CeCe Winans is perhaps the most widely recognized member of the entire Winans clan—more than Mom and Pop, BeBe, Marvin and Angie…combined. She’s sold millions of albums, graced the covers of tons of magazines, and found success on both sides of the sacred-secular divide. Despite all that, there’s nothing that moves her more than just sitting in church and relishing the moment; for her, there’s nothing better than getting her praise on. The singer’s new album, Thy Kingdom Come (PureSprings Gospel) proves that much. In this conversation, she tells us all about her love of church music and encouraging the saints, plus the scoop about the comeback of BeBe & CeCe.
CMP: You went pop with Purified, but now you’re back to singing church music with Thy Kingdom Come. Which side is more you?
CeCe Winans: Which one is more me? That’s a hard question. I think both of them are really me. But I think I get more out of the church-based stuff. It’s more whole for me. I like hearing myself both ways, but when I go into the throne room, it’s more powerful.
CMP: So you’re back in the throne room.
Winans: I’m back in the throne room. It’s praise and worship. It’s not the contemporary stuff. All I can say is that the word “kingdom” just kept coming to me, and talking about God’s kingdom and His people—being what we’re supposed to be. So you have a lot of praise and worship, but the songs are meant to encourage the people of God to be the people of God.
CMP: That’s noticeable in the song “Worthy.” With that title, it seemed like you were addressing the song to God, but it’s really aimed at the people. Tell me about it.
Winans: It’s about encouragement. But it’s also a song that kind of smacks you out of one mindset to another mindset. There’s a Scripture that says that the Lord desires us to be either hot or cold; if you’re lukewarm, He’ll spew you out of His mouth. And I know we’re living in a time when everybody’s trying to compromise, because everybody wants to fit in.
God’s Word never changes. It’s timeout for all excuses, because the price that God paid—His son giving His life—really took care of all of our excuses. We can’t say that we can live up to what God wants. You can’t take all of your different inadequacies and try to put that into the equation. He was hung up for all of our hang-ups.
CMP: Preach it.
Winans: We’re not worthy without him but because of Him. He counts you worthy, so it’s your responsibility to live worthy. It’s a song to remind us that because of what He did, we are worthy. We are worthy of life and life more abundantly. We are worthy of being the head and not the tail—of being above and not beneath.