The last time contemporary-Christian singers Amy Grant and Gary Chapman appeared together in Wichita, it was as part of Grant's "House of Love" tour, based on a song about a couple who would stick together in the face
of rocky problems:
"Though the storm is breaking and thunder shakes the walls, love with a firm foundation ain't never gonna fall."
So when the announcement came last week that Chapman and Grant were separating after 16 years of marriage, apparently unable to keep the house together, the singers' friends and fans in Wichita took the news hard.
For almost as long as the marriage, these fans have drawn inspiration and hope from Grant's and Chapman's songs, many of which pledge commitment to marriage no matter what.
"I've experienced this myself and it breaks my heart," said Cheryl Hurley, who knows both entertainers through her concert-booking company, Broomtree Productions.
"I'm grieving for them."
Something like this "always brings to light just reality. It just sort of clears away all the stardom and just says, 'Hello -- these are two people,' " said Craig West, program director and morning show host for KTLI-FM 99.1, a station that plays
Christian music.
"We're praying for them. It hurts because they're a brother and a sister in Christ."
The news seems to be slow in reaching many people, because the singers confirmed the separation in the midst of the holidays, on Dec. 30. Rumors about it have circulated for years; in fact, Chapman addressed them in an interview with The
Eagle before he and Grant came to Wichita for the "House of Love" tour in 1995.
"The thing that saddens me most is rumor," he said at the time. "We have been apparently on the edge of divorce since we got married." He went on to add that the marriage was on firm ground.
When informed that the rumors had finally come true, admirers were crestfallen.
Clare Vanderpool of Wichita, an Amy Grant fan, said she felt "deflated," wishing things were different and wondering about the couple's son and two daughters.
Both singers have sizable followings in the Wichita area. Chapman, who is also host of TNN's "Prime Time Country," sang here last summer, as part of a Jesus Fest concert to benefit the charitable work of the late Christian singer Rich
Mullins.
And when Grant did a brief tour last February to express gratitude to fans, Wichita was among the handful of stops. The Better Book Room played host to an overflow crowd for the event, at which Grant sang several songs, accompanied only
by her own guitar-playing, and talked about her latest CD. She signed autographs afterward.
But none of the Wichitans interviewed said that their own faith was shaken by knowledge of the separation. In fact, hope remains that things will work out for the best.
"We live in a fallen world," Hurley said. "In the best-case scenario, life is hard. But God is good. In all of our messes he is there."
Vanderpool said she would not feel any differently playing Grant's music now.
"I still see her as a faith-filled person, a good person. Through her music I think she truly loves God and strives to live a holy life. That's the impression I have, and this doesn't change that impression.
"She's human like everybody else. I guess where it could be hard for people is if they put her on a pedestal and think that she or they are not capable of making mistakes."
West said that the radio station would not change the way it treats the playing of the music of either Grant or Chapman. When West hears their songs now, he said, "it always reminds me of what they're going through and my call to lift them
up in prayer."
He understands, though, that some listeners' faith could be shaken.
"People end up putting their hope in other people like Amy and Gary.... They're such inspirations and such beacons of hope to people that it does hurt. It's like seeing a great champion fall -- to some people it can be like that. If there's a
proper perspective," West said, people will simply realize "that they're two people who need our prayers."
Listeners can't help but look for clues to the singers' personal lives in their songs. Grant's most recent CD, "Behind the Eyes," was released in September 1997.
"In the last CD there were a couple of songs I kind of picked up on that there was something going on," Vanderpool said. "They were about unrequited love where it sounded like she was pining for someone else. And I wondered hearing those
songs what he (Chapman) would feel hearing them."
West sees something else on Grant's latest release, a song called "Shine All Your Light" that is part of the "Touched by an Angel" album.
"God can still use you, and there's always hope" is the message of the song, West said.
"I wonder if that song isn't ministering to her, and to Gary as well," he said.
And through prayer, West thinks the lights could still come back on in the couple's own house of love.
"They both want the will of God to be done."
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