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Gary Casto on faith, gospel music, and the project nobody believed in

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AMY TURNER

After forty years in the industry, Gary Casto still lights up when he talks about gospel music.

Since 2006, Tribute Quartet, Casto alongside Josh Singletary, Gus Gaches, and Ian Owens, has built a reputation as one of southern gospel’s most reliable forces: a multi-Dove-nominated, award-winning act that’s managed to stay both beloved and dynamic in a genre that doesn’t always reward both at once. Now they’re back in the studio, kicking off work on their fourth Quartet Tribute project, having just wrapped a song selection session with longtime producer Gerald Wolfe.

Gary Casto (tributequartet.com)

Casto, a West Virginia native who’s spent decades in nearly every corner of gospel music, is the group’s manager and lead vocalist, and he’s the one who dreamed up the Quartet Tribute concept in the first place. It wasn’t an easy sell.

“I try to always pick the right songs,” Casto says. “You know, when we started doing the quartet series, several folks told me, industry leaders says, that’s a great idea, but you’ll never be able to mix those songs in with your national projects. There’s no way.”

He wasn’t deterred. If anything, the skepticism lit something in him. “I love a challenge,” he says. “And I just said, Lord, we’ve got to do this. And we do it nightly.”

That stubborn faith has paid off. Tribute Quartet has spent years proving that classic and contemporary material can share a setlist without friction, that southern gospel audiences don’t need to choose between nostalgia and novelty; they want both, often in the same evening. It’s a small rebellion against the industry’s instinct to keep things tidy and categorized, and it’s worked because Casto refused to back down when people told him it wouldn’t.

As the group dives into its fourth installment in the series, that same restless mix of reverence and reinvention is driving them forward: music built to feel timely without losing its center, relevant to the moment without forgetting what brought the audience there in the first place. For Tribute Quartet, the mission underneath the music hasn’t moved an inch, even as everything around it keeps shifting.

The resurrection of Jesus was real and physical, not just a feeling in our hearts

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

Some people try to soften the resurrection of Jesus by saying he lives on in the hearts and minds of his followers, or in the ongoing work of the church, but the Bible does not allow us to replace a real, physical resurrection with a kind of warm remembrance. Even in the early church, some people in Corinth were doing exactly that, and Paul pushed back firmly in 1 Corinthians 15:12, asking how anyone who claims Christ was raised could then deny that the dead are raised at all.

Jesus was not kept alive by the thoughts or devotion of his followers. He physically left the tomb. He was seen by people, touched by people, and worshipped as the living Lord. He is not a memory or an idea. He is alive in actual fact, having defeated death in a way that is real and historical. Reducing the resurrection to sentiment may feel more comfortable, but it strips the gospel of its power and leaves us with something far less than what the scriptures actually teach.

He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

Matthew 28:6

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is backed by history and changes everything

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

The resurrection of Jesus is not a story that was made up, and the evidence for it has been examined for centuries. The Old Testament prophets wrote about the details of his life, death, and rising again long before it happened, and every one of those predictions came true. There were real people who witnessed the risen Jesus and left documented testimony about what they saw.

Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t just history. It’s an act of love that God will forgive our sins. And because he rose, those who believe in him can look forward to living with God forever. You can receive him right now by faith, and he can begin to change your life.

 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:17

Knowing you are already glorified in God’s eyes should move you to live for him and share your faith

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

God has already placed his stamp of glorification on every believer’s name, meaning that from his perspective the work is complete and finished, and that truth should be one of the greatest motivators in a Christian’s life. Rather than waiting for a sermon to push us toward serving God, the awareness of all he has already done and who he has already declared us to be ought to stir us to praise him through the way we actually live.

The people of God are described as glorified saints, already headed to heaven, and that identity carries a responsibility to bring others along. Sharing what we have in Christ is not just an obligation; it flows naturally from understanding the generosity of what God has given us. A life lived to his glory is the most practical and fitting response to a salvation that was entirely his doing from beginning to end.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

LeFevre Quartet’s Jordan LeFevre on finding honour in the ordinary moments of parenthood

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CHERYL QUIGG

There was nothing glamorous about it. A tour bus, a bucket of soapy water, and a little boy trying to keep up with his dad. But for Jordan LeFevre of the LeFevre Quartet, that quiet Saturday chore turned into something he is still thinking about.

“My son was helping me wash our tour bus,” LeFevre recalls, “and if we’re being honest, I probably could have done it faster by myself. But that’s not really the point.”

For a man who spends much of his life on the road, performing for audiences across the country, LeFevre has a gift for recognising what actually matters. And what matters, he will tell you, is not the stage. It is the small, unremarkable hours in between, the ones most parents are tempted to rush through.

“As we scrubbed and rinsed, I was showing him how to do the job the right way,” he says. “Teaching him, guiding him, working alongside him.”

It brought to mind a verse he knows well, Proverbs 22:6, which calls parents to train up a child in the way he should go. LeFevre sees that scripture not as a task to complete, but as a posture to hold. “God doesn’t just give us instructions and walk away,” he says. “He teaches us, corrects us, and patiently works alongside us as we grow in faith and character.”

That patience is something every parent recognises and struggles with. The mess, the inefficiency, the slower pace that comes with letting a child participate rather than simply observe. It takes a certain kind of discipline to resist doing it yourself, to honour the process over the outcome.

And yet, those are exactly the moments children carry with them. A home, after all, can be a place of peace or a place of noise and confusion. The difference often comes down to whether parents are willing to be present, not perfectly, but consistently, and with intention.

LeFevre puts it plainly: “Sometimes the greatest lessons aren’t taught in the classroom. They’re learned side by side, in doing life together.”

For Christian parents, that is both a comfort and a challenge. Every errand, every chore, every ordinary Tuesday holds the potential to shape the next generation’s understanding of faith, character, and what it looks like to follow Christ. The colour of those moments, whether they feel significant or not, is rarely obvious in real time.

But a soapy bucket and a willing child are a good place to start.