Being Bold and Breaking Barriers with Anna Benton

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite people, Anna Benton. Anna is a wife, mother, singer-songwriter, and worship leader at Church of the City Spring Hill. I met Anna in May of 2023 when I began an internship in preschool ministry at COTC Spring Hill. I was immediately drawn to her humble heart, sweet personality, and bold faith. Since meeting Anna, I have had the privilege of getting to hear her story and care for her wonderful kiddos! I sincerely hope that you are as moved and inspired by her story as I was the first time I heard it. She is a true testament to how God loves us in our mess and meets us exactly where we're at.

What is your testimony? How have you seen it impact others in your life?

I´m going to try to give you the short version, there are so many other ways God has moved in my life but this is my ¨coming to Jesus¨ story. I grew up in a Christian home with parents who loved the Lord and I asked Jesus to be my savior when I was seven years old. Throughout my teenage years I really strayed from the Lord, no real fruit came from my relationship with Him until I was a college athlete. In college, I wasted a lot of time partying and trying to do everything in my own strength. Until, I had a really bad knee injury and had to have to two knee surgeries. This meant that I could no longer play which really took my community away from me. One day in my sophomore year of college, I was sitting in my car watching the other girls on the softball team practice. I felt so lost and broken but that was where I had an encounter with the Lord. I pushed back the front seat and knelt on the floorboards of my car, I asked for forgiveness and surrendered my life to Him again. This changed the trajectory of my life. From that point on, because of the commitment I made to Him, I just wanted to please Jesus. The partying stopped and I got involved at a church where I started leading worship. As a kid I would sit in the corner of my room and play my guitar – that I didn’t know how to tune – and just sing to Jesus. From that age, I knew the Lord had put music in my heart and pursuing music is one of the many ways I have served Him since re-surrendering my life in college.

Many times, we glaze over the hard parts of our faith, the lows we face, the doubts, the struggles, and just emphasize the “and then God healed me, saved me, changed me, moved in this way, answered this prayer etc.” Why is it important to share our testimonies authentically?

God’s word tells us to encourage each other and build each other up. Our testimonies hold the power of the blood, what Jesus has done in our life and how He has set us free. The people who meet me now would never know what my past looks like, but when we hear peoples stories it gives us more of a picture of the depth of God’s mercy over our lives.

We live in a world of broken people who are almost afraid to go to God because they see themselves as beyond repair. How do testimonies make faith more accessible?

I am just reminded of the story of the woman at the well. She is the first person Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah to. He uses her to go and tell people about Him. He didn’t use a perfect person or a religious official, He used the woman at the well. She had a past, and Jesus knew all of the things that she had done. In fact, it was because of her testimony that people believed. John 4:39 it says, "Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.”’ Many will come to know and fear the Lord because of our testimonies.

Do you believe that people tend to see God as black and white?

As for me, growing up, a lot of what caused the distance between myself and God was that I was basing my view of God on the actions of people around me. Instead, I should have been focusing on the fact that God is constant and will never change. Knowing that and having it as your foundation will help you know and love His people well. We also have to understand that God is more limitless than our minds could ever wrap around. I love that I could go to the ends of the earth pursuing Him and reading His word but He's still gonna have mysteries.

Where has God met you in your mess, in the grey areas?

I picture my kids. When they’ve messed up, I kneel down and get eye to eye with them. They’re looking down at the floor because they’re ashamed of what they’ve done. But I lift their chin and look into their eyes. That’s exactly what God does. No matter how much I have messed up, He’s right there, willing to lift my chin and meet me eye-to-eye.

Can you identify some ways that God works in the grey area, beyond the perceived black and white?

In the past few years, God has shown me some boxes that I've put him in all throughout my life and He has done things in my life that burst them open. He has shown me prevision, grace, and closeness through suffering. He has humbled me by showing me that even if I haven’t experienced something firsthand, if it is written in His word, it’s true. He works in everything and is constantly speaking to me in new ways.

You are so bold yet so humble in your faith. Your trust in and devotion to Jesus radiates off you. Stepping out in faith can be scary, how are you so bold in your faith?

Something I struggle with greatly is the fear of man. I’ve really just been trying to find the balance of fearing God over man while loving His people the way that He wants me to. It has been a growing process, the more losses I've walked through with Him – losing my mom at the same time we were in the process of adopting our two children and found out we were pregnant with Sam – the more He taught me that I don’t want anyone else but Him. I didn’t want to be lukewarm anymore. I don’t want my faith to be segmented, I want it to flow into all areas of my life. From the gas station clerk to the checkout line, I want to be listening to God’s voice and how to love His people. It’s all about having the courage to speak God’s words whenever and wherever they come to you.

As long as I have known you, I don't think I have ever seen you post on social media in a way that was not glorifying God. Do you feel like you are spreading salt and light by posting about your faith on social media?

Absolutely, several years ago in 2017 I was pursuing artistry in a way that seemed like it was what God had for me, but during that time I was constantly making posts about myself and my music in ways that now I don’t want to use my gift to do. My eyes were opened to the choice He has given me, to use my gift to elevate Him or to elevate myself. The way I had been posting was not a healthy place for me or my family, it was time to pull back and recenter my priorities on social media. Now, I don’t keep any apps on my phone. I might get on social media to post if I feel like I am supposed to, but I log in through a Safari tab. I want my posts to make those who are following me from that time in my life feel like I am walking them with me along this journey of growth with God.

Do you think that social media can be used to break “barriers to entry” in Christianity?

I think that God gives us amazing tools to reach his people with the Gospel and social media is one of those. But, just like anything we are humans and when sin enters the picture, amazing tools can be turned into damaging tools. It's all about personal conviction too, I have so many friends who are using their platforms to bring witness and there are people being saved in the comments. For me, I must constantly check in with my own heart and selfish ambition. If I'm doing live worship on Instagram and I’m happy that the number of viewers is growing “because of me,” I need to get off. It's something that I am hyper aware of in my life.

What are ways you think we, as Christians, can bring more salt and light to the world? How do you think we fall short of bringing salt and light to the world?

By looking to Jesus, He's the author and perfector of our faith. So, when we wonder how to do things, look at him and what he did. Speaking truth in love, not turning away from neighbors that need us, caring for the orphan, the widow, and the needs in our community. We can't just worship on a Sunday and spend the rest of the week ignoring the fact that there are thousands of kids in foster care. We must worship in spirit and truth. Something that makes me so sad is when I look at the comments on all these Christian social media accounts, there is so much hate and condemnation going on. If I saw this as an unbeliever, I would not want anything to do with Christianity. We must be aware of the weight that words hold and how a relationship can affect someone's eternity.