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Enter Paula [White]. I meet her on an airplane. We’re on Southwest Airlines—you wouldn’t think of Paula White and Journey on Southwest—but it was a random flight that we needed to get on to San Antonio, TX. We spoke together for two-and-a-half hours and she spoke into my heart like no woman had done before.
CCM: Did you know who each other were? It’s probably not everyday where a famous rock star and a prominent pastor land next to each other on a plane!
JC: No, no, no! I just knew she was special. I didn’t know what she did so I had to ask her. She said, “I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’m a preacher.” I said, “No way, hush up, you’re a preacher?!” We shared our lives together on that flight. I was working on this memoir [right around then], so it was fresh on my mind and I shared the story of the fire. She prophesied over me that the Lord wanted me. “Boy, that’s funny you say that because I sure want my faith back. I want to feel like I did when I was seven-years old when I had that glow in my heart.” She said, “He sure loves you,” and that was it. She left that message and I didn’t see her for a while, but then she came to a Journey show and prayed over me and we stayed friends. I’m an amateur photographer that takes nature shots and I’d send her pictures that I took to help her with some scripture for Facebook.
And then I got out of a bad marriage I was in. I was tied up in this marriage for too long, but I had three beautiful kids and my son had a little bout with drugs and rehab and her son had also been through it. I needed some direction as to how to turn with that, so I took immediate action and she helped me through that.
CCM: How did this meeting eventually evolve to dating and marriage?
JC: I asked her if she wanted a date [after my divorce]. You can’t date a pastor too long, you know (laughter)? It doesn’t always play good with the congregation, but we dated for a while and then she took me to Ghana and that’s what shifted everything for me. The prayers in Ghana and Archbishop [Nicholas] Duncan-Williams, who is her spiritual father, had a profound effect on what I needed to do as a follower of Christ. “We’ve got work to do with you,” he said, and I replied, “I know,” and he gave me his prayer book and he showed me the prayers to pray.
They had these big prayer armies that were praying over Paula and I and it was like something out of a movie. Then I asked them to baptize me, so I went back for baptism, and I knew the next question was going to be, “Would you marry us?” So he did both. Archbishop was there and he married us and he baptized me and something shifted in me in a profound way. My big question was, “Am I good enough to be Paula White’s husband?” I knew in my heart I was taking on a huge responsibility of being with a woman of God, of faith, who accepts His calling and he assured me that God had me. I said, “You let me know if you see any cracks in the armor.” “Well there are some shaky things in there, but we’re gonna pray them away.” So he gave me the confidence to move forward, not only with my faith, and also with my marriage to Paula.
It’s a story of restoration. I always loved Jesus so much. I just didn’t know how to get back with Him. I wanted it, but when I moved here to Nashville, there were all these churches and I didn’t know which one to go to. I didn’t want to go to the wrong one and you always feel funny when you’ve been out of it for a while. It’s hard going to a new church and attempting to fit in. But God wanted me to first meet Paula. It’s funny because I never saw her preach for at least six months, and then I finally came to Orlando and her congregation welcomed me with open arms. I told them I was going to marry their pastor—they were thrilled and off we went. We had the little private wedding on a prayer mountain in Ghana with the Archbishop, then we came back and got married a year-and-a-half ago in April for the rest of the people, then I got married again back in church. For a guy that said he was never getting married again, I married Paula about three times!
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I still love hearing those Journey songs, they were really big when I was in high school and I thought they were bigger then the whole world back then. But everything has it’s season, I know some of the band members had a falling out a few years ago and they haven’t been able to get back to where they were. I’m so glad to see Mr. Cain find his way back to the Lord and making music for Him as well. It just goes to show you haven’t gone so far down the sinners path that the Lord can’t pull you back to Himself. Don’t stop believing indeed. All praise and glory be to His great name!!