c. 2000 Religion News Service

HOUSTON _ Though she only turned 18 this spring, Christin Cook has already redefined her ministry after doing an inventory of her spiritual life. She’s burying self-importance.

That may be hard to do for the singer, songwriter and musician who performs with a three-man backup band at churches, youth fellowships and coffeehouses and appears on the verge of a breakthrough into stardom in the world of Christian music.

Under the moniker “C-Squared” meaning “C for Christ and C for Christin,” she spreads her view that teens should take a stand and outlines the lives she believes they might lead if they depended more on God and less on themselves.

Since childhood, Cook has studied music, beginning with piano, then voice lessons and later general music courses in theater and church workshops. Today she is learning to play the guitar and concentrating on songwriting.

For pleasure and professional growth, she listens to everything from Beethoven to gospel singer Rebecca St. James. Last summer she toured with the Arkansas Christian rock band Nickel and Dime, as an apprentice.

The band’s singer, Jon Shirley, she said, significantly influenced her music.

“Though the songs I’ve recorded so far are Christian, the ones I’m writing now are crossover,” she said, referring to the growing number of Christian artists who seek to make music appealing to both secular and sacred fans.

Reaching both appeals to Cook.

In a ministry that takes place mainly in informal speaking or singing engagements, she encourages teens to hold onto faith as a ballast during the tough years of adolescence.

“Ministry is being a leader,”she said, and the two songs on her debut CD, “Waiting,” celebrate high ideals. “I Will Wait” declares her intention of waiting to marry her husband, before having sex. “Break Me” asks God to live and work through her ministry. A third new song, “Hold On,” encourages weary teens and people in general to let God support and guide them.

Effective ministry grows from “making sure you’re plugged into the power source,” Cook said. Her Web site logo, for example, is a white heart speared all the way through by a red cross.

Being plugged in refers to not being needy, Cook said. “You’re not going to other people with heavy need. You’re looking to God to meet your needs.

“You’re falling in love with God and letting God be the power source in your life. What I mean is, you fall so passionately in love with God that it overflows, seeping out to every person you come into contact with.”

Cook began to realize she had something to share with others when she was 13.

“I was actually an outcast in various ways,”she said. “I was a little bit more chubby than the other girls. I just didn’t fit in fully. I began to allow myself to dig into getting to know the Lord more. When I did, he became my best friend.”

In that friendship, she said, she learned to set a standard for herself and for others, especially people who are hurting.

Her parents, Karen and Dwight Cook, run SoundWorks, a sound production and Web design firm in Houston. Though her father put it behind him when he became a Christian in 1977, he was once well-known as a radio DJ in local rock `n’ roll circles.

Christin Cook was born in Houston and was home-schooled by her parents until her senior year. She left high school two years early and now is studying toward a degree in commercial voice at Houston Community College.

She reaches out to teens and leads Bible studies when she isn’t performing.

“In a high school, you see lots of people who are hurting deep down, who are not satisfied. It’s almost like deep underneath they’re screaming, `There must be more.’ … I want them to see that if you can find that satisfaction, you don’t have to go through all this heartache.”

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Tracy Revell, booking agent for Hideaway Cafe, a Christian coffeehouse in Ingleside, Texas, where C-Squared has performed, said Cook has “an incredible vision and message” to share.

“Not only can she minister to her peers, she can also minister to you (adults) if you are ready to receive,” Revell said.

The Rev. John Durham, minister to students at Houston’s First Baptist Church, said “purity, energy and integrity” are the qualities he associates with Cook. “She is an exceptional young lady.”

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Cook remains eager to grow and learn. She said her audiences _ and teens in general _ yearn for something to believe in, but distrust people who talk down to them or who do not listen their hopes, dreams and ideas.

“To effectively reach my generation, I think you need to have a rocking band and also original songs,” she said.

DEA END HOLMES