Honest to God
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[0 Comment]After selling 3 million copies of his recordings in 14 years, Steve Green is finding his life taking a few new turns. His music has earned him four Grammy Award nominations and six Dove Awards. He has performed in concerts around the world, but in recent months his focus is much closer to home.
At age 41, he's finding new challenges that require his attention. One is his father's struggle with the debilitating effects of Parkinson's Disease. Since his parents live nearby, Steve can be more involved in their care. Then there's the challenge of nurturing his marriage despite his sometimes frenetic tour schedule. Added to that are the responsibilities of parenting a teenage daughter, Summer, who is making plans to attend college; and a pre-teen son, Josiah, embarking on the road to manhood.
The demands of his private life have never been greater, so Steve is thankful for the partnership he shares with Marijean, his wife of 19 years. However, the bond that enables them to face life as a team almost never developed. It owes its beginning to a brother who had the courage to confront Steve when he was living an inauthentic Christian life.
Coming Clean
Reared by missionary parents in Argentina, Steve longed to escape the foreign environment and humble lifestyle he grew up with. So at age 18, hoping for a future full of prestige and money, perhaps as an attorney, he enrolled in an Arizona university. His desire to minister, especially among the poor of Latin America, further declined when he experienced the affluence of life in North America. But because he was a gifted singer, he ended up in Christian music rather than pursuing a career in law.
In the late seventies, Steve met Marijean when they performed with the vocal group Truth. Their year-long friendship culminated in an engagement. After they married, they moved to Indiana to sing back-up for the Bill Gaither Trio. Together, he and Marijean toured the country.
On the outside, the Greens were the ideal Christian couple—attractive, talented, leaders of their church's youth group. But Steve was struggling with a sense of spiritual unrest and beginning to suffer the consequences of his shallow commitment.
"A Christian was something I was raised to be," he explains. "I was more interested in the form, rather than the substance, of ministry. And in many ways, my vocal abilities were just for hire."
Steve's relationship with God had been deteriorating since his teen years. He had rejected his parents' style of Christianity, which was built on commitment, sacrifice and service to others.
"I felt my parents' Christianity was too binding," he says. "I kept bumping into their list of prohibitions. I wanted to see the movies and listen to the music my friends listened to. Of course, I wanted to make sure that when I died I went to heaven. But my Christianity wasn't much more than that. What I didn't understand was that my parents' obedience was joyful because they knew and loved the Lord."
Originally published in: Marriage Partnership, 1998, Summer
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