For Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman, it was a houseguest who invited his family to a week-long revival at the local Baptist church in Paducah, Kentucky.
As attendees from far and wide converged on Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio on Jan. 21–22 for the 2024 Texas Baptists Statewide Evangelism Conference, past acts of personal evangelism were celebrated nearly as often as future acts were exhorted.
The result was a moving two-day conference in which church leaders and laity were urged to share Christ and show love with an intentional focus, as Baptist General Convention of Texas director of evangelism Leighton Flowers explained, on “the soul of the person you are with.”
God’s faithfulness
Grammy Award-winning Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman led the final session with a powerful hour-long testimony through word and song.
Hearkening back to his earliest days, Chapman recounted stories from his childhood, adolescence and throughout his storied music career, expressing appreciation for God’s faithfulness in good times and bad.
The winsome kindness of a visitor to his childhood home drew his family to the Baptist church to participate in a week-long revival, which led to the family making decisions to follow Christ.
“I began to taste the goodness of God’s grace and forgiveness and it was sweet and so much better,” Chapman said. “Jesus is saying I will come in and change your life and have a relationship with you if you will let me in.”
Great adventures
Chapman spoke of meeting his wife, Mary Beth, and the growth of their family with the addition of six children, three of whom were adopted. He also alluded to the tragic accident that claimed the life of their youngest, Maria Sue.
“You’ve had your heart full and broken…you’ve been on a great adventure … I sure know what that feels like,” Chapman told attendees. “God is a God who is always making all things new, and yet we carry with us that longing and that ache.”
“Here’s the hope that we have…our God is faithful, and he is good, even when life is not,” he said.
Throughout his testimony, Chapman interspersed songs including “I’m Diving In,” “The Great Adventure,” “The Lord of the Dance,” “No Better Place on Earth,” “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and “I Will Be Here,” a song he wrote for his wife.
Chapman closed by singing his 1990 hit “For the Sake of the Call,” immediately followed by a worshipful rendition of “I Surrender All.”
“Let us not grow weary; let us remember again how faithful our God is,” Chapman said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by Baptist General Convention of Texas.
