User:Americanpatriot1/PASTOR WESTON

Edward Charles Weston, II (born March, 7, 1975), known by the nation as Pastor Weston, is an American preacher, teacher, speaker, entrepreneur,singer,rapper, actor,musician and mentor; using all of his God-given talent for kingdom culture and to be an ambassador for youth empowerment.

Early Life
Weston, a native of Jacksonville, FL, graduated from Paxon High School. The oldest of three siblings, and the product of a single-parent home, he is no stranger to the effects of a non-traditional home environment and/or the pressures of making positive decisions at an early age. In his senior year of high school he signed a major recording contract and eventually left college to pursue a music career. That endeavor was not a successful one; however, he went on to serve in the United States Army and eventually started a promotional-based print media marketing firm, employing over 30 people. Growing up, he witnessed desperation first hand. He watched as his peers were claimed by the careless evil of those apathetic streets, brilliant minds eroded and eventually erased by drugs, friends gunned down in the gutter before they ever had a chance to climb toward the stars, good people locked away in prison all because they never knew there was hope for them in the world beyond their neighborhood. Far from perpetuating the tragic cycle, these things inspired a sense of purpose in young Edward Weston. Just as Romans 8:28 tells us: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Even the pain, the tragedy, the heartache that he had experienced could be shaped by God into something beautiful. At a young age, he devoted himself to making a positive, compassionate impact on the world. He had to show kids like him that the world didn't end at the end of their block, that Christ could shape their lives and give them access to worlds they never dreamed existed.

The Professional
Weston is also a successful minority business owner and is one of the nation’s best kept secrets. With overwhelming talent and the potential for substantial growth, Pastor Weston has developed a variety of resources that will help parents better their chances at protecting their children from online hazards.

His zeal for children, youth and young adults is the primary reason he launched a national campaign that focuses on making a positive impact in the lives of at least one million children. One of the tools the initiative has is the One Million Safe web browser, which is software designed to offer a fun, friendly and safer web experience, particularly for those ages 4-12. The browser is designed to give parents more control of what web sites their children surf. He is the spearhead behind the critically acclaimed 1 Million Safe Youth Awareness Rally. The purpose of the Awareness rallies is to promote online responsibility, targeting youth of every race, ethnicity, culture, gender and social class. Weston engages the youth through workshops, panels, forums, celebrity appearances and concerts. He also proposes to make these rallies more effective by partnering with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, media affiliates, entertainment affiliates, corporate affiliates and non-profit organizations.

Pastor Weston is a dynamic visionary. And his ultimate goal through the development and management of 1 Million Safe is to provide a safer Internet environment for millions of kids across the continental United States and even throughout he the world. Pastor Weston hasn’t stopped there.

He has also developed a software entitled Tell-It PC, which is a monitoring software that monitors just about anything that happens on a computer and the Internet, including emails, websites visited, downloads, keystrokes, chat rooms, instant messages and more. This information is recorded, emailed to the parents and even stored for them to review at their convenience. As an author, Pastor Weston has written a powerful guide that corresponds to the campaign initiative. The book is entitled Untangling Satan’s Web Worldwide: A Parent’s Haven from Internet Havoc. Weston writes a detailed analysis of what he believes are the seven most deadly hazards of the Internet, which include pornography, social networking, Internet predators, video social networking, cyber-bullying, online gaming and net banging.

The Preacher
As a preacher and motivational speaker, Pastor Weston uses his life experiences to challenge and charge his listeners. He not only speaks to youth; he addresses parents and youth leaders as well, because he understands that a seed sown in a young individual’s life is only as powerful as the reinforcement and cultivation surrounding it. He has a progressive vision for youth in America and his message embodies a genuine passion to offer positive ‘alternatives’ to mainstream directives. If you are starting a youth ministry or would like to rekindle the flame of your current ministry, Weston also travels across the country offering consulting services on the dynamics of effective and powerful youth ministries. As the former Youth Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Mandarin in Jacksonville, FL, and soon to be Senior Pastor of Exodus International Ministries Inc., Weston continues to lead fruitful ministries producing youth / young adults that are sold-out for Christ and allowing them to capture the essence of serving God at a young age.

The Performer
Raising awareness. Expanding consciousness. Dropping ten tons of wisdom with the express purpose of tackling reality head-on, no apologies, no excuses. When hip hop began in the late nineteen-seventies, these were its tenants, the foundation upon which a musical revolution was built the likes of which the world had never seen. The first generation of hip hop artists were poets and prophets, men and women who had faced up to real-world hardship and felt compelled to share their stories, to change minds, to inspire action, to open eyes. The music of Pastor Weston represents a return to that ideal, paying homage to the substance of hip hop's revolutionary roots and marrying that substance to innovative modern style and production. And all of this in the name of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Every bit as iconoclastic as his hip hop forefathers, Pastor Weston crafts tracks that burn with palpable passion, genuine flow, and sincere, unconditional praise. Psalm 98:4 commands us: “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD.” Leave it to Pastor Weston to show us how it's done. Now, Pastor Weston is channeling his passions for music, Jesus Christ, and the salvation of young people into some of the most blazing, well-produced, and fiercely passionate hip hop tracks to ever come out of the Christian hip hop genre. Weston's razor-sharp rhymes aren't hokey, he doesn't play sensational games or employ scare-tactics to turn young people's lives around. These songs are crafted to reflect reality, to tackle real-world issues head on, face to face, songs that respect the listener's intelligence, songs that paint a picture of a recognizable world where stories of temptation and salvation play out every single day. Violence. Drugs. Sex. Self-harm. Pastor Weston addresses them all in his songs, flowing frankly, compassionately, and intelligently. On his face-melting new single, “A Change,” Pastor Weston sets it all out on the table for us: “This is not a song about me glorifying sin, bragging about my past and all the stupid stuff I did. Matter of fact, I wrote this track hoping that you would repent. Invite the savior in, let him clean up all your sin.”

"“A Change” is a rallying cry, a mission statement writ large for everyone to see. While the production bounces and bumps through a musical landscape combining 21st century electro-hip hop, smokey latin guitar-work, and a blistering rock and roll rock and roll chorus, the effortless flow of the lyrics are designed to elevate, to congratulate, to show solidarity with those who are already walking a path with Christ, and to light up a sign on the horizon to raise the awareness of those who might need guidance and hope. The song is a distillation of Pastor Weston's philosophy.  Too often, Christian hip hop artists are merely regular hip hop artists who couldn't make it in the industry and think Christian hip hop will be easier.  Christian hip hop deserves better than that.  Pastor Weston's music is about salvation.  It's about praise.  It's about thankfulness.  It's setting down the gun, setting down the drugs, sending the message: “Try something different. Maybe there's a better way. Maybe there's hope."

Personal Life
Pastor Weston is a devoted husband to wife, Charity L. Weston, and father to children Dazirae, Matthew and Roslyn. They met in November of 2003 and began working together as Charity performed spoken word poetry and hosted different events for ventures of Weston. The couple married in March of 2005 and nearly 7 years later, continue to stand as one.