Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith to Unite for Christmas Tour Multi-platinum, GRAMMY® winners Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith are reuniting to co-bill their popular Christmas tour this upcoming holiday season, where they will be joined by special guest Marc Martel. The show will incorporate a full symphony orchestra at each performance. Kicking off November 30 in Cincinnati, OH the seven-city tour will travel to Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Grand Rapids, MI and more. The highly anticipated show will feature selections spanning the artists’ expansive Christmas repertoires and combine the vast collection of critically-acclaimed holiday albums between them. The dynamic duo last brought their Christmas tour on the road…

Editor’s Note: In the 1960s, Steve McQueen was, according to box office receipts, the biggest movie star of his generation. Dubbed “The King of Cool,” McQueen starred in such films as the epic war film The Great Escape and the action thriller Bullitt. Like millions of cinema fans, pastor Greg Laurie developed a lifelong fascination with the actor. Now, Laurie has followed McQueen’s improbable journey in his book Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon. He recounts how the seeds of Christianity were sown throughout McQueen’s improbable life and where he ultimately turned to faith in Christ through an unexpected friendship and a desire to learn to fly. Enjoy today’s excerpt. * When…

A few days ago, I watched an athlete in a TV interview. What struck me was not his confidence, but his lack thereof. He seemed unsure, insecure and hesitant.  This is not common to champions. It seemed odd. Rather than saying something like, “I’m going to go out there and give it my all,” he spoke something like, “well, I am just going out there. . . and. . . we’ll see.” I was intrigued by his words. I wanted to know how he was going to fare at the big athletic event that was coming up. I was pretty sure, he’d already counted himself out. I  kept my eyes…

Charlotte, N.C. (July 12, 2019) Elevation Church released two singles, extending the reach of their worship ministry with Elevation Rhythm, a new worship team specifically geared towards youth. This new music was created to represent and engage the youth and young adults of this generation. Elevation Rhythm debuted recently with two singles, “Everything Everything” and “Never Walk Away.” “God’s been growing a worship culture in the youth of our church, so we wanted to write music specifically for them that spoke their language,” says Tiffany Hammer, one of the lead vocalists of Elevation Rhythm. “We wanted it to have the energy and feel of something young adults would listen to…

Nashville, TN (July 12, 2019) Taking their celebratory new music on tour, Trinity played its first-ever U.S. concert June 29 at Creation Northeast Music Festival. Held in Mount Union, PA, the event is historically one of the largest Christian music festivals in the nation, hosting as many as 100,000 festivalgoers annually. “We started off by playing at the food court and on the camping site: acoustically, like buskers,” relays Elbert Smelt of Trinity’s experience at the festival. “People liked it, so we invited them for the evening’s dance party at the Worship Stage. Loads of teenagers showed up and we had a good time. At one point, I even got…

Belmont Church, Koinonia Bookstore & GMA Honored for Contribution to Nashville’s Music History The Nashville Metropolitan Historical Commission, in association with the Nashville Metro Council, recently announced the creation of an historical marker at 1000 16th Avenue South to be unveiled on Thursday, July 25th, to honor decades of the impact of Belmont Church, Koinonia Coffeehouse and the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry on the city of Nashville. Additionally, today the Metro Council will approve a resolution celebrating 50 years of the Gospel Music Association (GMA)’s Dove Awards; thanking the trade organization for collaborating with three major CCM record companies to fund the historical marker. The Metro Council meeting began with…

From the beginning of creation, God has asked for honesty — not perfection. I suppose it was easy for Adam and Eve to be honest with God at first, because they had not yet disobeyed Him. They had no secrets or hidden agendas, only full transparency with each other and with God. But after they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they immediately wanted to cover up their shame, both literally with fig leaves and figuratively by hiding from God. Adam and Eve, of course, are not the only ones who tried to hide from God and cover up their sin. After David committed…

Editor’s note: Kate Merrick, her husband Britt, and their family faced a life-changing cancer diagnosis, long and painful treatments, and the death of their daughter Daisy. In the midst of the suffering, they chose to be present with God and with each other and find the beauty in the pain. * Pivotal moments pave the way for pivotal choices. And Daisy’s death was one more pivotal moment in our crazy flow. I not only changed my email address and stayed off social media but went completely dark on the blog as well. It appeared that going off the grid was not only to be for our overseas health emergency, but…

Paintings and People It was July 21. My forty-eighth birthday. I was in one of the hardest parts of this season of suffering. The season of dust. I wasn’t able to do the typical “Hey, since this is my birthday, let me just do a little planning… a little dreaming” thing. Nope. The future felt impossibly scary. I could only face the future in teaspoons of time. Not weeks and months and certainly not a whole year. When there is an undoing of your life, there is an unknowing of every next millisecond. Every next breath. The peaceful predictability of what you thought would be your life is suddenly replaced…

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:5 You can lose it all… only to discover that you haven’t. God has been there all along. God has not promised a life without storms, but He has promised to be there when you face them. ~ Max Welcome to week four of the Anxious for Nothing Online Bible Study with Max Lucado! Have you ever been in a storm so bad that you think you’ll die from it? I’ve been there. I remember the moment of wondering how I could continue functioning and enduring with a heart so broken and not actually…