CN Morning Rundown: Larry Tomczak Writes an Open Letter to Joe Biden

Here’s a quick summary of the top stories on cn.mycharisma.com:

Larry Tomczak: An Open Letter to Joe Biden

Dear Mr. Biden,

It’s been said that the hallmark of a great leader is his ability to be a great listener. As you ask Americans to come together in unity, will you take a few minutes to listen to some heartfelt concerns? I promise to pray for you daily.

I was raised, like you, as a Roman Catholic in a blue-collar family. We never had an automobile or air conditioning, and we never took a vacation. My parents worked hard to give me 12 years of Catholic education. I shared my story in a book, Clap Your Hands!, reaching over a quarter-million people worldwide, to my surprise.

Tribute to Carman: For King and Country, Rebecca St. James Say ‘Rest in Peace’

Reflecting on the life of a musician that impacted their lives in “profound” ways, Joel and Luke Smallbone of for King & Country offer their prayers for the Licciardello family as they mourn Carman’s death.

The brothers credit Carman with a major impact on their formative years in the music industry and remember how their sister, award-winning singer Rebecca St. James, opened for the Christian music legend when she was just a teenager.

She shared her heartfelt thanks for his influence on her life in a Facebook post: “I look forward to properly thanking you in Heaven for the impact you had on my life, but today I honor your life and say thank you my friend.”

‘Giant of a Man’: Celebrate Recovery Announces Death of Co-Founder John Baker

Pastor John Baker, co-founder with his wife, Cheryl, of faith-based addiction recovery movement Celebrate Recovery, has died. The ministry, born in 1991 at megachurch Saddleback in Southern California and dedicated to helping people deal with “hurts, hangups and habits,” announced his Feb. 23 death on Facebook.

Celebrate Recovery National Director Mac Owen wrote, “John touched more people with the healing power and grace of Jesus Christ than anyone else that I have ever known personally and one of those lives was mine.”

Celebrate Recovery had the proverbial humble beginning back in the era when Saddleback was meeting in a high school gymnasium. The ministry was “born out of Baker’s personal struggles. He started drinking in college and by his 30s was a functional alcoholic. In his 40s, he joined an Alcoholics Anonymous group meeting at Saddleback, according to a 2009 profile of Baker in the Tulsa World,” per RNS. Baker sent Pastor Rick Warren a 13-page, single-spaced letter outlining the vision God had given him for the ministry, per the ministry’s website. {eoa}

Follow breaking news like this and more in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.