Christine Caine came to Gateway Church to preach about faith, fear and trusting God when the giants look enormous-but before getting down to business, she made a rather hilarious announcement: she's apparently in the market for husbands for her daughters.
And not just any husbands.
The 60-year-old evangelist and A21 co-founder was preaching at Gateway Church on Sunday, Aug. 9, when she began talking about her husband Nick, their 30 years of marriage and their two daughters, Catherine and Sophia. Caine joked that her Greek heritage means she has absolutely no problem trying to "marry them off."
Then she revealed the prayer she says she has been praying over her daughters since before they were born.
Caine recalled declaring that her daughters would grow up to be women of God, women of prayer and leaders rather than followers. But apparently, Mom slipped one more very specific request into those prayers.
"You are going to grow up and marry a very, very, very, very wealthy Christian man," Caine recalled praying.
Yes, she said very four times.
And if anyone at Gateway happened to know an eligible candidate, Caine had a plan for that too.
"If you have a brother, a son, a cousin, a nephew that fits that criteria," she joked, they could give his name to Pastor Tammy, who would "vet them."
"If they're not a psycho, she'll send me their name," Caine quipped.
Caine quickly insisted she was joking-before immediately muddying the waters by adding, "But this year, I'm not really. That's true if it works."
Why the sudden urgency?
Grandchildren.
Caine revealed that she turned 60 this year and declared, "I want to be a grandmother." Rather than hiding her age, the outspoken preacher said she's thrilled to have reached the milestone, joking that the alternative to getting older is being dead.
She's also marking the big 6-0 by doing 60 things she's never done before. So far, those adventures have included wake surfing, traveling to Alaska to see the Northern Lights and sleeping in an igloo-which she described as a definite "once and done" experience.
But Caine's Gateway appearance wasn't all matchmaking and birthday adventures.
Gateway streamed the service on Aug. 9 under the title "We Can Do It," with the church describing Caine's message as a call to refuse to allow fear to determine one's perspective and instead trust God in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles.
Caine eventually turned to Numbers 13 and Israel's response to the giants in the Promised Land, warning Christians that a single "however" can become the excuse that keeps them from following what they believe God has called them to do.
She applied that warning directly to today's anxieties-work, children, the economy and even Wall Street-arguing that believers can become so focused on the "giants" surrounding them that they forget God's previous faithfulness.
"The minute you shift your eyes off Jesus onto what's happening around you, that's the beginning of the end," Caine warned, adding that in today's culture "the fight is for your eyes."
She also acknowledged that the world feels increasingly unstable and insecure, telling the congregation that people everywhere are dealing with betrayal, suffering, grief and loss. Nevertheless, she argued that Christians shouldn't allow their circumstances or histories to become the final definition of their futures.
Caine got deeply personal on that point, recalling that she was left unnamed and unwanted at a hospital after birth, experienced childhood sexual abuse and grew up in poverty. She said she refuses to allow those experiences to have the final word over her identity.
"I am not defined by what happened to me," she declared. "I am defined by what Jesus did for me."
It's a powerful message.
But somewhere out there, a wealthy single Christian man with excellent references may have heard something else entirely.
