From behind the stage at one of her father’s evangelistic events, Cissie Graham Lynch noticed two rock stars praying together while the Gospel was being shared.
That was husband-and-wife duo John and Korey Cooper of the Christian rock band Skillet.
Now years later, Cissie Graham Lynch recently hosted the couple on her Fearless podcast to talk about how they raised kids on the road to have faith in God—and more on their new album, “Dominion.”
>> Listen to the full podcast episode.
“We thought, ‘Well, Skillet probably won’t last very long so we’ll … wait and have kids and to work [and be a part of youth ministry],'” said John Cooper, referring to the start of the rock band in 1996.
But “Skillet never stopped,” John continued. So, the couple traveled with their two young children, often spending long nights on the road that left them sleep-deprived.
Twenty-five years into marriage, John realizes the best marriage advice he’s ever received is, “God didn’t create wives to fill up empty husbands,” including in the most tiring moments of one’s life.
Korey added, “I think its expectations, you know. … We all want unconditional love but we want it for ourselves, not necessarily from ourselves. This is the best place for the work of sanctification in your life right here … the two becoming one, serving Christ together.”
“I often tell couples, ‘If God has called your husband, He’s called you as well,'” Lynch said later in the episode. “It’s been wonderful to see that in the two of you.”
And part of that call for the Coopers has been raising their 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son together.
“The best thing we ever did was we began to worship at home with our kids,” John said.
He recalled one time asking his daughter Alex, “Do you know what this song means to say that we adore God?”
At the time, Alex had every color of Care Bear, and was absolutely distraught over a lost pink one.
“You adore your Care Bears,” John told his daughter. “They’re like your favorite thing in the whole world … you still have yellow, blue, green, and … all the other ones, but you lost the pink one and you need it.
“That’s what it means to adore something,” He continued. “We are called to adore Christ more than you adore that pink Care Bear.”
His daughter’s eyes widened as the words sank in—and she later prayed, “Jesus, I love you more than Care Bears.”
That was one of the most honest moments of worship that John has ever experienced.
“How many of us can say that when we worship God?” John challenged. “God, I love You more than I care about my marriage. I love You more than I care about the bills I have to pay. … How many of us grow out of that childlike worship?”
As the Coopers traveled on the road, they saw God work through their children’s faith.
“We’d go into catering and my daughter would walk up to scary rock stars going through stuff,” Korey said.
Five-year-old Alex would say to them, “Hi, I prayed for you last night.”
“So the kids [were] disarming people with a genuine care that we [couldn’t] go into that fast on a tour, because, well, they know you’re a Christian, it’s a rock tour,” Korey said.
In the remainder of the episode, the Coopers discuss what “deconstructing” one’s faith means—and how their new album stands for truth amid a world of cancel culture.
>> Do you have faith in God? Get to know Him today.
“I don’t think there’s even such a thing as a small stance,” John said. “I think anything you can do to push back a little bit and say, ‘God, what is it You want me to do? What is my line that I cannot cross?'”
In the Bible, a man named Daniel took a stand in not worshipping King Nebuchadnezzar but God alone—and the idea for Skillet’s “Dominion” came from a prophecy about Jesus’ everlasting reign in the book of Daniel.
“[Jesus] has set you free so live a life that is consistent with the work that Christ did on the cross,” John said.
Hear more from John and Korey Cooper.
