Rebecca Crews: Episode Description
On this episode of The Inspiration Project, Brendan Corr talks to Terry Crews wife Rebecca Crews. They discuss Rebecca’s upbringing from a very small town in Gary, Indiana, how Rebecca became a Christian, meeting her husband Terry Crews, dealing with and beating Breast cancer, why Rebecca wanted to be a minister, musician, actor and author, how God has led Rebecca and Terry during the toughest moments, how God has proven Himself time and time again in Rebecca’s life, entering into Hollywood for the first time, dealing with instant fame and how to overcome significant marital trauma with the Grace of God.
Episode Summary
- What it’s like being married to Terry Crews
- Meeting Terry for the first time
- Rebecca’s upbringing in the small town of Gary, Indiana
- How Rebecca became a Christian
- Dealing with and beating Breast Cancer
- Why Rebecca wanted to be a minister, musician, actor, author and business woman
- How God has led Rebecca and Terry during the toughest of moments
- How God has proven Himself time and time again in Rebecca’s life
- Entering into Hollywood for the first time
- How Rebecca has dealt with fame
- How To overcome significant martial trauma with the Grace of God
Rebecca Crews: Episode Transcript
Sponsor Announcement
This podcast is sponsored by Australian Christian College, a network of schools committed to student wellbeing, character development, and academic improvement.
Introduction
Welcome to The Inspiration Project, where well-known Christians share their stories to inspire young people in their faith and life. Here’s your host, Brendan Corr.
Brendan Corr
Good morning everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Inspiration Project podcast where we meet people of acclaim who have been able to navigate success in their life, in their chosen field of endeavour and be able to stay true to their faith commitment. This morning I have the pleasure of talking to Rebecca Crews. Rebecca is an actress, producer, presenter, and musician, may be best known for the part that she played in the reality TV show, The Family Crews with her husband, Terry Crews. Rebecca also performs in movies. In 2017, she made her debut in the Independent film Blueberry. Her musicianship allowed in 2018 for her to release to national acclaim four singles that were released under her own label. She’s a clothing designer and is currently involved in designing and releasing a whole line of ladies apparel. But one of the key things about Rebecca is that she is a cancer survivor and as a spokesperson for early detection. And recently, Rebecca partnered with the research non-profit organisation called Stand Up to Cancer. She’s also co-written and co-narrated alongside her husband Terry, a memoir about her life and her experiences called Stronger Together. Rebecca, it’s so good to be able to meet you this morning and thank you for your time.
Rebecca Crews
Thank you. Thank you very much. I’m very honoured to be here and I’m excited for us to have a great conversation.
Brendan Corr
Well, it sounds like a jam-packed life that you have been having fingers in all sorts of different pies. If you had to sort of choose when you woke up in the morning, what was the day going to hold? Would it be music, would it be writing? Would it be performing? Would it be a film? Would it be your designer? What would be the thing that really sparks joy for you each day?
Rebecca Crews
Wow, that’s a big question. My mother used to always say that I was like this jack of all trades and master of none. Not trying to put me down, but she always observed that I liked to do a lot of things. I will be honest, throughout the course of my life all the way back to being a teenager, when I first found my relationship with Jesus Christ. I have always felt that my highest purpose is ministry, and is being an example for the Lord wherever I am. So from high school I was involved with Youth for Christ ministries, and then in college I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. So we did street preaching. We used to go down to Daytona Florida during spring break and pass out tracts and talk to people about Jesus, The Four Spiritual Laws, booklets. I just always felt from the time that I… Really, before I knew I was born again, I felt called to ministry. So I’ve always seen myself as a minister, even if I was undercover as an actress, undercover as a musician I’ve just always seen my witness as the most important thing that I am in all of.
Brendan Corr
Rebecca to be able to share that. I wonder, without being too intrusive, can you take us back to that family that you grew up in? What was going on in your home life with your relationship with your parents and your siblings that allowed Jesus to be so present and so manifest and to take hold of your sense of your future and your purpose?
Rebecca Crews
Well, I always say that I was a special baby. My mother had me at 24 years old and my parents are different races. My father was a Caucasian man, born in Kentucky, and had some Native American background. And my mother’s African-American and they got married in 1965 when interracial marriage wasn’t legal everywhere in the country. So being born into that, of course I was very different and I was ostracised a little bit in my community. Secondly, my paternal grandparents are pastors, so my daddy was a PK. So I always say ministry runs in the family. And when I was born, there was a little bit of a tragedy. In other words, my mother, her water broke early and I was born prematurely, two months premature. And she used to tell me this story and I always recounted that when they got her to the hospital, they knocked her out because all her water had come out and I had not turned. So I was feet first. So they put her under anesthesia and delivered me. And then she said she woke up and she looked around the room and she said Jesus was standing in the corner of the hospital room. And she said he had on a plaid shirt and blue jeans and sandals kind of like how the hippies dress. And she said, he didn’t say anything with his mouth but telepathically he looked at her with his eyes. And he told her, “Your baby is going to be okay.” So she said the minute he spoke that to her, my father walked in with the doctor and they were crying and they told my mother that my heart and lungs were only about 50% functioning. And that they were expecting me to die, and to call the family and all that. And my mother said she just had peace. Now, my mother wasn’t walking with God like she is today at that point, but she said she just had this calm feeling. She knew nothing was going to happen. And sure enough, a month later they took me home from the hospital. I was five pounds. She said I fit in a shoebox. I was so little. And then I went through some childhood illnesses. Like I got the mumps, I got the measles, I kind of had a weak immune system, so I didn’t… And that was before they had vaccines for all those things. So it was kind of like I seemed to catch everything, but I survived it. And then when I was about six years old, my father passed away in a car accident. So I think that that also made me just kind of cry out to God, even as a little girl because I knew about God. We used to go to this Methodist church in the city. So I had some general understanding of the Bible that there was God and there was his son. And I knew some of the traditional Bible stories like about Samson and Delilah and David and Goliath. But my family was kind of… What’s the right word? What do they call that? Nominal, in their faith. They weren’t, every Sunday, every Wednesday, going to church. So though we believed, I don’t think we really practised Christianity, but I always had this weird little kind of thing for God. I remember being about 11 years old and I would read the Bible when nobody would make me read it, and I would preach to my little friends and tell them to obey the Ten Commandments and let their light shine before men. And my friends would laugh at me and they’d be like, “Rebecca, you sound like a preacher.” And eventually I got involved… Like I went to Methodist church camp and then I got involved with Youth for Christ when I was in high school. Primarily because all the cute boys went to the Youth for Christ meeting. So me and my little girlfriends were like, “Ooh, we’re going to go to the YTC,” because so-and-so, and so-and-so is there. And that was the first time I heard a gospel that talked about a personal relationship or that there was this direct connection to God. This direct connection to Jesus or that Jesus could speak to you or talk… Because I would talk to God, but I never thought he talked to me. So as a little girl, yes, I would just talk to God when I’m in my room. I just made my husband watch, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, last night. And he watched it with me and he enjoyed it. But much like Margaret, I would just run into my room and talk to God about my day. But in the presentation of the gospel through Youth for Christ, I began to be challenged by what did it mean to give my life to God? And then this kind of war began to ensue. I went through a very tremendous spiritual battle in that time, very strong because I would tell God, “Well, I want to serve you, God, what do I have to do?” And I went through really almost like an existential crisis because suddenly all these doubts started to come in, all this kind of… Looking back, it was a lot of spiritual warfare, I think, but I didn’t know what to do with all that. And I finally kind of came to a place where I said what I would call the atheist prayer. I sat up in my bed one night and I started to just say all these things I felt. Really kind of thinking nobody was listening to me, but just in case, just in case someone out there. And as I was doing that, this fog filled my bedroom and it was so foggy in my room, I could not see the dresser on the wall. And I think I had heard one person talk about fog coming into a service… That wasn’t something Methodist or Baptist talked about. So I remember when I heard the person talk about it, thinking it was strange, and I’m sitting in the bed and I can’t see my dresser. And I looked out my window and I had these big picture windows at my home and it wasn’t foggy outside. So I’m sitting here, and at the same time I felt this presence, I suddenly felt strong inside and I sat up straight on the bed. And I stuck my hand out to look at this fog and I said, “You’re here, aren’t you? And God began to speak… It’s the first time that I knew I was hearing the voice of God. Now in hindsight as a believer, I can look back to previous times and realise there were times he was speaking to me. But this was the first time I had an experience of actually being able to say God spoke to me. And he said several things to me. One was that he had been waiting for me to come to him with an honest, transparent heart. Not coming to him with what I think he wanted me to say or some religious kind of Right. And he told me that he was going to really prove his love in my life. And I just was shocked by that because people had always said, “God doesn’t have to prove anything to you. You have to believe without seeing.” And he told me he was going to prove his love to me. And I just was like, “What!” Like that just blew me away. And I just sat there thinking, “Wow, I feel like my soul has found its home in the universe.” And I remember being afraid to go to sleep because I didn’t want it to leave. I didn’t want this presence to leave. But when I woke up, he was still there and I had to go to school that morning and I got up and I said, “I feel like I don’t know what to do.” And even as I walked to school, I could hear him saying, “You got this.” And that crisis I’d gone through, it took a toll on me. I mean, I went through what I would call really almost like a breakdown, like an existential crisis. I had depression. I remember feeling hopeless. I remember feeling fearful about my future. I didn’t know what I believed. I didn’t know who I really was. And after that moment, I just felt like he was with me and I could send him and I could hear him. And that was the beginning of me entering into what I felt like was a very sold out part of my life. And I was 17. And the night that that happened, I saw a vision of myself preaching. I saw a vision of myself on a podium addressing a lot of people about the gospel. And I’ve done that. I’ve done lots of things like that and I think I’m going to do more of that. But that sense of wanting to do God’s will has just always been this very strong thing inside me. And my belief is that my coming into the Earth was perhaps a prayer. Because one of the… My papa, my daddy who passed, he was kind of on the outs with his family and on the outs with his childhood religion. So I just remember feeling like I had a special reason for surviving the day at the hospital. So in retrospect, I’ve even had prophetic words spoken to me about a heritage of ministry. So a pastor that I love and respect ministered at the church, that was our home for a very long time. And he prophetically said to me not knowing, he said, “Rebecca, I know you do music and you’re in the entertainment business.” He said, “But I hear a grandmother’s prayer. Wouldn’t it be great to have a preacher in the family?” And I just started to cry. Because he didn’t know about my grandparents. And my grandmother was a singer, a songwriter, a hymn writer. She was legally blind and she was a pastor’s wife. And my grandpa, Pastor Irvin King, he was the kindest, sweetest person I knew, and I realised that I inherited something from them. So that’s why I’ve always felt that whatever I do, I represent Jesus and I’ve tried in our industry and even when we were in football, to be someone that tried to point people to Christ. No matter where I was, whether as a housewife or a reality performer, and now as a clothing designer. And I just recently… The Lord had me launch my own ministry and I’d been serving in ministry my whole life. I mean from my teens through my forties and fifties, I served in other people’s churches, in the music department or with the women. And God said, “I want you to launch out.” So I’m in the launching phase with my own ministry and I’m scared, but I’m very excited.
Brendan Corr
Rebecca, that is a remarkable story. I can’t help but reflect on you. When I asked you what you feel is your key part of your identity. Music, performance, writing, et cetera, and you make the other response, actually, it’s ministry. And it can sometimes be overly spiritualized, trite response, what’s expected. But your story speaks so profoundly to the call of God upon your life, like you separated from your mother’s womb. That old Bible phrase speaks about the destiny that God had planned for you to be a minister of his truth, of his grace, of his love, of his power, of his presence. It is an extraordinarily beautiful thing for you to be able to look back and join the dots and see the connections and the faithfulness of God.
Rebecca Crews
Yes. Well, and I’ll tell you, there were many times that I was trying to launch out and do ministry, and I always felt like God saying, “It wasn’t quite time.” And then literally this year, my fifth child turned 18. It’s like, suddenly the Lord was like, “Incorporate, get a building.” It was like… I was like, “Lord, I was gung ho about this 10, 15 years ago and you didn’t want me to do it.” He said, “It wasn’t time.” So now that it’s time, I’m like… I’m nervous, and I feel a little out of season, a little wonky.
Brendan Corr
Isn’t that so much like God though Rebecca just says you know… For all the years of faithfulness where he said, “I’m going to prove my love to you,” that commitment that you received. And I think that was a beautiful account in your story, that it wasn’t you demanding something of God. “God, you prove yourself.” It came from his own heart to you to say, “I’m going to prove my love to you.” And he’s done it for decades. There is still that, there’s still that, “I need to trust you, I need to lean in on you.” “And am I going to be enough and is it going to be enough?”
Rebecca Crews
Yes, very much so. And I’ve even said, “Well, God, why didn’t I do this when I was all…” Because like I said, I’ve served in church where I’ve been consistently studying, consistently training. I was ministering to other people. It’s kind of like my wheels were greased. I was in motion. And then he sent me into Hollywood. The Lord specifically spoke to me to step down from the position I had at my church. I was their choir director. We had a 300 voice choir. I directed the choir, I taught them all their music. We sang at three services on Sunday. So it was a big commitment, time-wise. And after three or four years, five years of doing that, the Lord told me to step down. And he told me to start going with my husband to premieres and events. And it’s funny, I jokingly say he kicked the religion out of me. Because he said, “I want you to not dress like a frumpy dumpy at the awards show. You can wear a nice dress.” And I’d kind of gotten away from… Because I also worked as a hairstylist, three years. So I was always involved in the beauty industry, and I’d gotten away from being kind of fashionable. Some of it was because we were struggling, coming to Hollywood and we started over. And then some of it was because working in church, they don’t want you being flashy on stage when you’re in ministry.
Brendan Corr
In a certain style, isn’t it?
Rebecca Crews
Yeah, and it was a little old school a little bit, but out of respect for what they asked us to do, I always did that. So the Lord took me through this little process. He’s like, “Go back to your funky hair that you used to wear. Be a little more culturally relevant. And I want you there with your husband.” And I said, “Why, Lord?” He said, “Just trust me.” So opportunities began to come for me little by little because I was still raising children. I didn’t want to be a full, full-time actress. I still had children that were five and three years old at the time. So he took me on this journey into Hollywood. And then after I got into my… I’m 58, I think I was about 55, 54 years old. And he said, “Now I want you to go into the ministry.” I was like, “I haven’t got my Grammy yet, Lord, I haven’t got my…” I said, “I thought I was going to conquer this mountain and then go into ministry.” He’s like, “I need you to come over here and start working for me.” And I was like, “Okay.” So I started doing things like women’s Bible study. I did a women’s conference, things like that. And then out of the blue, about three years ago, I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would hear the Lord say, “Plant a church.” And I’m like-
Brendan Corr
“Yeah, was that really you, Lord?”
Rebecca Crews
I was like, “I rebuke that voice. I do not…” And it just wouldn’t leave. Every other night I would hear, “Plant a church, plant a church.” I’m like, “Plant a church?” I’m like, “God, I’m a choir director.” And the instructions just kept coming just like a river. And each time I took a step and did what I was told, then I wouldn’t hear anything. And then I’d hear another set of instructions, “Find a building.” So we’re in a little theatre in Hollywood right now. We meet on Monday nights and we just call it Monday Night Prayer. So we just pray and I’m online, live with people on Instagram and we pray. I share a word and I just encourage the people. And I have a prophetic gift, so a lot of times… There’s sometimes some ministry in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it’s like an hour and we get off the internet and that’s all we’re doing right now. But it’s a birthing of something bigger. He’s just having me plough the field. He’s just saying, “Pray for L.A., pray for people. Pray for those in your community. Pray for those in your business, in your industry.” And he said, “And I’m going to shepherd you and you’re going to lead them, and you’re just going to tell them how to walk with me.” He’s like, “Rebecca, you know enough Christianity to teach people how to walk with me.” And he said, “It’s just like being a mama. You train them, you teach them, you walk with them, you hold their hand, then you let go of their hand and you let them go on and walk with God.” And I said, “Well, okay.” I mean, that was all I could say was okay, I was like scared to death. But each step of the way, God has opened the door.
Brendan Corr
Let me probe a little bit, Rebecca, because I think as I’m listening to your story and I’m thinking about your context. The questions that come to me are around this notion of anxiety or concern or the… I don’t want to label it, fear as in a stultifying fear, but the lack of absolute assurance of, “I can do this. I’ve got this.” And yet you’ve lived a life of such proven success of such proven capacity. How do you deal with that? Well, how do you rationalise, understand a life that has the fruit of acclaim and celebrity and achievement and mid-fifties’ new challenge and all the feelings that you’re describing for us?
Rebecca Crews
All I can say is that I’ve always heard that God never calls you where you’re going to feel comfortable. He never calls you to do something that you can do without him. There’s always that dependence. There’s always that awareness of your own inability. To stand in that place or to operate in it. And that’s where humility just comes in, where you just have to say, “God, just show me what to do. Just tell me what to do.” Because I don’t want to ascribe to any kind of man made programmes about how this should look. And something else the Lord has done for me is he has shown me that he does not want us to be a cookie cutter gathering. He wants us to have this element of artistry and the charisma that comes from artistic people will be a hallmark of this gathering. And there are other things he has shown me where he said, “Don’t come to me with agendas, don’t come with anything except, ‘Father. What do I do?‘” “What is your plan? How do I do…” And I’ll be honest, Brendan, when I was 20 years old or so, I got pregnant with my first child and I had broken up with her father before I knew I was pregnant. So I made a decision to move on from that relationship. But I did recommit myself to the Lord in that season. And I said to God, I said, “Well, God, I don’t know what to do in this situation because I’m a big sister, but I’ve never been a mom.” And I felt in my heart that I did not want to place her for adoption or any of those kinds of things that I was going to raise this child with. So in taking on that responsibility, I just got on my knees and I said, “Father, I can’t do this without you.” And in that season, he began to craft a vision for my life that was completely different from what I thought I was going to be doing. And at that time, I met Terry. I met Terry at church, and God began to show me that I was going to be married. And this is all very funny to me because my plan, Rebecca’s plan was to get my degree in theatre, move to New York, dance with Alvin Ailey, do Broadway, retire and teach kids the arts, marry someone who is similar, an actor or dancer or someone. And we would maybe open a school and teach performing arts and maybe do choreography or whatever, but that was my plan, to marry in my thirties, have children, all that. So here I am, 21 years old with a daughter. She wasn’t even born yet. I was maybe seven or eight months pregnant. And the Lord showed me this vision of Hollywood. I did not think it was God. I rebuked the vision literally because I saw this vision of Hollywood and all this, and it was on a TV show, like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. And I had this open epiphany watching it. And I went, “Oh, no, no, no, no, that’s not my dream.” And a few months later, I met my husband. I didn’t know he was my husband at the time. And then as we got to know each other, we both began to feel a sense of destiny toward each other. Now, he did think I was cute, I’m not going to lie. His intention, I’m sure, wasn’t purely spiritual, but mine really was. And I was seeking the Lord because I wanted God’s will for my life. And I made plans. I made plans to get my beauty licence, because that’s what I was doing during my pregnancy, getting my licence. I was going to take my baby and my licence, and I was going to move to Tulsa. And I was going to go to ORU or Rhema and go into ministry. And while I was sitting there planning it, the Holy Spirit arrested me. He said, “That’s not my will for you.” And I said, “Okay, what is your will, God?” He said, “I told you you’re going to be married and have a family.” And I’m like, “Well, who? Lord, there’s nobody even asking me out.” And it was about six months later that Terry and I got to know each other. And as we got to know each other, we both felt like the Lord saying, “This is the one.” And then as that came to pass, I felt the Lord say to me, “You’re going to be a housewife.” I’m like, “A housewife? No, no, no, no, no.” That’s not my plan. I said, “My mama is a career woman. She taught me to have my own money, my own car, my own everything.” And I said… I mean, you know because she’d been a widow. So she taught me to be independent, and I was like, “A housewife?” He’s like, “I want you to raise your kids. I want you to put your career down.” And I was like, “Okay.” So here I marry this young man, and then he gets drafted in the NFL, which he was hoping would happen, but we weren’t entirely sure. You know what I’m saying? And of course we were praying about it. We’d even gotten a prophecy about a contract, but we weren’t sure if that was the thing. And he gets drafted and suddenly we’re crisscrossing the country. We played for the LA Rams for two years, then Green Bay, then San Diego, then Washington Redskins, then the Eagles. And then we hit this point where we were like, “We always said we wanted to go to L.A., let’s go to L.A.” And we moved to L.A. So it was really not practical for me to try to build a career with two kids. So I saw God just morphing me into this person that I didn’t know. So five kids later, the Lord puts me on TV, which I never saw myself doing TV. And then tells me, “Hey, start making your music, put your music out. Use these talents that are in you and start just exploring them.” And then we did this book together when Terry came clean about the pornography issue he had been having. And I’d always dreamed of being an author, a Christian author, and my first book was on like the worst thing I ever went through. So I always say that God has a plan for you that’s always bigger and better than what you thought, but it’s not going to always look the way you thought. And that’s just been my experience, especially when you kind of give him the reins and say, “Okay, Lord, what do you want to do? This is what I want to do, but what do you want to do?” And even when I announced my clothing business, that was a God dream. I was a little girl, I used to draw clothing but I didn’t go to fashion school. I didn’t pursue that. I woke up one morning and the Lord said, “Start your clothing line,” in the middle of COVID while I was being treated for breast cancer. He said, “Start your clothing line.” I was like, “Okay.” And we started and things fell into place and we’ve had some wonderful, wonderful press and opportunities around the brand and we’re hoping to grow it and maybe sell it. I don’t know. But that was a word from God. It wasn’t like I just sat down one day and went, “This is my life plan.” Now I have done things like vision boards or dreams, but for me that’s always with surrender. It’s always, “Father, this is what I would like to do, but I give that to you.” And-
Brendan Corr
What I’m hearing, Rebecca is this interesting interaction that you have or that has been your experience of something that is hopeful, something expectant, a future focus. But a readiness to let the circumstances of life also manifest God’s goodness right in front of you. And it’s a case of, “This is where I’m heading. My desire is, be a minister, big picture, big theme. How’s that going to look in this circumstance that God is opening up in my life, whether it’s as the wife of a football player crisscrossing the country or somebody ministering in Hollywood are going to red carpet events?”
Rebecca Crews
Because when I was in high school… This is the only time I kind of toot my own horn. I was an A student, I was in honour roll, I was a merit scholar, I was a pageant winner. So I was the kind of girl who was like, “I’m going somewhere in life.” Get out of this town. Gary, Indiana was going through a lot at the time. And I’m going to just become something and with the Lord, I can do it. So I wasn’t the kind of girl who wanted to date the big popular basketball player. I didn’t want to date the guy who thought he was all that. So I used to say, “Oh, I would never date a guy like that. I would never date someone famous.” I would never… And I turned around and my husband, I married an athlete, and then he became famous. And I said to Terry one time, I said, “If I knew you were going to be famous, I wouldn’t have married you.” No deal. And he’s like, “But honey, you’re part of the reason I’m here.” I’m like, “I know.” So it’s like to me, God gave me the bigger version. This is the funny thing I tell, like I said, my dream was to go to Broadway. So that’s live performing, I never really had a dream to do television or film. It was more of the theatre. So I did a calculation one time because when I was on my reality show, I did a one woman show for Family Crews at the end of season two with all my own songs in this little show. And it was about my life. And the Lord had me calculate, I think we had 2 million viewers a week. And he said, “Rebecca, you would’ve had to do 15 years of Broadway, five nights a week for 15 years for 2 million people to see you perform.” He said, “So I just made up for your Broadway career.”
Brendan Corr
That’s it. In one event.
Rebecca Crews
In one episode, in one episode. And I said, “You’re right, Lord, you’re right.” He said, “And you got to raise your family.” So it’s like he redeemed what I lost… Really, I gave away, I gave it to God Yeah, because in my decision to raise my daughter, I didn’t feel it was fair to her to put her on my back and move to New York when we had no family, we didn’t know anyone. I said, “I’m not going to subject a child to that ragamuffin lifestyle.” I have to put her first and trust God that whatever happens for me in the area of the arts, he’ll open those doors and he has done that. Now I still have some things I want to accomplish, so I’m going, “God, can I still do that in ministry?” Maybe. But that’s been my story. Now, my husband has had a little bit more of a straight line toward everything he wanted to do. But even in football, he never accomplished everything he wanted in football. He really didn’t become the star he wanted to be as an athlete, but he did as an actor. And that’s also the funny story is that he never wanted to be an actor. No. My husband and I moved here because we were independent film producers. We were putting together a small project based on a story about young boys in Detroit who became drug dealers at a young age. So Terry’s total goal was to be like a producer, a writer like Spike Lee. And when people started suggesting that he should act, he thought they were crazy. And then multiple people who worked in the industry kept telling him that. And then he got an opportunity to audition for a show that needed athletes. So out of the blue, he says, “Well, do you think I should go?” I said, “I think you should.” He almost didn’t go to that audition. He said, “I don’t want to be an actor. People walk around Hollywood, ‘I’m an actor, I’m an actor.’ No, you’re a waiter, you’re not an actor.” And he said, “I don’t want to be waiting for jobs. I want to make the jobs.” I said, “I understand honey, but who knows?” And that became his first television show. It was called Battle Dome, and it was a game show. But I will tell you, I went to set with him with the kids. I had three little kids in tow, and we’d watch them shoot this game show. And one night I was backstage watching on the monitors while he did his final scene. And it was like a wrestling scene. He’s wrestling the contestant and they have to throw one another off this platform and it’s all cushioned and all that. And while I’m watching him, I had another epiphany, and it’s like he was glittering. Like there was gold dust all over his body, and the camera just loved him. And I’m staring at him and I went, “Oh my God, he’s a star. Oh my God.” And I went backstage and said to him, I said, “Honey, I was watching you. That camera loves you.” I said, “You’re going to be famous.” He’s like, “Really? You think so?” And that night, God showed me this whole prophetic trajectory. We’re laying in the bed and I said, “You’re going to be famous the rest of your life.” I said, “And then you’re going to use your fame to do something great for other people.” I gave him this long prophecy, and he’s like, “You really think so?” I said, “Honey, I see it. The rest of your life, people are going to know who you are.” And then we went on that journey. So we both have been surprised by God that what we thought was our purpose or maybe the way toward the purpose was not in fact the way. Even though… I mean, you know how people say, “You can’t steer a parked car.” You have to go. And many times in the going, the Lord can turn you. Open the door here, open the door there. Because in this world of a thousand choices, you have to be willing to let the Lord do his thing through whoever he wants to do it through, to get you where he’s trying to get you. And my husband’s career is an anomaly. People say, “How’d this guy do this? He didn’t go to acting school, never acted in his life before that one television show.” So we love to say around here, “You can’t call it. You can’t call it.” Because God’s going to do it the way he needs to do it. And trying to stay open to that, stay open to the Holy Spirit allows you to experience a much broader sense of who God is and who you are as a person. And then to see his goodness manifest in your life. And always it seems that we’re picking up the pieces behind. In other words, we come back and go, “I don’t know how that happened.” I can’t even explain to you how I… I can’t put that in the book and say, “1, 2, 3, these were my steps to success,” because the thing that failed led the way to the thing that succeeded. Who knew? And I know that seems very unpredictable and very insecure, but this is what I love about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit to me, that relationship with the Holy Spirit is the way to walk by faith without faith feeling like it’s so blind because there is direction. The scripture says the Holy Spirit will show us things to come. It says that he will lead us and guide us and teach us all the truth. And every time we didn’t know what to do or we were waiting on God or we were praying for a breakthrough, I would hear the Lord, my husband would hear the Lord say this or that. I can recall when we first got to Los Angeles, I was pregnant with baby number three, and we just read an article in the newspaper about a man who’d been in L.A. for 10 years. 10 years, and just sold his first script. And Terry was all like, “Wow, that shows the power of perseverance.” And all I was thinking is, How long are we? That’s a long time. And I’m thinking, my kids are going to grow up poor if it’s going to take 10 years. So I said, “Honey, how long are we going to do this?” And he goes, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, how long are we going to pursue this before we maybe say, ‘Maybe we’re going back to Michigan?‘” And he said, “Honey, we’re never leaving.” And I just sunk in my spirit. I just went, “Oh no! This could take 10 years. Oh my God!” My oldest daughter was 11, the next one she was like eight, and then I’m pregnant with this little one. And as he said that to me, and my spirit was just sinking, I heard the Holy Ghost say, “Two years Becky.” He said, “Two years there’s going to be a breakthrough.” And I said, “Two years?” I griped about the two years.
Brendan Corr
Hey, better than 10
Rebecca Crews
But you know what? It’s better than 10. But he said it to me and it dropped in my spirit, like how the scripture says, faith comes by hearing, right? When he spoke that to me, it dropped in my spirit. I felt confident. And though my flesh was like, “Oh boy, there was peace.” And I kid you not two years to that month, he walked on the set of that TV show and his life was forever changed. And there were other prophetic moments. That’s just one of many. When the Holy Spirit even gave me timelines and timetables, and that’s a whole book in and of itself. How the Holy Spirit is a leader and a guide, but he can broadcast for you what God is going to do. I liken it to being on the freeway and you know your destination is like L.A. So you’re going down the road and you see a sign maybe every 10 miles, “L.A., this way.” Well, the closer you get to L.A., you’re going to see more signs. And I have found in my life, the closer I am to God’s destiny, I start having more signs. More confirmations, more serendipitous events. And then you know, “Okay, God, we’re here. We’re almost here.” And then there’s always a point where he says, “Now stop. Stand still and see.” And their destiny starts to come to you. So there’s a place where you get in position, and then once you are in position, God brings things to you. So my journey… I tell people all the time, there’s no way I could have gone through everything Terry and I endured if I had not had that walk with Jesus, that intimacy with the Holy Spirit. To allow me to feel God’s presence and to know when, where, how he was opening doors. He would just assure me as a mother and a wife, he would assure me. And not to mention the miracles, times that money came out of unexpected places, doors opened in unexpected ways. It just was all God, I could go on and on and forgive me, but that’s my testimony that you’ll listen to the Holy Spirit. If you’ll seek the Lord, hear him, obey him, you’ll really have an adventure.
Brendan Corr
Yeah. Well, you’ve certainly had your fair share of adventures, Rebecca. Because earlier in our conversation I spoke about what would be an understandable sense of self-confidence based on the successes God has brought into your life. But very clearly, God has guarded your heart from building your identity or building your sense of expectation on the very obvious gifts that he’s deposited you as a person. And I’m sure through hard times and disappointment and challenge and hurt, he drives you back to the fact that it is all about him. And it is all about the purpose that he has planned for your life, that’s been abundantly in this story you’ve shared with us.
Rebecca Crews
It’s very, very true. And it’s something that in my Christian experience, I’ve heard many people who are used by God to say the same thing. That God always led them out beyond their natural ability, out beyond their natural confidence. And like you said, there were disappointments. I succeeded in a lot of ways with my music, but I didn’t get everywhere I wanted to go either. So there was some hurt there when things performed well, but I wanted a bigger performance or I wanted a bigger result from it. So I’m like, “Okay, next record, let’s do the next record. Let’s go bigger, better.” And then God’s like, “I need you to turn this way.” I’m like, “Well, Lord, I just got going.” He’s like, “No, I need you to come over here.” And I was like, “Okay, okay. Jesus, I’m coming.” And I’ll admit I dragged my feet a little bit, and I believe that’s calculated by the Lord because especially with ministry, this is not our kingdom we’re building. This is God’s kingdom. And when you enlist, when you say, “Hey, God, choose me.” He chooses you. But when you say, yes… When you get in the army, it is not up to you to tell yourself where to go get in that field. You have a commander, Jesus is the captain of the host, and he puts us in places where he feels he can use us. And then that dependence on God is the only way the power of God is going to flow in your life. There’s no arrogance. There’s no pride. And I’m not saying there’s no confidence. But there’s a reason, the Bible said that Moses was the meekest man on the face of the Earth because God allowed him after his failure to sit in that desert for 40 years, right. Till he had no more confidence in how he was going to deliver anybody. And he’s one of the mightiest prophets in the Bible. Great miracles and signs and wonders were done through Moses. He is such a primary figure in the history of God’s dealings with mankind. And there’s a reason he was meek, because for God to use him, he had to be empty. And I’ve certainly been through a lot of things that have emptied me out. And when the Lord-
Brendan Corr
One of the things I relate to, Rebecca, is the truthfulness of the fact that no season is wasted, no experience doesn’t have fruitfulness. If you allow God to be present in that moment and you take your hurts, your disappointments, the frustrations as an aspect of his divine purpose for you, he will bring good. He will bring fruitfulness even from the things that are challenging.
Rebecca Crews
Yes. Absolutely. And also, I think it’s up to us to decide what is really Lord for us? Is it our success at something that’s going to be Lord or is it his purpose for us that’s going to be Lord? Because there’s a lot about Christianity that’s very positive and hopeful, and there’s a little bit of a motivational aspect to what God offers us. He offers us a bigger, better life than walking in just our own natural flesh. And he’s a good God, but he has a purpose for our lives. And then there’s a purpose through our life. And the purpose through our life isn’t about us, it’s about the world. So to that end is where we do have to lay down whatever our perceptions were of how and when and who. But this I love, and this is my other thing. God is such a rewarder. He’s such a rewarder of them that seek him. I have been blessed far beyond anything that I ever saw for myself, I’m not kidding. I don’t mean to brag, but I’ll brag on the Lord. Because he’s given me way more than I asked him for, and I’m not kidding. In terms of family, in terms of the success my husband has had, in terms of influence, in terms of everything. I look back at my life and think, “If I had done what I wanted to do, I don’t know where I’d be right now.” I really don’t. I don’t know who I’d be without Jesus. And my husband feels the same way. He’s like, “Honey, look at us.” He said, “Who gets this?” He’s like, “I’m from Flint, you’re from Gary. We shouldn’t be here.” I said, “I know, no.” And that to me is who God is. He’s always going to do exceedingly, abundantly above what we can ask or think, but we also have to be able and willing to take his hand to go on that journey. That’s the scary part.
Brendan Corr
Yeah. Well, that’s the thing that has stood out to me as you shared your story, Rebecca, is that comment I was making earlier about, yes, there’s this big, bold, ambitious… “I’m going to be a minister, I’m going to be used by God,” but then in the moment, “I’m willing to relocate. I’m willing to move. I’m willing to change my plans. I’m willing to do what God is asking of me at this moment.” And I think the evidence that you’ve been describing to us is that nothing returns to him void. Now, his word never does not bear the fruit that he wants. And the faithfulness in your life, that vision that he gave to that young woman of, “You’re going to go to become a minister.” Your desire to go off and go to Bible college and then redirect it to a life of travel. And now at your stage of life, “I want you to start a church. I want you to become that teacher and preacher.”
Rebecca Crews
And even that, can I just tell you? My vision of ministry was, “Oh, I’ll travel and I’ll teach. I’ll do women’s conferences.” Pastor was not on the agenda. Apostle Launching, I said, “Lord, me? You want me to start a church?” He’s like, “You can do it.” I was like, “Oh, no, Lord.” And he broke it down. He’s like, “Rebecca, once a week, teach, lead, find a space. I don’t want them in your house. Get a building.” Because I said, “Well, God, we just started in the living room.” He’s like, “No.” I said, “Okay, he drove me around town. He showed me these empty buildings.” And I was like, “I almost passed out in my car.” I said, “Lord, are you sure?” He’s like, “Just follow me.”
Brendan Corr
“Step out, just step out, follow me.” Beautiful.
Rebecca Crews
And then after a while, I couldn’t sleep. I remember after I looked at this building, I came home and I went, “Okay, well, can we rent something first? You want me to buy a building? Oh my God.” So then I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would hear, “When are you going to do what I told you?” I’m like, “What? What am I not doing?” “What are you going to do, what I told you?” I was like, “Father, I am looking for a building. I’m doing it online. I’m sending out the emails. What am I…” And then he went, “The legal.” I said, “Oh, oh, okay.” I went and got all the legal stuff squared away. And I said, “Okay, Lord. I got the legal stuff squared away. Now what?” He said, “I’ll tell you when I need to.” I said, “Okay.” Next installment. And he literally did, about a month later, he’s like, “Start looking for a building.” We found this little place we meet in right now. So it’s just been a little step at a time. And then in terms of my training, he’s just had me discipled by some people that are experienced ministers. Many of them are women. And he’s had me watching and reading and learning from people who did things similar to what he’s telling me to do. And I have wonderful mentors in my life. I’m not in a denomination, so I have pastors from many different backgrounds who speak into my life. So he’s like, “You’ve got mentors, you’ve got support. Don’t stop.” And it’s so funny, I have to tell you this totally cool thing that happened to me like two months ago. My husband and I went to see U2 at the Sphere in Vegas. So all us little ’80s Christians, we love U2. So Bono was singing a song that I wasn’t familiar with, quite honestly. I wasn’t familiar with this song, so I don’t know if it was new or it was from a record I didn’t buy. But I was having some doubts and I was like, “Lord, I’m getting a few people in person and about 50 to 70 online, are you sure I should be doing this?” As I’m looking at the numbers and I’m having this little moment of doubt like, “Well, maybe…” And as I’m thinking, Bono sings this line from this song, and the line was, “Oh, good soldier, don’t turn around.” And when he said it’s like the volume was turned up on the mic and the glory of the Lord came through the words right into my head. “Brave Soldier, don’t turn around.” I went… I turned around, I said, “Terry, the Holy Ghost just hit me in the U2 concert.” He said, “I got a word from Prophet Bono.” Oh my God. But it was just the Lord answering me right in that moment of my doubt. So that’s all I live on.
Brendan Corr
It seems to me Rebecca. That story encapsulates the testimony that you have, that God is present at every moment. And he will quicken visions and words and input from people and the circumstances of your life and reveal himself and his purpose and his encouragement to those who seek him, those who set their hearts towards him. Rebecca, it’s been fantastic to spend this time with you. If people wanted to get a bit more of your story, how might they follow up and hear a bit more about Rebecca Crews?
Rebecca Crews
Well, you can follow me on Instagram. It’s Rebecca King Crews on Instagram. I have a ministry email is, [email protected], very simple. And if someone wants to get in touch with our ministry, you can reach us through that email. We don’t have a website up yet. We’re working on that. And you can also DM me on Instagram if you want information about coming to your church or anything like that, or how to come to Monday Night Prayer in Hollywood. We’re just starting. We’re just a little fledgling group, but I just know-
Brendan Corr
Would that connect us with your music Rebecca?
Rebecca Crews
You know what? I actually am going to release some new music. I’m working… I just finished a project with a producer, and I think this is going to be my last R&B project. These are love songs, and I think we’ll be going into the Christian music industry as we launch the church. But I have some music that I had up on Spotify and Apple, and it got taken down, and so I’ve had some trouble getting it put back up. So I apologise, guys. You can find some of it on YouTube. And my stage name is Regina Madre.
Brendan Corr
We’re waiting for you to get it sorted out. That’s all good. Rebecca, thank you again for your time. I really appreciate your openness and sharing the extraordinary way that God has been present in every season of your life. And I’m so thankful that you can look back and see his faithfulness outworked at every season and every stage. We’ll be praying for you and that God continues to reveal his goodness in you, to you and through you.
Rebecca Crews
Thank you. Thank you so much.
