Forrest Frank’s packed St. Louis concert was rolling into its next song when a young fan made a request that brought the whole arena to a standstill.
“I have an opportunity. So I just said, ‘Stop the show,’” the Christian singer-songwriter said on the “Becoming Something” podcast.
Frank recounted the moment from his tour bus alongside Harris Creek Baptist Church Lead Pastor Jonathan Pokluda. Over 35 minutes, they talked about sleepless travel, families in the seats, Frank’s pivot to Christian music and the work of keeping Christ at the center when every show comes with a setlist and a clock.
The moment began July 25 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. WFIE reported that Jessica Carder of Morganfield, Kentucky, attended the show with her daughter, Halle, while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Halle’s sign said she dreamed of rapping with Frank. He spotted it and invited her to perform a verse from “God Is Good,” turning a family night out into the kind of memory a kid replays for years.
“She was super nervous at first. Then she does the ‘God Is Good’ verse. She crushes it,” Frank recalled.
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As he helped Halle offstage, she gathered herself, took a breath and made one more request. The arena was about to hear something far more personal than a song.
“I would like for everybody to pray for my mom because she has breast cancer,” Frank recalled Halle telling the crowd. The next song had already started, and the show’s lights were moving into a planned call-and-response sequence.
“I was like, ‘What are we doing here? Like, I have an opportunity,’” Frank said. He stopped the music, walked down to Jessica and led the arena in prayer.
Jessica later thanked Frank for praying for her and encouraging Halle, according to WFIE.
“That’s how much I didn’t know that this was, like, a family thing and that kids were connected,” Frank said of his first tour, which included some venues restricted to adults. He opened the second tour to younger fans once their place in his audience became clear.
The prayer unfolded amid a run of sold-out arenas. Billboard reported that Frank’s 29-date Jesus Generation Tour moved more than 470,000 tickets within 10 days of its announcement.
The size did not squeeze out the worship. At the tour’s Nashville stop, Billboard observed a crowd filled with families, youth groups and children, while a massive illuminated cross stood at the center of a stage made to resemble a grassy hill.
Frank’s path to those arenas began long before his solo Christian career. The Recording Academy traced his rise from the pop duo Surfaces to CHILD OF GOD, his first Christian album and first Grammy-nominated project.
“I think I was sneaking Jesus into different areas in my life versus just, like, ripping my heart open and just being, ‘Jesus, have every breath,’ and that’s where I’m at now,” Frank said of that change.
In St. Louis, Frank put that surrender into practice. The lights, setlist and schedule could wait; a child had asked an arena to pray.
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