CeCe Winans discusses her faith, family, and career in a conversation with Sarah Taylor on the latest episode of Passion Meets Purpose. CeCe shares about her profound devotion to Jesus and how her faith has been a guiding force in her life. She reflects on her childhood in a big, religious family, and how her parents’ commitment to God influenced her. You’ll love her new song, “That’s My King,” and the insights she shares about it.
Show Notes:
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Transcription:
CeCe Winans:
He’s all that and more. Having Jesus as my Lord and friend is everything. I don’t even want to imagine. I can’t even imagine life without Him. There would be no life without Him. And He has been every one of those things to me throughout my life, and He continues to be the love of my life.
Sarah Taylor:
CeCe Winans joins us. And CeCe, I thought I could do the laundry list of accolades and how you’re the most decorated gospel artist of all time, and yet I know that’s not how you measure success. So I’ve decided not to read. If people want to read all the things, they can Google it.
CeCe Winans:
Very good, very good.
Sarah Taylor:
You are here today because you are a daughter of the King, and that is the only qualification we need. And so I welcome you to the Passion Meets Purpose podcast. I think you’re going to like what this podcast is about. We celebrate how God makes each of us uniquely, instilling gifts and talents into each of us. And then you know that to live the greatest story, we put those gifts and talents on display for the world, for others, not a story for ourself. And so let’s begin with how your mom and dad came from small families. I think your dad only child, mom had a sibling, is that accurate? And they got married.
CeCe Winans:
That’s accurate.
Sarah Taylor:
They got married young, and they had a bunch of kids and it goes like this. It goes boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, and CeCe.
CeCe Winans:
CeCe, the girl broke the mold after seven boys and I have two younger sisters. So it looked like if they would’ve kept going, the girl team would’ve came on.
Sarah Taylor:
Can you tell me what your mom says about that moment where you were born and they said, girl?
CeCe Winans:
Well, a couple of things. Back then, they didn’t have the tests that you could see the babies and all of that. So the doctor came and was like, “You had a girl.” And she said, “I had a what? Are you sure about that?” And he didn’t realize, he was like, “Why did she look like that?” And he came back. He said, “Oh, I saw your chart. So now I know why you were so in shock when I said you had a girl.” And also when she brought me home, my brothers looked at me, looked at me and looked at them and said, “What is this?” This thing has messed up our ball team. So yeah, I was the first girl with seven boys, and I love it. I love it. God has just blessed me so much.
I’m so grateful for my parents that they raised us in the fear of God because not only did they come from small families and then came together and had all of us, but they came from broken homes. But when they got saved as young people, they were determined to do it God’s way and because of their determination and the grace of God, God’s faithfulness and His mercy toward them, they stayed together until my father went to be with the Lord. But they raised us in the fear of God. And so it is such a testament of who God is, but also an encouraging point to young people coming together in a time where the culture will make you think that staying together and having a Godly marriage is impossible. And it’s not. You just have to do it God’s way. And no matter what your story was, if you come from a broken family, does not mean that your family has to be broken. And that was just a strong testimony for me and my siblings to see. So yeah, I’m grateful to be here.
Sarah Taylor:
Well, you just highlighted something that is just such a passion for you, which is generational legacy of faith and what you just described right there was a change in the generations that your parents began.
CeCe Winans:
Yep, so true. So true. And it was something that I had never really thought about for many years because if you were to look at our family, you would just think that our whole line of heritage was sanctification and holiness. And even though on my father’s side, my great-grandfather was a minister and his dad was, but I went to school of ministry when I was young. My church was offering a program and I had to interview my parents. And when they told me what they grew up in, and I was just like, “Huh.” I was just blown away at what a difference it made when they took the stand to live for Christ, how they changed the whole trajectory of our family.
These two young people, like you said, they got married very young. I think my mom was 17 and my dad was 19, and they were determined to do it God’s way. They raised us in a home where all we could listen to was Christian music. They lived the life of in front of us. They taught us the Word of God, and God honored them. They honored God and God honored them. And so yeah, they changed where our generations going forward would be tremendously blessed through their sacrifice. And I am forever grateful for that.
Sarah Taylor:
I heard you say they were strict, but they were fun.
CeCe Winans:
Yes. They were very strict and they were very funny at the same time. I mean, they knew. Yeah. And that’s another thing that I grasp from them is so many lessons that just hit you as you go on in life. But we had the most fun in church. We had the most fun with our friends. We had the most fun at home because they realized we were young people. So my father, you would think he didn’t have enough kids. He had all of us, but he was always bringing in the kids from the community and creating things for us to do. He had athletic teams, so he created this whole athletic community where it was bowling and it was track and it was, you name it, football, baseball.
And we had fun growing up, but at the same time, they did not play. They did not compromise. No, you’re not going to worldly parties. No, you’re not listening to worldly music. This house is dedicated to God and God only. This is how you live. And basically if you can’t live this way, when you get grown and you can’t live this way, then you can no longer stay here. They really stood for righteousness, and because of that, we all fell in love with Christ.
Sarah Taylor:
I know another special relationship you had was with Grandma Laura.
CeCe Winans:
Oh, that was my girl. To this day, that’s the soft heart, soft part of my heart, tender part of my heart. My father’s mother, grandma Laura was just, I don’t know how to describe her. I was the first girl, so if you talk to my brothers, they would tell you I was spoiled, but my mom said it’s not so, I was just a good girl. And one of those strict things my parents did was we could not spend the night over at anybody’s house. I don’t care how long they knew them, I don’t care. Nope. You cannot spend the night. Now, they would let our friends spend the night at our house sometimes, but we could not spend the night anywhere. And of course, as I got older, I understood that, but my grandmother’s house was the only person I could spend the night over. She would anoint me with oil, she would pray over me, I would go to prayer with her.
I fell in love with prayer because of her. I just hung out with her. I didn’t realize that that was anything that could have been weird where your grandmother was your favorite person until later, and I think that’s why I’m an old soul to this day. But yeah, she would just encouraged me to live holy. And she was funny. She would have you laughing, but she was a great cook and yeah, just awesome. I remember one of the things that she didn’t want me to do, I went to beauty school when I was young. I got my hair license, cosmetic license, cosmetology license, and I got my eyebrows arched. They teach you how to arch your eyebrows and to do different things when you learn how to do hair. And for some reason she did not want me to arch my eyebrows. She used to call me sister, and she was like, “Did you arch your eyebrows?” I said, “Yes, ma’am.” She said, “Don’t arch your eyebrows.” I was like, “Okay.” And I didn’t. Until she left here and went to heaven, I never arch my eyebrows.
Sarah Taylor:
You did it when she went to heaven? You think that she doesn’t know that that’s going on?
CeCe Winans:
I figured she would be okay since she was with Jesus. But I love telling that story because I know that I’m blessed today. I’m blessed today, Sarah, because of honoring those who went before me. And I want young people to catch that. I’m not blessed just because of the gift God has given me or because I sing or because of any other reason, but walking out the Word of God. And when you honor your elders, when you honor your mom and your dad, the Bible gives you promises that goes along with that. And even when you don’t agree with everything, it’s okay. You submit and you honor those that God has put over you and God will honor you. I know I’m blessed today because of that.
Sarah Taylor:
You fell in love with prayer because of watching Laura pray.
CeCe Winans:
Yep.
Sarah Taylor:
Tell me about that.
CeCe Winans:
That’s right. And seeing prayers answered. I remember having stomach aches and she would get the oil. I told… I was preaching the other day in New York, and I said, “Guys, I’m all for therapy. I’m all for doctors. God uses all of that.” I said, “Well, what happened to prayer first? What happened to grabbing that anointing oil and anointing your head and anointing your children and praying first?” Because even through that, that God will give you the wisdom. The Holy Spirit will give you the wisdom on what to do or who to call. And so I just remember not feeling good sometime. And my grandmother, it was never, and trust me, I’ve taken my kids to urgent care and different places, but I don’t ever remember. They didn’t have them back then, I’m sure. But she would just pull out that oil and pray for me, anoint my stomach and pray, and then I remember I started feeling better.
So it’s things like that that sticks with your children. I was with my grandson the other day. We do a Saturday morning prayer at our church here in Nashville, and I think it starts at 9:00 every Saturday. And so he comes with us and just the other day he was mimicking what he saw the pastor do. He was like, “Gaga, we’re going to pray. Let’s pray.” And he got on his knees and everything he did was the things that we did in our prayer service. And he’s three. And I was just like, “Lord, I thank you. He’s catching it.” So I caught it. Like you said, I fell in love with prayer because of a praying grandmother.
Sarah Taylor:
Yeah. When you’re around it, when you see, this has happened to me, too. I met a group of women a decade ago, and when they pray, they listen. They listen and they listen and they listen and they listen for songs, for scripture, for an image, and then they trust the Holy Spirit at work with them. And they do this on behalf of others, and this is what they spend their days doing. And when I found these women, I was like, “Where have you been all my life? This is how prayer is supposed to be.” And I have not let them go. And it has changed my life.
CeCe Winans:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. When you find some good ones, you hold onto them. When you find great people, people of God, people of God are the best people ever. That’s one of the things I love about what I get a chance to do, because my music has taken me all over the world practically, and I’ve met some of the greatest people of God. And like you said, when you find… I have some friends in Chicago, in Illinois, Chicago area, they’re called the Ray Sisters. You got to look them up. Pastor Kimberly Ray, Pastor Denise Ray, let me see, Tanya Ray and Cheryl Ray. You talking about some praying women. Oh my God. So I was just there the other week. When I get a chance to hang out with them, I know that I’m going to become stronger because of it. And so that’s awesome that you found a group of women that understand the power of prayer because it will strengthen your life and your prayer life.
Sarah Taylor:
Absolutely. By the way, we prayed over you and I have an audio recording I’m going to send you later.
CeCe Winans:
Oh, thank you. I appreciate it.
Sarah Taylor:
I will say this, there was a woman years ago that had a word from the Lord that she had heard, and she shared it with you and your husband, and he was unfazed. And I think you might’ve said, “Oh, no.”
CeCe Winans:
Yes, I hollered it out, much louder than what you just did, Sarah.
Sarah Taylor:
Oh, no.
CeCe Winans:
Oh, it was loud. Oh, no. Yes. That word about us becoming pastors.
Sarah Taylor:
Yes. Tell me.
CeCe Winans:
We were in a service. Thank God we were in an African-American church where the organ was playing loud is when she gave my husband the word that he would pastor one day. And that was my first reaction. And it’s not because I have anything against the church. I love the church. I love God’s people, but that is something that we just never saw ourselves doing. It was not a part of our plan, our desire, any of it. And when she told my husband he would pastor, that she saw he was going to be a pastor, I hollered out, “Oh no.” And my husband said, he just knew within himself. He told me later, “CeCe, she’s a nice lady, but she missed it.” He said, “I’ll be walking on the moon before I become a pastor.”
Because even though I was in the public eye ministering and singing, my husband was very comfortable in the background. He worked for Xerox for years. And so he always supported me 200%, but that just wasn’t on his radar. But we have been pastoring now for 12 years. Well, actually my son is now the lead pastor, so we’re no longer the lead pastors, but it happened. It happened probably 15 years after that prophecy. And God birthed it out in our living room, and all the words that we had received just all came back.
Sarah Taylor:
Another beautiful way that that happened was your son had originally gone off to Australia. He’s like, “I’m going to the other side of the world, away from you people.”
CeCe Winans:
That’s right. To get away from us.
Sarah Taylor:
Amen.
CeCe Winans:
But I’m so grateful that God is everywhere.
Sarah Taylor:
Yes, He is.
CeCe Winans:
My son went away and he was not in the right place with God. And when he said he was going, as a mom, I was concerned, but my husband was like, “No, he’s grown. Let him go.” And we just kept praying and the Lord sent him into a small church in Melbourne, Australia, and God got ahold of him, and the next time he called, he was like, “Mom, God is real.” Then the next time he called, “Mom, I’m prophesying.” And I’m just like, “What?” So my prayer went from, “Lord, bring him home,” to, “God, he can stay over there as long as you want him to.”
That’s always been my number one prayer for both of my children is that they fall in love with Jesus because that is the answer to every question in life. That is the answer to eternal life. That is the answer to abundant life. And God did it for him. And when he had that encounter with God, he wanted to see other people say it. So when he came back to Nashville, he was taking his friends out for coffee and telling him about his experience and telling him about Jesus. And he came back and asked my husband and I, if we would hold a Bible study for his friends. And we said, “Well, of course we can.” We still weren’t thinking about starting a church until this whole house was… We moved all our furniture out of the way, those young people came in and God blessed them and they were saved and delivered and set free.
And I think we did it maybe one other time before my husband looked at me and said, “This is the church that we’re supposed to start.” And he told my husband that night that my son would be the successor. He would take over the church when it was time. And so we pastored for about 10 years, and my husband looked at me same time and said, “It is time.” And so I was like, “Okay.” And my son has been doing an amazing job, but He transformed my son. He transformed my daughter, and we just want to please Jesus. We just want to do whatever God wants us to do because He’s been so good. He’s been so kind. He is so faithful. He deserves nothing less than all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our minds and all of our strength. And I’m just honored. I’m honored to be a part of the Kingdom of God.
Sarah Taylor:
I love how when you sing, when you sing, I’m going to talk about your new song, That’s My King, which from the first listen… First of all, CeCe’s music is best listened to loud and participatory. I listen in the car alone and I sing it out. When you say things like, “Who we talking about?” I sing back to you. I talk to you when you’re singing.
CeCe Winans:
I love it. That’s what I want. I love it.
Sarah Taylor:
When you’re singing, “He knows my name.” And then you sing something like, “So glad about it.” And, “Why does he know it?” I’m like, I’m right there with you. And so you sing wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy and merciful and powerful. And with every name that you sing about Him, that’s my shepherd, my protector, my rock, my anchor, my defender, I can see it in your countenance and I can hear it in your voice. You have been in every moment where He’s been the rock, where He’s been the protector.
CeCe Winans:
Yes, come on, come on.
Sarah Taylor:
Tell me about the Jesus you know.
CeCe Winans:
Oh, man, He’s all that and more. He’s all that and more. Having Jesus as my Lord and friend is everything. I don’t even want to imagine. I can’t even imagine life without Him. There would be no life without Him. And He has been every one of those things to me throughout my life. And He continues to be the love of my life. The Bible says it is in Him we live and move and have our being. Without Him, I’m totally lost. But He’s faithful. He’s true. He’s full of love and mercy. He’s kind. He has all strength and all power. The Bible tells us, be anxious for nothing but everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Make your request known to God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. And people might say, in a world where so many people are dealing with anxiety, how can you do it? And it’s only because of who He is. When you understand who He is, when you understand who your King is, you can release all anxiety.
You can let fear go because He’s so faithful and He’s so true, that every promise that He’s made will come to pass. And when you have that, the Bible says, if God be for you, who can be against you? You can live from a place of rest. I was in my devotion time the other day, and I love the Bible app. I do that along with some additional reading. But I love that they have, and I think this is new. They have this part where you just meditate and you think, and they ask you certain questions, and they said, “Are you anxious about anything today? If you’re anxious about anything today, just take this time out to tell the Lord about it.”
And Sarah, I sat there and it just hit me. I said, “Lord, I am not anxious about anything.” I’m like, “God, I thank you.” It was nothing. I said, “God, I totally trust you.” Oh my God. It was a moment that I just began to worship the Lord, because when your eyes are open to really who He is, you can let go of those things that have been holding you back.
Sarah Taylor:
CeCe Winans new album More Than This comes out this April. You can catch her on tour this year. Go sing back to her when she sings out to you. Saturate your car, your home, your prayer closet with this music. Invite the Holy Spirit in. CeCe, you’re a gift to us all. You are lit from within.
CeCe Winans:
Oh, I love you. You are too, lit from within. I love it. Thank you so much. I look forward to meeting you.
Sarah Taylor:
I look forward to meeting you, too. I’ll be the one singing loud.
CeCe Winans:
Bye-Bye. Sing it loud. Turn it up. That’s my King. I love it. Take care.
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