December 9, 2024 • 12 mins
Gospel recording artist Anthony Evans was born into a well-known Christian family, and active in music ministry. But when he headed off to college, he was confronted with the reality that he’d been riding the coattails of his parents faith. In this episode, hear his journey of discovering Jesus for himself.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Snapshot Testimony podcast. I'm your host, Ali Domercant.
In this podcast, I ask my guests to share one
pivotal moment that helped shape their faith in Christ. In
this episode, my guest is sharing two moments gospel recording
artist Anthony Evans. He was born into a well-known Christian
family and was active in music ministry from a young age.
(00:20):
But when he headed off to college on his own
for the first time, he was confronted with the reality
that he'd been riding the coattails of his parents faith.
In this episode, you'll hear his journey of discovering Jesus
for himself. He also opens up about the loss of
his mother, Lois, the matriarch of the Evans family, and
how he wrestled through some tough questions about his faith.
(00:41):
I think you're gonna enjoy this one. Here's a snapshot
testimony from Anthony Evans.
S2 (00:55):
And that was the first time being out from underneath
the covering of my parents, obviously. And I went into
this big Christian university and was singing all over the place.
I remember having this moment of oh my God, literally. Like,
not in a slang way. I mean it like, oh
my God, I, my faith is not my own. And
I'm just now figuring that out because I just came
outside from underneath this umbrella of faith. Wow. And so
(01:18):
I had to figure out how to make the Lord
my I had to figure out my own shelter in
the presence of the Lord versus the shelter of him
that was covering my family.
S1 (01:26):
Now, what specifically clued you into that? Like, what was
it just a sense that you got all of a sudden, like,
what was the impetus for going, okay, wait, my faith
isn't what I thought it was.
S2 (01:38):
It was literal distance. It was distance from my family
and from the ministry that that's that's what it was.
And then people calling on me, asking me my specific
thoughts and my specific stances. And I was like, dad, mom, anybody?
Can you answer this for me? Because I don't really
you know, that that's that's what happened.
S1 (01:54):
Yeah. And that can be a real crisis. A lot
of you think about the amount of young people that
walk away from the faith because they have that moment
of reckoning where they go, okay, maybe I was raised
in the church, maybe I'm a pastor's kid, maybe XYZ,
but this isn't really my faith. But that didn't drive
you away from the Lord. That actually draw you drew
(02:16):
you closer to him.
S2 (02:17):
It did well away for a little bit because I
was so discouraged. I was just like, man, what the
problem was, is I was doing ministry in college. I
went to a big Christian university. I was singing at
the college. I was doing ministry, all while going through
this in your in my head, which made me feel
like an actor, which almost made it worse because while
you're figuring things out, it's like competing. While you need
(02:38):
to be training like I still need to be training.
I don't need to be competing yet. And I felt
like I was kind of doing a lot at the
same time. But God in his grace obviously used some
of those challenges of me being in ministry at that
point to to point out to me his faithfulness to
to add his, to add to our effort, like I
learned in that moment, that when you do what you can,
(02:59):
God will do what you cannot. That's what I learned
in that moment.
S1 (03:01):
Yeah. Did you come out of that? Stronger, I mean,
or did you? What helped you? Was it just going
back to the basics of your faith? Because I know
it's hard when you're when you're leading. And there's sometimes
that pressure, sometimes the not feeling like you can be vulnerable.
What was it that kind of helped you to cross
over to that place of, okay, now I'm owning this
(03:23):
for myself?
S2 (03:24):
Yeah. What helped me was actually calling my dad, calling
my dad, talking to him, and he said, Anthony, open your.
Open your Bible to Psalms one 128. He said, blessed
is the man who fears the Lord. First of all,
he said, God doesn't have grandkids. And then he said,
open your Bible to Psalms 128. Blessed is the man
who fears the Lord. His wife will be a fruitful vine.
His kids will be like olive. Olive trees, all of
plants around his table. Around the table. That digging into
(03:48):
that verse, he was like, Anthony, you have seen the
results of your grandfather fearing the Lord. Yeah, you're part
of the results of me fearing the Lord. And you
can create your own narrative with the Lord, your relationship
with him. And this is the promise he makes you
when you continue to foster and develop that relationship with him.
It's not a Tony Evans faith. It's yours. Here. Here
(04:09):
you go. And he will fulfill that promise with you. Yeah.
S1 (04:12):
What would you say to to to young people in
particular who find themselves at that crisis point? Because, you know,
a lot of times being raised in the church and
maybe having family and ministry, as awesome as that is
in terms of the seed that's sown in you, a
lot of times kids can can rebel. What would you
say to kids who are or young people who are
(04:33):
kind of at that crossroads of, I've grown up in this,
but I don't even know if I believe it for myself.
S2 (04:38):
Yeah, I would say save yourself the trouble. Like when
you drive and you think that you actually know the
direction you're going, so you're not going to use a GPS.
You end up making wrong turns and ending up on
streets you don't know and trying to you end up
taking way longer to get where you need to go. Yeah,
I fully believe for myself at this point and back
then that the Word of God is like literally a roadmap.
(04:59):
That's the bottom line. And I would I would tell them,
I mean, I remember really quickly playing baseball when I
was younger and I would, I was striking out. I
was just athletic looking kid, but striking out, striking out,
striking out. And then I remember my dad walking up
and reaching around me and grabbing the bat, and all
of a sudden I was Babe Ruth. All of a
sudden I was the best. I was the best out there.
So I in that moment, I thought about this. Later
(05:22):
in life, God will add himself to our efforts. He
will wrap his arms around our circumstances, and then the
impact that we're able to make for ourselves and for
others will change when we invite him in. When my
dad came and grabbed the bat, I didn't walk off.
I swung and tried as hard as I could, and
then he amplified my effort. That's what I would tell
somebody who's struggling. Do what you can and God will
(05:43):
amplify that effort.
S1 (05:44):
Yeah. Now take me to the second moment. You know,
the the loss of your mom. Um, yeah. Many. She
was known and loved by many. None more. None more
than those who were closest to her. But what moment
stands out about that season of going through the grief
and loss of your mom?
S2 (06:02):
Well, I just think that trusting God when things are
going well is one thing. Trusting him when your world
seems to be falling apart and he doesn't seem to
be listening to your prayers, that's another thing. So my
faith deepened. I have really had to make a choice
at that moment. Do you believe this or not? Do
you believe him or not? Do you believe that he
can somehow work this together for your good? And that
(06:23):
is is getting to the bottom line answer of that question,
which is yes. Yeah, that changed my faith. Because to
look at that, to look at the loss of, of
of your mother at the the year she was going
to start enjoying and not that she wasn't enjoying her life,
but like slowing down and traveling like that was the
year she was going to do that, to watch that
(06:43):
happen after a life of ministry and service to the
Lord and then still choose to follow the Lord. That's different.
Like that was a different level of of faith. Yeah. And, um. Yeah. Yeah.
S1 (06:55):
What did you have to wrestle through to get there?
Because I mean, there between that moment where you you
were take a absorb. First the shock and then the sorrow.
How did you wrestle through to get to that place
of of peace with God?
S2 (07:12):
I had to wrestle through one of the main concepts
I had to wrestle through is sometimes God. God's. Yes.
Doesn't look like the yes you were asking for. Yeah.
And that was different because I was so hyper fixated
on heal Her. Like that's what you said. I have
the faith of a mustard seed. You're going to you're
going to. I mean, move this mountain. Like I believe
that I had to realize that his yes was I'm
(07:34):
going to heal her, but she's going to be with me. Yeah. Like,
what in the world? Like, I don't want that. That.
That's not the. Yes I was asking for. It wasn't
a trick question. Like I wasn't, but I had to
get to the point where that's what he decided to do.
And and because he. My dad used to talk about
this illustration of the Goodyear blimp, like in parades, it
would give you this, this shot, this overhead shot where
(07:56):
you then saw all the all the basically every float
down this, this maze of roads. You saw them just
from that perspective. When you were sitting and watching the parade,
you just saw what was coming around the corner. I
have to believe that God's perspective, he sees every twist
and turn, and it's going to be different than mine
and going to be more, more cumulative than mine, because
(08:18):
I can only see what's coming around the corner. And
I have to stand and believe. Believe in that. Yeah,
in spite of loss.
S1 (08:24):
And it's now been how many years?
S2 (08:26):
Four. Four and a half. Yeah.
S1 (08:28):
And so, you know, with grief and loss the the
time helps, but the time doesn't necessarily heal. How do
you handle, you know, those hard moments where you know
you're at peace. But man, you you miss your mom?
S2 (08:43):
Yeah. Of course. I think I've had to figure out
healthy ways to grieve my mother and to honor her legacy,
which now I do things daily in honor of my mom.
And it actually helps. Like, I will make just random decisions.
It doesn't even from from simple things like I have randomly,
I have fresh flowers in my house as much as
I can because my mom loved those. Oh, like just
(09:05):
that's small. Yeah. From stage I will honor her, I
will I will make known that this whole family and
this ministry was held together by a woman who would
most of the time just sit there looking like a
queen and smiling. But meanwhile she was the super glue,
holding all of it together. Like, I will just make
her name known and great, even though she's not here
in physical, in physical form. That's that's one of the ways. Um,
(09:27):
and I allow myself to feel I don't I don't
suppress emotions because they're trying to get something out of me.
It's like sweat is trying to cool you down and
get toxins out of you. Like, that's what emotions are
trying to do. So I let them come.
S1 (09:43):
Yeah. So what do you what's what has you excited
now for the whether it's family, whether it's work you're doing. Yeah.
Latest song you've got coming out. What do you what
is what has you excited in the Lord these days?
S2 (09:58):
There's a few things. I have a Christmas album that
comes out. Um, for this, this Christmas season. I'm very
excited about that. Um, I had the privilege of producing
a lot of. I get to work in LA a lot,
and then in ministry a whole lot. So I had
the opportunity of producing a lot of music for some
Christmas films, and then I got to remake that music
for producing for major networks, and I got to remake
that music and get to put that out. So that's
(10:19):
one thing I'm excited about. And the other thing is,
I got a call from this is some of the
LA work. Obviously. I got a call from Kevin Costner's
production company called Big Dreams, and I just wrapped an
end credits song for one of the new features that
that that comes out next year, and I didn't. I
was doing my song and they just did a release
on it, and it's my name. And then Jon Bon
Jovi and Diane Warren, like all these people, I didn't
(10:41):
realize I was inadvertently working with them. But now. So that's,
that's that's the fun. It's kind of, you know, it's
it's it's ministry in a different way. It's ministry in the,
in the not the spotlight way. But but those are
things that I'm excited about.
S1 (10:54):
And, you know, when you get opportunities like that and
you know, what is it. What is your heart that's
communicated even through like a, a song that plays through
the credits that maybe, maybe to people who've never heard
of you, never heard of your family, what do you.
Where do you see God? At work in that?
S2 (11:12):
I see God at work in that. It mostly behind
the scenes, the conversations I get to have people discovering
gospel music that didn't really know anybody in it or
that that kind of thing. Like I got to produce
Yolanda Adams for this song. These executives weren't aware. They
knew figuratively who she was because of award shows and stuff,
but they didn't know her. So they went and listened
(11:32):
to her discography before approving me. And they were listening
to gospel music. It's kind of like a we're not
salt of the shaker, we're salt of the earth. That
is what I see when I get opportunities outside of
the outside of my normal realm, is I get to see,
you know, you get to get to see salt at
work in areas that actually need it.
S1 (11:52):
Thank you so much for hanging with me for this
week's snapshot testimony. If you enjoyed my conversation with Anthony Evans,
please take a moment to leave a review. Your feedback
really helps these stories reach more ears. Plus, I like
hearing from you. I'm your host, Ali Domercant, and together
we're sharing the moments that shape a life of faith
in Christ. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Snapshot Testimony podcast. I'm your host, Ali Domercant.
In this podcast, I ask my guests to share one
pivotal moment that helped shape their faith in Christ. In
this episode, my guest is sharing two moments gospel recording
artist Anthony Evans. He was born into a well-known Christian
family and was active in music ministry from a young age.
(00:20):
But when he headed off to college on his own
for the first time, he was confronted with the reality
that he'd been riding the coattails of his parents faith.
In this episode, you'll hear his journey of discovering Jesus
for himself. He also opens up about the loss of
his mother, Lois, the matriarch of the Evans family, and
how he wrestled through some tough questions about his faith.
(00:41):
I think you're gonna enjoy this one. Here's a snapshot
testimony from Anthony Evans.
S2 (00:55):
And that was the first time being out from underneath
the covering of my parents, obviously. And I went into
this big Christian university and was singing all over the place.
I remember having this moment of oh my God, literally. Like,
not in a slang way. I mean it like, oh
my God, I, my faith is not my own. And
I'm just now figuring that out because I just came
outside from underneath this umbrella of faith. Wow. And so
(01:18):
I had to figure out how to make the Lord
my I had to figure out my own shelter in
the presence of the Lord versus the shelter of him
that was covering my family.
S1 (01:26):
Now, what specifically clued you into that? Like, what was
it just a sense that you got all of a sudden, like,
what was the impetus for going, okay, wait, my faith
isn't what I thought it was.
S2 (01:38):
It was literal distance. It was distance from my family
and from the ministry that that's that's what it was.
And then people calling on me, asking me my specific
thoughts and my specific stances. And I was like, dad, mom, anybody?
Can you answer this for me? Because I don't really
you know, that that's that's what happened.
S1 (01:54):
Yeah. And that can be a real crisis. A lot
of you think about the amount of young people that
walk away from the faith because they have that moment
of reckoning where they go, okay, maybe I was raised
in the church, maybe I'm a pastor's kid, maybe XYZ,
but this isn't really my faith. But that didn't drive
you away from the Lord. That actually draw you drew
(02:16):
you closer to him.
S2 (02:17):
It did well away for a little bit because I
was so discouraged. I was just like, man, what the
problem was, is I was doing ministry in college. I
went to a big Christian university. I was singing at
the college. I was doing ministry, all while going through
this in your in my head, which made me feel
like an actor, which almost made it worse because while
you're figuring things out, it's like competing. While you need
(02:38):
to be training like I still need to be training.
I don't need to be competing yet. And I felt
like I was kind of doing a lot at the
same time. But God in his grace obviously used some
of those challenges of me being in ministry at that
point to to point out to me his faithfulness to
to add his, to add to our effort, like I
learned in that moment, that when you do what you can,
(02:59):
God will do what you cannot. That's what I learned
in that moment.
S1 (03:01):
Yeah. Did you come out of that? Stronger, I mean,
or did you? What helped you? Was it just going
back to the basics of your faith? Because I know
it's hard when you're when you're leading. And there's sometimes
that pressure, sometimes the not feeling like you can be vulnerable.
What was it that kind of helped you to cross
over to that place of, okay, now I'm owning this
(03:23):
for myself?
S2 (03:24):
Yeah. What helped me was actually calling my dad, calling
my dad, talking to him, and he said, Anthony, open your.
Open your Bible to Psalms one 128. He said, blessed
is the man who fears the Lord. First of all,
he said, God doesn't have grandkids. And then he said,
open your Bible to Psalms 128. Blessed is the man
who fears the Lord. His wife will be a fruitful vine.
His kids will be like olive. Olive trees, all of
plants around his table. Around the table. That digging into
(03:48):
that verse, he was like, Anthony, you have seen the
results of your grandfather fearing the Lord. Yeah, you're part
of the results of me fearing the Lord. And you
can create your own narrative with the Lord, your relationship
with him. And this is the promise he makes you
when you continue to foster and develop that relationship with him.
It's not a Tony Evans faith. It's yours. Here. Here
(04:09):
you go. And he will fulfill that promise with you. Yeah.
S1 (04:12):
What would you say to to to young people in
particular who find themselves at that crisis point? Because, you know,
a lot of times being raised in the church and
maybe having family and ministry, as awesome as that is
in terms of the seed that's sown in you, a
lot of times kids can can rebel. What would you
say to kids who are or young people who are
(04:33):
kind of at that crossroads of, I've grown up in this,
but I don't even know if I believe it for myself.
S2 (04:38):
Yeah, I would say save yourself the trouble. Like when
you drive and you think that you actually know the
direction you're going, so you're not going to use a GPS.
You end up making wrong turns and ending up on
streets you don't know and trying to you end up
taking way longer to get where you need to go. Yeah,
I fully believe for myself at this point and back
then that the Word of God is like literally a roadmap.
(04:59):
That's the bottom line. And I would I would tell them,
I mean, I remember really quickly playing baseball when I
was younger and I would, I was striking out. I
was just athletic looking kid, but striking out, striking out,
striking out. And then I remember my dad walking up
and reaching around me and grabbing the bat, and all
of a sudden I was Babe Ruth. All of a
sudden I was the best. I was the best out there.
So I in that moment, I thought about this. Later
(05:22):
in life, God will add himself to our efforts. He
will wrap his arms around our circumstances, and then the
impact that we're able to make for ourselves and for
others will change when we invite him in. When my
dad came and grabbed the bat, I didn't walk off.
I swung and tried as hard as I could, and
then he amplified my effort. That's what I would tell
somebody who's struggling. Do what you can and God will
(05:43):
amplify that effort.
S1 (05:44):
Yeah. Now take me to the second moment. You know,
the the loss of your mom. Um, yeah. Many. She
was known and loved by many. None more. None more
than those who were closest to her. But what moment
stands out about that season of going through the grief
and loss of your mom?
S2 (06:02):
Well, I just think that trusting God when things are
going well is one thing. Trusting him when your world
seems to be falling apart and he doesn't seem to
be listening to your prayers, that's another thing. So my
faith deepened. I have really had to make a choice
at that moment. Do you believe this or not? Do
you believe him or not? Do you believe that he
can somehow work this together for your good? And that
(06:23):
is is getting to the bottom line answer of that question,
which is yes. Yeah, that changed my faith. Because to
look at that, to look at the loss of, of
of your mother at the the year she was going
to start enjoying and not that she wasn't enjoying her life,
but like slowing down and traveling like that was the
year she was going to do that, to watch that
(06:43):
happen after a life of ministry and service to the
Lord and then still choose to follow the Lord. That's different.
Like that was a different level of of faith. Yeah. And, um. Yeah. Yeah.
S1 (06:55):
What did you have to wrestle through to get there?
Because I mean, there between that moment where you you
were take a absorb. First the shock and then the sorrow.
How did you wrestle through to get to that place
of of peace with God?
S2 (07:12):
I had to wrestle through one of the main concepts
I had to wrestle through is sometimes God. God's. Yes.
Doesn't look like the yes you were asking for. Yeah.
And that was different because I was so hyper fixated
on heal Her. Like that's what you said. I have
the faith of a mustard seed. You're going to you're
going to. I mean, move this mountain. Like I believe
that I had to realize that his yes was I'm
(07:34):
going to heal her, but she's going to be with me. Yeah. Like,
what in the world? Like, I don't want that. That.
That's not the. Yes I was asking for. It wasn't
a trick question. Like I wasn't, but I had to
get to the point where that's what he decided to do.
And and because he. My dad used to talk about
this illustration of the Goodyear blimp, like in parades, it
would give you this, this shot, this overhead shot where
(07:56):
you then saw all the all the basically every float
down this, this maze of roads. You saw them just
from that perspective. When you were sitting and watching the parade,
you just saw what was coming around the corner. I
have to believe that God's perspective, he sees every twist
and turn, and it's going to be different than mine
and going to be more, more cumulative than mine, because
(08:18):
I can only see what's coming around the corner. And
I have to stand and believe. Believe in that. Yeah,
in spite of loss.
S1 (08:24):
And it's now been how many years?
S2 (08:26):
Four. Four and a half. Yeah.
S1 (08:28):
And so, you know, with grief and loss the the
time helps, but the time doesn't necessarily heal. How do
you handle, you know, those hard moments where you know
you're at peace. But man, you you miss your mom?
S2 (08:43):
Yeah. Of course. I think I've had to figure out
healthy ways to grieve my mother and to honor her legacy,
which now I do things daily in honor of my mom.
And it actually helps. Like, I will make just random decisions.
It doesn't even from from simple things like I have randomly,
I have fresh flowers in my house as much as
I can because my mom loved those. Oh, like just
(09:05):
that's small. Yeah. From stage I will honor her, I
will I will make known that this whole family and
this ministry was held together by a woman who would
most of the time just sit there looking like a
queen and smiling. But meanwhile she was the super glue,
holding all of it together. Like, I will just make
her name known and great, even though she's not here
in physical, in physical form. That's that's one of the ways. Um,
(09:27):
and I allow myself to feel I don't I don't
suppress emotions because they're trying to get something out of me.
It's like sweat is trying to cool you down and
get toxins out of you. Like, that's what emotions are
trying to do. So I let them come.
S1 (09:43):
Yeah. So what do you what's what has you excited
now for the whether it's family, whether it's work you're doing. Yeah.
Latest song you've got coming out. What do you what
is what has you excited in the Lord these days?
S2 (09:58):
There's a few things. I have a Christmas album that
comes out. Um, for this, this Christmas season. I'm very
excited about that. Um, I had the privilege of producing
a lot of. I get to work in LA a lot,
and then in ministry a whole lot. So I had
the opportunity of producing a lot of music for some
Christmas films, and then I got to remake that music
for producing for major networks, and I got to remake
that music and get to put that out. So that's
(10:19):
one thing I'm excited about. And the other thing is,
I got a call from this is some of the
LA work. Obviously. I got a call from Kevin Costner's
production company called Big Dreams, and I just wrapped an
end credits song for one of the new features that
that that comes out next year, and I didn't. I
was doing my song and they just did a release
on it, and it's my name. And then Jon Bon
Jovi and Diane Warren, like all these people, I didn't
(10:41):
realize I was inadvertently working with them. But now. So that's,
that's that's the fun. It's kind of, you know, it's
it's it's ministry in a different way. It's ministry in the,
in the not the spotlight way. But but those are
things that I'm excited about.
S1 (10:54):
And, you know, when you get opportunities like that and
you know, what is it. What is your heart that's
communicated even through like a, a song that plays through
the credits that maybe, maybe to people who've never heard
of you, never heard of your family, what do you.
Where do you see God? At work in that?
S2 (11:12):
I see God at work in that. It mostly behind
the scenes, the conversations I get to have people discovering
gospel music that didn't really know anybody in it or
that that kind of thing. Like I got to produce
Yolanda Adams for this song. These executives weren't aware. They
knew figuratively who she was because of award shows and stuff,
but they didn't know her. So they went and listened
(11:32):
to her discography before approving me. And they were listening
to gospel music. It's kind of like a we're not
salt of the shaker, we're salt of the earth. That
is what I see when I get opportunities outside of
the outside of my normal realm, is I get to see,
you know, you get to get to see salt at
work in areas that actually need it.
S1 (11:52):
Thank you so much for hanging with me for this
week's snapshot testimony. If you enjoyed my conversation with Anthony Evans,
please take a moment to leave a review. Your feedback
really helps these stories reach more ears. Plus, I like
hearing from you. I'm your host, Ali Domercant, and together
we're sharing the moments that shape a life of faith
in Christ. Thanks for listening.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com