WASHINGTON (BP) — Christmas has held precious lessons for multifaceted music minister Anthony Evans, a headliner of the Museum of the Bible’s (MOTB) Everlasting Light candlelight Christmas celebration Dec. 19-21.
The No. 1 Billboard charting gospel artist, producer and vocal contractor and arranger was shaped by biblical values as the son of Dallas pastor and theologian Tony Evans and the late Lois Evans, who kept alive the meaning of Christmas each season of Anthony’s youth.
“On Christmas morning, they made us sit down and have a family devotional time to remind us that in spite of all this cultural stuff that we’re celebrating” Anthony told Baptist Press, “no matter what we are facing, we have been given the greatest gift. And that has been a part of my DNA since I was a child.”
In 2012, Anthony experienced a culture shock of sorts when he ventured on his own, appearing on The Voice in 2012, his singing moving Christina Aguilera to swivel her chair. She invited contestants to her home for Christmas dinner and in the course of the evening asked Anthony to explain the meaning of worship. He began talking in “church terms.”
“You can’t say lamb that was slain to somebody who doesn’t do church, because they’re immediately like, you’re in a cult. When you’re talking about killing lambs, you know,” Anthony recalled. “That dinner at Christina Aguilara’s house at Christmas time was what created in me the desire to make sure that my faith is not just for inside of the church.”
But his greatest trial at Christmas was in 2017. That was when his mother Lois’ strength in her struggle with biliary cancer waned as she died Dec. 30.
“After praying for months and having the world praying for her, and, and believing that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, that God can move this mountain,” Anthony said. “In the holiday season is when we were losing her. As devastating as that was and still is, there was an undertone of peace that is really inexplainable that I experienced.
“And so I want to communicate with the audience from a place of vulnerability of, ‘Yes, we’re here to celebrate the holidays, but we’re also here to celebrate the fact that somehow God can take messes and make a miracle out of them, somehow,” he said. “I miss my mom every day, but the way that I even communicate now is in honor of her.”
“Everlasting Light: Singing the Story of Christmas” will include five performances and will also feature Tasha Layton, named one of Billboard’s top five female Christian artists in both 2020 and 2021.
The 60-voice Indiana Wesleyan Chorale led by Davy Chinn and members of the D.C. Orchestra will also perform in the live concert in the MOTB’s World Stage Theater, featuring music and readings inspired by the tradition of a candlelight Christmas service.
Anthony is looking forward to the event.
“I know that the producers of this event and the Museum of the Bible want to always present excellence. The World Theater here is beautiful. It’s an intimate room, an amazing room. And, um, tonight we’re going to just walk through the Christmas story and do it in excellence with a world-class choir, a world-class orchestra. Attach Layton, this hero, amazing Christian artist,” he said. “So basically, we want to present excellence. … And that is what the Museum of the Bible is.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
