the true meaning of a solid marriage.

“I learned what it meant to love CeCe the way Christ loved the church,” Love shared. “Jesus stands by us no matter how stubborn or disobedient we’ve been. We try to go back to that conference every year now. The second time they asked us to share about our marriage, and I cried. I looked back and realized God’s grace in my life—where I’ve come from and what he’s blessed me with in CeCe.”

“Getting married taught me how selfish I was,” CeCe chimed in. “It makes you accuse your partner: ‘You did this. You did that.’ It’s not Christlike. But Alvin and I were hearing God’s Word at church and applying it to our lives. Even just ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is good marriage advice. It boils down to whether you love God more than you love yourself.”

The couple continues to grow together as Christians as their love for each other increases with time. Love says that he doesn’t mind sharing CeCe with her fans because he knows that “she’s mine—until death do us part.”

Lecrae wins the Best Gospel Artist at BET 2015.

Lecrae wins the Best Gospel Artist at BET 2015.

The BET Awards has come and gone and the gospel category is our concern here at Gospotainment. Lecrae emerged winner of the BET Awards 2015 Best Gospel Artist.



Best Gospel Artist
Deitrick Haddon
Erica Campbell
Fred Hammond
Lecrae ** WINNER
Mali Music
Michelle Williams

Joel Osteen Criticized for Not Condemning Gay Marriage Legalization

One advantage of being the pastor of the largest Protestant church in the nation is that everybody knows who you are. But that can also be a disadvantage
Joel Osteen is the pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Lakewood is the largest Protestant church in America, and few people don’t know who Osteen is. After all, he has his own television show, has authored best-selling books, and was even interviewed by Larry King.

What’s the down-side? Not everybody thinks he is doing his job the right way, and they are getting vocal about it.

With the recent United States Supreme Court decision supporting gay marriage, there has been an evangelical call for pastors to use their pulpits to speak out against the law. Osteen has not signed on to this agenda. In fact, he says he believes that is not what he is called to do as a pastor.

According to the Christian Post, Osteen stated, “I have friends who are very political. They’re pastors and that’s what their thing is. But I think sometimes, that the church world, we can take one issue and make it really, really big and it can turn people off, where there are many bigger issues. You know, our message is about lifting people up, helping them fulfill their destiny, helping them to forgive in a tough time, how to make it through this life when life tries to push you down.”

Those who oppose Osteen’s stance point out that Jesus confronted sin and was not concerned with “lifting people up,” but with telling people the truth and saving their souls from an eternity without God.

This is not a new position for Osteen. He has been accused of watering down scripture in order to increase his church membership for years.

Last year, Steve Camp, pastor of the Cross Church in Florida, accused Osteen of believing “God exists to make us happy rather than holy.”

“It’s the age old sin of idolatry — that it’s not about God, it’s about us,” Camp added.

Osteen received a ton of backlash after his Larry King interview. When asked about abortion and same sex marriage, the pastor replied, “You know what, Larry? I don’t go there.”

When you’re the “King of the Hill,” everybody is going to take their shot at you. The question that Osteen has to ask himself is, “What if they are right?”

BURSTME TV met YEMY.. I FIRST LEAD A CHOIR OF 150 MEMBERS AT AGE 8. MUSIC TO ME IS A COVENANT.

BURSTME TV in a conversation with YEMY TPX Revaling the secret behind his diversifying type of music and why he's got so much energy towards what he's doing, he reveal to us some key things that kept him going even from the time he started singing and leading choir at the age of 8 years in the church. Here is the full conversation.

Can we meet you?

My name is olatunji opeyemi Timothy, everyone know me to be YEMY TPX( Young Energetic Mission driven Yorubaman), first born of 5 (five) in my family,born into the home of engineer and deaconess oludare olatunji some decades back.

Your background ?

My background, hmm I will say am into music today by covenant, its something that has been inside of me since I was born because I was covenanted to sing to God and I will not do anything for the devil but for God alone. Growing up I remember I lead a choir at age 8 about 150 choristers filled with mostly mature people. I started composing my personal songs between that age and age 10. I then realise I could compose songs easily and this lead me to form an accapella group back then in secondary school. We were moving from one church to the other to perform and minster the love of God to His people, church like winner chapel and the likes. The name of the band was called "BEYOND THE DOUBT", comprising of about (7) seven of us. I later move on to join a jazz band which was called RESTORATION JAZZBAND, which I believe contributed to my been able to operate in so many kind of music. We move from one event to the other and from show to show. Mo de tun je omo to ma ngboran ( am a child that obeys the order given in the home) which made me have the support of my parents.

What is your definition of Music?

My definition of music.. I see music as life, something that holds this world together, a live wire that keep us going, it the greatest tool in passing message across to people. I will call it the live wire of the world both secular and gospel.

Music for you professionally started how many years ago?

Music for me professionally started in year 2000, then i minister in chuches and shows, but my first Major appearance on stage was in 1998, when I performed at LIVINGSPRING which holds yearly on OAU campus. Where I was discovered by Victor Adedokun. But my introduction to industry was 3 years ago.

3 years in industry, has it been full of roses?.. Any challenge?

The last 3 years in industry has been full of both roses and challenges, ups and downs, its smooth as well as hectic in some extent, the major challenge comes when there are invitations for ministrations and in our kind of industry you have to follow your spirit when honouring invitations and also there some invitations you honour and you end up receiving a "thank you God bless you" leaving behind the fact that you came in your came in with your which must be fueled and also instrumentalist which must be settle as well as back ups. It has not been easy in that sense.

Your educational background and your qualifications?

Thanks for the question, I graduated from Oba awon university (OAU), department of microbiology (Bsc) and am a member of CIEH ( CHARTED INSTITUTE of ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH). Also planning to run my masters in Environmental Health.

Are you practicing?

Am going to start practicing soon by the time I bag my last certification in the field, which hopefully is soon.

Back to your career in music, what is your type of music?

I see my type of music as afro-urban, contemporaries, I see it as a fusion of African contemporary pattern, and if you call me a pop singer, I will answer you because my  kind of music is dynamic, and I believe a creative mind should see life as static if you will continue to be relevant in your mission to humanity.

That's great.. All round blessed, how do you relate with the fan especially the female fans?

That is a big and at the same time a very simple question, its been challenging dealing with female fans #laughs# some of them you cannot really say if they are your fans or crusher or admirer or stuffs like that. The fact is that you shouldn't abuse the fact that they are your fans, I tell people, except we are deceiving ourselves some of our female fans will move from loving your songs to loving you, and that is the time you are expected to be very careful because we are not talking about one female fan this time but buck of them. They have to be properly manage and let them know they are unique just that they find it difficult to control their weakness at that moment, and you can always help them out. There are so many of them that comes around and I try to turn them to friends, some to sisters and that enables me to impact them and add value to them. Most musicians take advantage of such and sleep around but I can tell of myself that I have never done that, one thing is certain and its the fact that you cannot run away from them because the are your major fans and even looking at churches today they are the most populated memebers of the congregation. Even in the industry , people who downloads your music most times are females, the CDs is been bought mostly by females. So you cannot take them out of your ministry.

Following your performance and ministrations, we have gotten to realise you leave the stage at the moment the fan are enjoying your ministration. Why?

(Laughs). I don't leave the stage, most time when I do its either I have overspend my time or the stage manager wants me to leave the stage. I can sing for 3 hours if am given the time, some people if they are given 30 minutes, they will extend the time which is not advisable for the people in the kingdom to do. Most cases, the organizer would have spend much time before calling you and they will be kind of rushing you so that they can meet up with the other people they invited. I have had scenerio where the stage manager was given attitude which I really don't understand and this kept me bothered during the ministration and I have to leave the stage.

Thank you so much... Straight to your album (s), how many do you have now?

For now I have just one album in the market "UNMOVABLE", and am working on the new one which is expected to be out by the end of the year, also working on some collaboration with some other kingdom artists.

So where do you see yourself in next 5 years?

In the next 5years I see myself as a self made gospel artist, waxing strong, having a big record label that can help raise upcoming artist who are loaded but don't have platform for expression. I was in an auditioning in university of Ibadan of recent in which I was part of the judge and I saw raw talents the gospel industry has failed to utilized. Right there I said to myself I have to make effort to change this because failure to do this will give more havoc for the kingdom, since they are not properly utilized and they are welcome in the secular and they are given better platform for expression. We realized most of the known secular acts are from the church. Also see myself in the next 5 years as a PhD holder in Environmental Health and also a facilitator in my career. Finally, a father to my children and a caring husband to my wife.

Any award and nominations ?

Award yaa pa o (speaking in Yoruba), In Africa we hear only of award without any monetary attachments. Have been nominated so many awards, have won some. If I can recall NATIONAL GOSPEL AWARD, NAIJA IMPACT AWARD in abuja which I won with my song "Naija Go Smile" which was dedicated to Nigeria. And so many others I can't really say much and I believe so many more to come as long as am walking in His purpose for my life.

Your word of advice to the upcoming?

My advice to them is that they should not relent in their pursue of purpose because "winners never quit and quitters never win". I use to make reference to the say of my mentor, role model and pastor, late Myles Munroe " it is better to die empty either as a youth or adult". They should remain focus and continue with what they are doing as long as it is towards their purpose, though frustration is inevitable they should not be discouraged. One day someone will recognise you and give you the a shot.

YEMY WITH SIR VICTOR ADEDOKUN

Also to my fans I say a big thank you and keep buying my CDs and I promise not to let you down. Keep spreading the good news. I LOVE YOU ALL.

Your take on burstme TV?

Hmmm, burstme TV will rise to ovation very very soon  because I believe the person in charge understand the rudiments of the business and also possesses necessary onions to spice it up. I believe in you guys.

Thank you, hope you wouldn't mind having us around burst you real some day ?

U burst me pere, I call 911 straight away, Just joking no problem.

Appreciations?

Lest I forget my appreciation goes to my producers, Edward Sunday, the veteran producer here in Nigeria, who has been of great help to me and also took me as his son, also nelson Kenneth for his effort on the tracks in my album, I say you are wonderful, thanks so much bro. Also my graphic designers/ branding, Segun Lightspeed, the owner of burstme TV and EM graphics and also to my TV and radio hosts and you are all 

important to me. I LOVE YOU ALL.