When you pop Carman's newest album into your CD player, don't expect a gentle Sunday drive of light platitudes and airy spiritually.
In classic Carman style, Mission 3:16 is an in-your-face, high-fidelity call to action for Christians to start living, and sharing, radical, victorious lives in Christ. "What I feel I've been led to do with this album is give people a healthy dose of strength through God. Sometimes everyone needs the courage to continue… or start. If this album inspires them to go out to the highways and byways and actually be a part of saving someone destined for destruction, then I've fulfilled my goal."
The title of the album, Mission 3:16, is a composite of the Great Commission to share the truth of Jesus to the ends of the earth and John 3:16, a primary Scripture of salvation. "This is our mission," Carman told Parable.com in a phone interview, "to win the lost."
Using an eclectic collection of styles, something that has won him fans of all ages, Carman weaves in lyrics about the spiritual quest for righteousness, the Lord's strength in the midst of struggle, and heartfelt praise for God. You might also recognize a few famous voices alongside Carman's deep crooning. Russ Taff and Tony Orlando, who told us to "Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree," both joined in on the new album.
In the midst of all of this, the songs also carry a sense of urgency "In this particular season of my life I sense God saying that the time of the end is coming much sooner than we think," he said. "Many of the songs on this album deal with the conversion experience. Our mission, as believers is to share the message of salvation with others as fast as we can."
Carman, whose full name is Carman Licciardello, was born in New Jersey, and you can still hear a hint of his home state in his voice. Performing was a part of his life from the very beginning and he began acting at the tender age of six. Ten years later he started playing guitar, and it was music that really captured his heart. He began to play drums professionally, playing any style people asked for. "Anything I could get worked," he told Parable.com. "Oldies, big band, club music, top 40, country."
All of this, however, was before he was a Christian and though he didn't know it, his entire career, and more importantly his life, was about to change forever.
A Christian friend invited Carman to an Andre Crouch concert, which proved to be a turning point in his life and the beginning of an incredible ministry. God spoke through Andre, Carman said, in a way no one else had before.
"I could feel the spirit of God through what he was doing," Carman said. "He took what was true in the church and put it into music I could relate to."
This revelation soon led Carman to a personal relationship with Christ, and he hasn't looked back since. Because all of his experience in music up to that point had been in the secular industry, Carman stopped performing altogether for several years, taking a job digging holes for spas. It was inevitable, however, that his gift of singing would begin to flow again.
"I started singing Christian music because it was instinctual," he said. Praise for the Lord came automatically from Carman's heart, and combining that with his love of music was a natural.
He started selling his albums out of the trunk of his car and performing in churches. Today, nearly two decades and 18 albums later, he is one of the most popular Christian singers in the nation and he still holds the record for the largest Christian concert ever.
Though he loves every aspect of his career, Carman admits that the concerts are the highlight. "Ultimately, it's when you're performing live that you know that what you do is really working," he said.
Carman's enormous stadium concerts are extraordinary not only for their sleek production and sophisticated staging, but also because the audience usually doesn't pay a cent to get see them. That's right, his concerts are free, except for an optional love offering he collect. Those offering very rarely, he said, cover the entire cost of operating the show.
So why does he take a loss on his concerts? The answer is simple. "So people can have access to the Gospel, to get to the people," he said. "It is the same reason Billy Graham offers his crusades for free… that's where all the salvation comes from."
The main support for his concerts is Carman Ministries, a non-profit organization. But his concerts are only one facet of this dynamic ministry. They have also established 13 "R.I.O.T." centers, inner city outreach centers for youth. In addition they worked last year to collect almost 150 tons of food for needy children and they've recently opened a home for unwed mothers in Tulsa.
Carman's newest frontier is the Internet, where he has his own web site. Though there has been a lot of negative press about content on the Internet, Carman said it can also be an opportunity to witness for Christ."I think that anywhere you can communicate, you can minister," he said.
And that is exactly what Carman is doing, ministering anywhere and everywhere, he can.
