THE Carman

I am truly saddened today at the loss of a CCM legend - Carman was one of a kind.

He began his career about the same time as I entered Student Ministry and his music helped shape how we did what we did. His songs were the quintessential go-to for Human Videos - an art form that incorporated elements of mime, lip sync and stage acting in order to tell compelling gospel stories. Songs like Sunday's on the Way, The Champion, Lazarus and Satan Bite the Dust were performed in almost every youth group and showcased Carman's unique approach to song writing. 

Carman's spiritual influences were very similar to my own. At one youth convention where he performed, Jimmy Swaggart and David Wilkerson were both in the audience. That night he said he could relate to Simon Peter when he was tempted to build three tabernacles. He had great revere for those men's ministry. Songs like God Don't Care What the Circumstance and Revive Us oh Lord revealed Carman's theology concerning a strong faith and his heart for the local church. 

The thing I admired most about Carman was that he was, at the heart of it all, a committed soul winner. For him, the songs, the shows, the humor, the pageantry - were all about reaching people for Jesus. He was one of the few artist of his time who did not charge admission for his concerts. Consequently, he packed out arenas like a musical Billy Graham! 

Toward the end of his hay-day, he lost a few of us with his attempts to cover rap and hip hop. Yet, even then I could appreciate why he was doing what he was doing even when I didn't much care for what he was doing - it was always an effort to stay relevant and reach more people. 

I moved back to Lafayette in 1999 about the time Carman's hay-day was dwindling. We were contacted by his promoter to inform us that Carman was performing at churches again. To make sure we understood the magnitude of the opportunity - he said, "I'm talking about the Carman!"

Carman's life has ended at the young age of 65. He has been battling cancer for the past few years, but was doing better and was making plans to embark on a 67-city tour as soon as his health would allow - Driven to win souls right to the very end! 

In pop music, few reach a status of celebrity where they're known by one name - Cher, Madonna, Elvis. I guess it helps to have a unique name. In Christian circles I can only think of one person who reached that status - THE Carman. 

Birthdays!

The first of the year is a HUGE birthday season for our family. Robin's birthday is on January 8th - she turned 29 this year. My birthday is on the 17th and I am 30 years older than Robin so you do the math! Chase's birthday is on February 11th and he turned 27 this year. 

We always celebrate birthdays at the birthday boy or girl's favorite restaurant. The meal usually includes King Cake for desert. This year, both of the kids wanted Indian food. We allowed them to choose the menu and we enjoyed the meal family style. Here is a pic of us celebrating Chase's birthday at Royal Curry in Lafayette. Chase's girlfriend Katy drove over to celebrate with us. Katy is from Kinder, LA and she and Chase have been dating almost a year now. We really like her! 

Ezekiel's birthday is February 8th and he turned two this year! He is getting so big and this is such a fun age! He will try to say anything! His party was this past Saturday and he got lots of new books and toys to play with. He loves them! Last week he stayed overnight with us. He and his Lovey were going into the bedroom we have set up for him and he looked at all his toys and said, "I like toys!" 

The theme of his party was "Twodles." It was a creative play on one of the features of his favorite TV show, The Micky Mouse Playhouse. Robin and Eli are very creative with their party planning! All the kids attending the party got swag bags with mouse ears and other party favors. 

We are so blessed to get to have Ezekiel spend the night with us almost every Thursday night. Since the kids moved out, Thursday nights have been our family night with the kids coming over to eat, play games, watch a movie or just catch up on conversation. During the COVID-19 shut down last year, Robin and Eli started allowing Zeke to stay overnight with us and then spend the day with us on Friday. It's my favorite part of the week! 

God Fills the Void!

Transition in church leadership is inevitable and I suppose we have had our share through the years, albeit not nearly as much as the average church - we have been blessed. Our latest transition involves our Student Ministry. We were so blessed to have Curvine and Candace Brewington overseeing our youth in The Exchange for the past three years. Curvine originally came onboard as a representative of our Leadership College, recruiting for us as he traveled America as an evangelist and music artist. He recently was approached by a large multi-site church in Atlanta and felt God directing him to accept their invitation to serve in Student Ministry there. Curvine and Candace were a great blessing to our church in many ways - none the least of which was grooming their successors - Matthew and Mariah Ackman. The Ackmans have been serving as our Assistant Student Pastors and are prepared and ready to take the reins of the Student Ministry at large. We are so thankful for Matt and Mariah and we can't wait to see how God will use them to lead our students! 

With the Ackmans moving into the lead role, we needed a new Assistant Student Pastor. Zach and Laura Lubeck have been serving as assistants to Paul and Michelle Jaqua at our Leadership College. We have asked them to move to the Student Ministry and we feel like they will do an incredible job! We have asked Jaron Desalatte to step into the Assistant's role at CLC and we are very excited to have Jaron serving alongside the Jaquas. 

When you read the opening passages of the Bible in the book of Genesis you see that God does not create void - He fills it! We have seen Him do that again and again here at Crossroads and we are ever so grateful!