CL: What has it been like touring again after having to delay shows due to the pandemic?
FK&C: I think it’s made touring particularly special again. When something is taken away for a while, you realize what you’ve been missing. Just to be together, to celebrate some of the moments we have together. When that was taken from us, we realized how special it is to be together, to experience music together, to share a laugh, and how special that actually is. That’s what we are appreciating the most about touring right now.
CL: How would you encourage Christians who have struggled with depression, anxiety, the deaths of loved ones, and the uncertainty resulting from the pandemic?
FK&C: The pandemic forced us to confront a lot of things in our personal life. You talk about anxiety, depression, death, and these are challenging things. But as challenging as they are, I believe Jesus offers us a better way. He offers us healing through some of these things—whether or not that means we get help for the depression or anxiety or fear of death, or whether it’s just realizing that we have to give up control.
One thing I’ve realized as of late is when we’re called to follow Jesus, we’re not called to ease of life. We’re called to a surrendered life. When you surrender your life to Jesus (and I’m not saying it makes anxiety, depression, etcetera go away), you realize you aren’t in control. And I think a lot of the struggles of life today is the need to want to take control.
For me, I’ve tried to rest in understanding that Jesus has a better way for me, that Jesus has a purpose for me, and living a surrendered life is actually the way to live the most fulfilled life. I’m not saying that I get that perfectly right all of the time. I think that’s actually probably one of the things I’ve been challenged to do more of late is “What does it actually mean to live a surrendered life for Jesus?”
CL: Can you share some of your latest involvements regarding the fight against human trafficking? Has the pandemic interfered with those efforts? You both encourage men to step up in today’s culture and treat women as God intended them to be treated. What reactions have you witness to your call to men?
FK&C: We’ve talked about men stepping up—their treatment of women, and for the way that God intended for many, many years. You have to remember, some of the most miraculous things about Jesus is how he stood up for people that, in his society and time, were not respected. First and foremost, that was women. Even though it wasn’t socially acceptable at the time, most of the people that supported Jesus, and that were some of his closest friends, were women. His first miracle was because his mother asked him to turn water into wine to continue the celebration. So, you start to see this deep respect for women if you look at the life that Jesus lived.
At the end of the day, that’s who we should be modeling our lives after. We should be modeling our lives after the way that Jesus lived and the way that He treated other people—specifically women, with the utmost respect and honor. Our hope is that men will do the same. And it starts with my brother Joel and me. We have to do these things ourselves. And I don’t know what other people think about the kind of stance we’ve taken, but I think the right way to live is to treat the females in our lives with the utmost respect and honor.
CL: Luke, could you share some of what God has taught you these last couple of years, as you have dealt with vocal cord issues that required surgery? Can you give us an update on how you are doing?
FK&C: It’s interesting…when we get quiet, it changes the way we listen to things. It changes how you hear the voice of God. And for me, singing is what I’ve done since I was a young boy. It’s something I loved to do even before it became my profession, so it made me grateful for songs, for music, and to write songs. It made me realize that I must lay that on the table. If Jesus wanted my voice, He could have my voice—to surrender to something that has become part of my identity, because it’s something I’ve done for the better part of the last 15 years.
I think that in Western society it’s easy for us to want to run away from struggle…but struggle is something that teaches us things, grows our faith, and changes us. Very rarely do you see people change through things that are easy. For me, I’ve had the privilege of struggling through a few things, and my hope is that people can see evidence in my life that there’s change. That my love for Jesus, my love for people, my love for my wife and children is growing. Maybe it took a vocal cord issue to reveal some of those things in my life, and if that’s what it took, that’s what it took. I’m good with it.
