Music, Ministry & Marriage

By Todd Crawford and Beverly Crawford

Todd and Beverly Crawford celebrate 42 years of marriage and proudly parent Latrina Crawford Taylor and Todd Crawford Jr. Residing in Gainesville, FL, they serve as pastors of Landmark Holy Temple of God, while Beverly leads Beverly Crawford Ministries. With Beverly as a Grammy-nominated and Stellar Award-winning gospel artist, and Todd serving

• Language: English
• Publisher: Music
• Release date: Mar 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869273253

Book preview

Table of Contents

A Message from Todd + Beve                                01

The Proposal      08

1

God Has a Plan For Your Life      13

2

Who’s the Boss       16

3

Beverly’s Side                                      18

4

Let My People Go      20

5

I Married a Preacher      22

6

When Are You Coming Home      24

7

Bobby Jones Gospel      28

8

Nashville, Here We Come      30

9

10The Leap of Faith      34

11Dreams Do Come True      37

About The Author      44

iv

A Message from Todd + Beve

Everybody is writing books, and Beverly and I have been asked, When will you all write a book? We do not want to write a book just because it is the popular thing to do, but we want to write a book that will encourage you and give you hope.

This book contains some of the things we have learned from life experiences. Some may have been good, and some may have been bad, but these experiences make us who we are; they have matured us and made us wiser; they have increased our faith.

King David said in Psalm 37 and 25, I once was young, and now I am old. Study David, and you will see that from being a boy to becoming a king, he experienced many mountains and valleys. As a boy, he learned to fight the giants in his life, and as a man, he learned that praise and worship move God.

When I was a kid, my father took me and my brother fishing in a small aluminum boat with no engine, so my brother and I had to paddle the boat to different pond spots for my father to find the best places to fish. We noticed he had small buckets in the boat and were curious about their purpose. Not long before, water started coming into the ship because of small leaks. The boat began to fill with water, and my father very calmly said those buckets were there for us to bail out water. We did not know then that my father could not save us if the boat started sinking because he could not swim; it's funny now, but back then, it wasn't. You better believe I learned to swim later in life. My father was something else. He would drink the water from the lakes while out in the boat because he never brought water. One time, when I was about 10, I tried to be like my father and drink water from a lake. I got so sick I thought I was going to die. As a kid, I always wanted to be around my father; his influence helped shape my relationship with my future wife.

Donny and Marie have a song that says, I’m a little bit country and I’m a little bit rock and roll.  When I met Beverly, she was all church, and I was no church. We came from different backgrounds; her daddy was a preacher, whereas my daddy only went to church for funerals and weddings and had one suit for both occasions.

I love Louisiana gumbo, which means sitting in someone's New Orleans and Baton Rouge house. What I love about gumbo is how they mix all kinds of meat and vegetables and make something delicious. Some people prefer to avoid mixing all those different ingredients; some say all that other stuff is a bit much.

We can look at marriage like my favorite food in New Orleans: gumbo. Beverly and I's backgrounds are so different that we should not be mixed. I grew up a traditional Baptist, and Beverly grew up an old-school Pentecostal girl. I grew up in Los Angeles, California, and Beverly grew up in Gainesville, Florida. She grew up outside of Gainesville in the country, a place called Copeland settlement. Her father was a traveling Evangelist who also worked full-time. He would have 40 nights of revival in different cities. His kids would sing and play the music at the meetings until late at night, and then they would load up and head home. They would arrive