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She was the first
woman in the history of the Motion Picture Academy to be
nominated for an Oscar for work done both in front of the camera
and behind the camera. Now she is setting another precedent as an
evangelist to the Hollywood community.
She ruled from one of television's most coveted spots as
Judge Whipper Cone on the just-cancelled show Ally McBeal
and her own series, Three Sisters.
She was the only wife Cary Grant ever had, a
marriage from which they had a daughter.
She also sits in one of basketball's most coveted spots:
courtside at the Laker game in-between Magic Johnson and
Jim Carrey. And now actress Dyan Cannon ministers
from one of the most enviable spots in Hollywood. But now Cannon,
who was once married to screen legend Cary Grant, has become a
high-energy evangelist to the Hollywood crowd with her Saturday
night "God's Party with Dyan Cannon & You," a Christian
outreach like no other.
It takes place regularly at the CBS Studio Center in Studio
City, Calif. Visitors range from Hollywood insiders to people
from all across the incredible diversity of the L.A. community.
From the moment she arrives, Cannon stamps her personality on
this unique blend of southern revival meeting and Kathryn
Kuhlman-like healing service.
She literally dances around the platform, often suggesting
the next worship chorus, and speaks for about an hour and then
invites the sick and troubled to come forward for healing.
It is all summed up in a slogan placed to the left of the
platform, which reads, "God's Party Is The Only Party."
Cannon says, "I don't think that God has brought me through
what He's brought me through by accident. I've sung in musicals,
I've acted in movies and I've directed and produced movies. I
know every facet of filmmaking and I know He is teaching me now
how to be a leader and it doesn't matter what area it is in; it's
a principle of faith across the board.
"You see, this is 'God's Party' and we go by what His leading
is, and if is something going on that's not anointed -- I've been
patient with that in the past -- but I won't be from now on ...
because if it's not anointed, it means we are trying to do it
instead of letting God do it, and it then puts people off."
About six years ago, Cannon started a Bible study group in
her home. "Somebody else led that one, but it grew to such
proportions that we had to move to a hotel, and then when I
wasn't attending that one anymore, God just put it on my heart to
start another one," she said. The first "God's Party"
began in January of 1999. Dyan admits that "usually people don't
think of partying and God.
"With a Christian event, they usually think of somberness and
sobriety and seriousness, instead of a joyful, celebratory
atmosphere."
When Dyan felt God leading her to hold the event at CBS, she
called the head of the CBS Studio Center to ask him if he would
give a room for the "party" to take place. Surprisingly, he
agreed to her request. "He's a wonderful Christian man and I
think he also liked the idea of this kind of energy on the lot,"
she explains.
Dyan then got Phil Upchurch, a well-known bass player,
to assemble musicians for the first "party." She said, "I thought
maybe five people would come, but we had standing room only! I
taught on personal that night and gave a bit of witness about
what my experience had been in the world before I really allowed
God to lead me, and then the Holy Spirit started healing people."
Cannon says she was brought up in a home with a mother who
was Jewish and a father who was Gentile.
"My dad agreed that we would be raised Jewish, but that was
before Jesus found him," she says. "So, on the way to the
synagogue, we would sing, 'Jesus Loves Me This I Know.' Then, at
the synagogue, I would find out that Jesus was not the one that
we worshipped. Then back into the car, and I'd sing 'Jesus
Loves Me' all the way home.
"So I was really torn because of my allegiance to my
parents," Cannon continues. "When my brother finally took his
stand for Christ, I said, 'Well, I can't leave mom alone when she
went to the synagogue,' so I stayed with her. I sang in synagogue
on Friday nights and I loved the Jewish faith and the Jewish
people. However, spiritually, it just didn't seem to fulfill my
hunger. The Bible says, 'Seek and you shall find.' It doesn't say
that you have to keep on seeking, but trust you will find it."
Dyan also mentions how she had later become so mentally ill
that it took six men to hold her down when they came to take her
to a psychiatric hospital.
Was that the lowest point for her? "There have been several
drops along the way, but that was probably the last deep
descent," she admits.
It was a long, tortuous road for her to commit her life to
God, including disappointments and disillusionment with the
morals of some Christian leaders she met along the way, and her
battle with psychiatric illness. "It was in and out with my
search for God and, ultimately, I couldn't find anything else to
fill that black hole in my life," she says.
I don't do anything just a little bit. If I do it, I do it
all the way. And I was in the wilderness. I made that journey
that could have taken a minute and instead spent 12 years in it,
when all my friends were removed, also the money and the career,
the wealth and fame," Cannon says. "This time around though, it's
all to the Glory of God!
Producer Sandy Engel talked with Dyan about her
evangelism.
Q:
I hear you have your own type of ministry, GPWDC&U.
Dyan: It's an outreach, really. We have a band and a
great singer. We come together to celebrate God's love. We had a
God's Street Party on October 7. Boyz II Men was the
opener. It's not just for the people in the movie or TV industry
--it's for anyone. We deal with kids on crack who come in off the
streets. Judge Reinhold came last week and gave his
testimony.
I'd like to think about it more of sharing the snares that
I've been through--the carrot that was held out to me in
Hollywood, how I bit into it and chewed off something I couldn't
swallow. I share some of the paths I've taken that have led me
down the wrong road and how to help avoid some of those things
with God's help.
I always thought that if I got married that I would be happy.
And I got married and I've been through two divorces. And I
always thought that if I was a major star and had a lot of money
and had wealth and fame I'd be happy. I wanted to be an actress
very badly, and I wanted my name above the title very badly. I
wanted a boyfriend very badly, and wanted all the things that the
world says will make you happy. I spent years pursuing those
things. When I finally achieved them, the black hole inside me
was emptier than ever.
Q: What kinds of things do you do to keep that
intimacy with the Lord?
Dyan:
I don't come out of my room in the
morning until I've spent at least, minimum, an hour. I spend
hours every day...in prayer, reading the Bible, listening. When
I'm filming, that's not easy because I'll have a 4:00 call in the
morning, but during hair and makeup I've got my tapes that I
make. I'll go through the Bible and listen to that.
If I get on the set, there's a lot of time in between. I'm
planning my sharing or teaching for the GPDC&U thing. Gosh, we've
had a lot of people that haven't known the Lord come to know him
in those meetings. It's very, very, very exciting what's going
on. I'm more excited about it than anything I've ever done.
Q: What is your relationship like with Jesus Christ
today?
Dyan:
Oh! He's the lover of my soul, my everything. My everything.
Q:
You have accomplished so much as an
actress. What's the number one desire of your heart?
Dyan: To be true to Him all the time. Before, it was
for the ego of Dyan Cannon, to make her a big star and get wealth
and fame for her and notoriety for her all over the world; now
it's for the glory and the honor of God. And I feel I'll be
acting for the next couple of years. I'll was with Ally McBeal
for as long as God wanted me there. And GPDC&U, I honestly
feel, is going to be full-time ministry. That's my heart. My
mission, my goal, my dream is to help people find God and to help
change their lives, so that they can help change other lives
whether it be through writing scripts, or acting, or
directing--will uplift and redeem the things that need redeeming.
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