Believe for It: Passing on Faith to the Next Generation

by CeCe Winans, Suzanne Gosselin (With)

Overview

From the best-selling female gospel artist of all time CeCe Winans comes a heartfelt guide full of spirit, music, and faith. CeCe’s first book in over 10 years, Believe for It explores what it means to pass along wisdom and faith to generations to come.

Believe for It: Passing on Faith to the Next Generation beautifully recounts the pivotal experiences in CeCe’s life that have shaped her faith. From her childhood in Detroit and the miracle of motherhood to her award-winning music career, CeCe brings readers along for a story full of heart, passion, and wisdom acquired from her walk with God. 

The Grammy award-winning artist shares stories of her life and career and lessons she’s learned along the way, including:

• Growing up in a musical family with 9 siblings
• Starting a church with her husband 
• Planting faith through the Word of God
• Pushing through obstacles that prevent faith from being passed down
• Fostering emotional health—mind, body, and spirit—in order to pour into others
• What it means to be engaged in a community of faith
• How to nurture the faith of younger generations 

Inspired by Generations—her popular show and conference—CeCe includes thoughtful questions at the end of each chapter to help readers foster their own intergenerational conversations.

Full of heartfelt and profound teachings, Believe for It offers readers a glimpse into the life of legendary gospel singer CeCe Winans as well as an opportunity to grow in their own faith and wisdom as they pursue a closer relationship with the Lord.

Praise for Believe for It:

“CeCe Winans and her family are treasured friends in ministry with me, my children, and she was especially a great friend over the years with my deceased wife, Lois Evans. The Kingdom work I have witnessed them leading and being a part of has spanned decades in multiple generations. That is the heart and biblical wisdom of what CeCe shares in Believe for It. My prayer is that this book helps people see what God can do through intentionality in family, church community, and fervent prayer.”

—Dr. Tony Evans, President, The Urban Alternative, Senior Pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

“My friend CeCe Winans is a gifted and beloved Gospel recording artist, and she has written a new book that is refreshing and needed today. In a culture that is heavy-laden with failed marriages and broken homes, CeCe writes about the hope that Jesus Christ brings into family life when parents and children honor the Lord through obedience to His Word. Her own story will inspire and capture anew what happens when Christ is put at the center of our hearts and homes. No matter what has happened in life, it is never too late to ‘Believe for It.’”

—Franklin Graham, President and CEO, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse

“I believe in the power of what God can do through family. What my friend CeCe Winans has done in ‘Believe for It’ shows how God uses generations to pass down faith.”

—Bishop T. D. Jakes, New York Times bestselling author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781954201347
Publisher:	K-LOVE Books
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	50,684
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CECE WINANS is the best-selling and most-awarded female gospel artist of all

time. On her way to countless GRAMMY, Dove, and Stellar awards, CeCe has influenced a generation of gospel and secular vocalists. She founded Nashville Life Church with her husband, Alvin, in 2012.

In 1999, CeCe began to make her mark with the written word when she published her first book, On A Positive Note. CeCe has authored or co-authored four books, including a Moonbeam Gold Medal Award-winner, a Mom’s Choice Awards Gold recipient, and a Teacher’s Choice Award-winner. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband. Believe for It is her first book in over 14 years.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 Generations 1

2 Church Is Necessary 23

3 You've Already Got It 45

4 Putting in the Work 87

5 You Need the Holy Spirit 89

6 Pouring from a Full Cup 109

7 It's All About Relationship 129

8 Facing Adversity 153

9 Passing the Baton 175

10 Believe For It 195

Acknowledgments 215

Editorial Reviews

09/12/2022

In this melodious manual, Grammy Award–winning gospel singer Winans (Throne Room) aims to foster intergenerational conversations about faith. “The rising generation is meant to follow the faithful example of the generations who have gone before,” Winans contends, and to that end she offers personal anecdotes and advice on how to pass on Christianity to younger generations. She emphasizes prioritizing church, recounting the community it provided for her while growing up and warning that making church “optional” risks signaling that it’s not important. “Planting seeds of faith” in the next generation requires close relationships characterized by fun, longevity, meekness, and warmth, Winans posits, telling how her parents modeled meekness by asking her for forgiveness if they erred. Encouraging readers to remember to tend to their own faith, Winans shares how her brother’s death at age 48 devastated her and how she kept her faith even as she struggled to understand God’s intentions. She quotes from Ephesians and the Gospel of John to argue that the Holy Spirit “guides the believer into truth” and helps Christians act in accordance with God. Winans’s fans will appreciate the bounty of autobiographical material, and the advice benefits from her optimistic tone. This hits the right notes. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2022

This book by Grammy-winning Winans (On a Positive Note), the most awarded woman gospel artist of all time, is earnest in its concern for the next generation of Christians. She is laser-focused on capturing and keeping those who draw away from Christianity in adolescence or young adulthood, never to darken a church's doors again. Peppered with biblical verses and personal anecdotes, this book has little patience for the recalcitrant: she charges Christian parents and grandparents to aggressively teach the religion to their children. Beyond sharing her own experiences as a lifelong Pentecostal Christian, preacher's wife, mother, and gospel singer, Winans offers a guide to intergenerational conversations about faith, with sample questiopns at the end of each chapter. This book is part of Winan's larger project, which includes an audio CD of gospel songs and the "Believe for It" social-media challenge on her website. Winans has a palpable enthusiasm for spiritual mentorship but her book doesn't touch on how to discuss more controversial subjects with young Christians, like the corrosive effects of gender discrimination, poverty, and institutional racism. VERDICT This is a sunny Christian conversation primer.—Sandra Collins

Library Journal