Lynda Randle knows what it's like to be pulled in a million different directions. She's a relatively successful solo artist, but is most well-known as a regular performer—and the only African-American—in the Gaither Homecoming tours and products. She is the founder of Lynda Randle Ministries in Kansas City, through which she encourages women and aims to build bridges between races. She and her husband, Mike, aim to plant a new church in KC that will bring together a multicultural congregation. She is the older sister of Michael Tait, former member of dc Talk and now the lead singer for the Newsboys. Finally, Randle is A Woman After God's Own Heart, the title of her new CD (releasing today) and of the women's conferences she stages 2-3 times per year (most recent was held last weekend in Minnesota). We recently caught up with Randle to discuss her new album, and more.

A Woman after God's Own Heart is the title of your conferences and your new CD. Tell me what that phrase means to you.

Lynda Randle: It's from David's story in the Bible. After all of his sins, all of the mistakes David made, God said, "He is still a man after my own heart." God's desires for the heart of his children is to be toward him. In my own life, I've blown it many times, but I want to be a woman after God's own heart. And there's security in knowing that God loves us unconditionally.

CD cover

CD cover

Is that the theme on the album and at your conferences?

Randle: Absolutely. Cee Cee Michaela is speaking again this year [the conference was held in May in Minnesota]. She has an incredible story of secondary virginity and purity, and on what it means to be a woman of God. I think at the end of the day, the women go back feeling that they are loved and appreciated. I just want women just to know that although we wear all these different hats and we blow it, and sometimes we're not sure who we are, we are deeply and intimately loved by the Father.

Is that any different than, say, 25 years ago? Do you think women need to hear that message more today than ever?

Randle: I think so. The difference between women today and yesterday is the sewing machine—seriously. I'm old school. A lot of young sisters don't even know how to sew on a button. Some can't boil water, can't cook, can't do anything because there are so many things pulling on young women today—careers, the Internet, Skyping, texting. Yesteryear wasn't like that. There was a central focus on family and relationships; it wasn't just all about me. A lot of young sisters today, it's all about them. They are far from relationships and caring for people.

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Right now, I'm taking care of my mom in our home. She had a stroke in December. We are busier than ever, but relationships are so important. My parents took 18 or 19 years of their life to invest in mine; I should give something back. Young kids today don't know anything about that. But I'm living this thing out.

I understand you also take care of troubled young women?

Randle: Yeah. I have "little sisters" all around the world. We've got a young girl who wants to come live with us from Norway in 2012. There's a young girl from Kentucky that just lived with us for about a year, and I've mentored her, like a big sister. Gloria Gaither recently said to me, "If you could mother the world, you would." I said, "I would. I would bring everybody home and do that."

After a recent concert in Pittsburgh, I noticed a girl, about 18, who looked despondent. Her mother introduced me, and I went to give her a hug, but she sort of shrunk back. I was like that; I was a rebellious teenager with issues. But I told her that every night when I get up and sing on stage, I'm terrified. I said, "This is nothing I ever dreamed of doing, especially after failing the ninth grade." I wanted her to see that I was human, but she was still just looked removed and a little bit angry. So that was that.

Lo and behold, the next day I open up my e-mail, and this young lady had written me. We started corresponding, and she recently said, "Just wanted to know if we could talk sometime. My family is all out of sorts." I asked her for her number, and asked if I could maybe be a big sister. When I typed that, it was almost an oath on my part, because you do not play with these young kids. You do not get in and out of their lives like you do your bed, or going in and out of a door. You must mean it.

But that's what I do. I know I can't bring everybody home, but maybe this summer or whenever she gets a break, maybe she can visit. I don't think I'm the great hope, but I know kids need this kind of attention. If I didn't tour, I'd love to have a youth center full of girls.

Lynda Randle

Lynda Randle

Is that in your vision for the future though?

Randle: It is so in my vision. Singing of course would be there, but mostly, I would just be encouraging the body of women. I would have "little sisters" from here to kingdom come. This is what I would give my life for—and this is outside of my husband [Mike] and my own two girls [Patience, 19, and Joy, 13]. We are so very close, my husband and me and my girls. We talk about everything, and we keep it real.

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What do you want listeners to take away from your new album?

Randle: Something real. I know all the clichés that believers say, so I try to write creatively, to say things in a different way. The song "I Love You Like This" stemmed from the fact that in relationships, people give you maybe two or three strikes and then you're out. But God's like, "No, I'm in it for the long haul. And this is the way I love you." That's the message I'm trying to share.

"Hold On" has been getting oodles of response when I do it live. It's about a man leaving a woman, in a divorce or a breakup. The second verse says you can pray and things may not be okay when you wake up the next day—that's what I mean by keeping it real. All I can say is, hold on because God's holding onto you. I can't even tell you to be strong, because I have not walked a mile in your shoes. But I know someone who's carried me over rough and rocky roads, whose arms are strong when ours are weak.

How does a black sister like you end up in the Gaither family of all places?

Randle: (laughs) God has a sense of humor! That's all I can say.

He sure does. But how did it come about?

Randle: In 1989, I sang at a conference in Arizona where Gloria Gaither was one of the speakers. After I sang, Gloria said from the stage, "I love her. I want to take her home." Well, she wasn't lying. She went home and told Bill she met this girl and went on and on. I met Bill later that year, but it was several years later before anything came to fruition, when I recorded my first album with them, A Way Through (1995). I was never shopping a record deal—and now we're at seven or eight albums later with the Gaithers.

Do you feel like it's a good fit?

Randle: It is. If you go to their concerts, it's not just southern gospel and twanging guitars; maybe only 25-30 percent are straight southern gospel or hymns. There's some traditional, some black gospel, some hymns, some praise and worship. I'll sing "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," and there ain't nothing southern gospel about that. I'll do "Walk with Me, Lord," by Mahalia Jackson. Nothing southern gospel about that either.

Singing with Bill Gaither

Singing with Bill Gaither

What's next for you?

Randle: We do a lot of European tours next year [with the Gaithers]. We're doing a Woman After God's Own Heart conference in Norway; we do 2-3 of those conferences each year. We're doing more solo dates too, just Lynda Randle stuff.

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My husband, Mike, is an architect by trade and a youth pastor by call. And we're starting a church here in Kansas City in the next year or so; Mike will be senior pastor.

A brand new church, or a plant off of another existing church?

Randle: I think this might be a sister church kind of thing, we're not quite sure. We're connected with Christian Fellowship Baptist Church here in Kansas City.

And they have your blessings?

Randle: Absolutely. They are 500 percent onboard. There's really no multicultural church really thriving on this side of town [north KC], a very multicultural area. But I'm a bridge builder [between races], just like I am with the Gaithers. I'm the only [African-American] on the Gaither tour, but I feel like I'm connecting with white folks all over. I think God has me there for that reason.

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