Biography
Christian praise & worship singer/songwriter Cindy Cruse Ratcliff rose to prominence during the 2000s through her position as worship leader at Lakewood Church, the Houston megachurch pastored by televangelist Joel Osteen. After spending her early years on the road with her family’s evangelistic music ministry, she issued two Christian-infused AOR albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s, then joined Osteen’s team in 2000, where she played a central part in the church’s large-scale arena tours and associated recordings. She restarted her solo career in 2010 and later signed with Dream Label Group, the CCM division of Capitol Records, which issued her 2015 hit album Heaven Raining Down and the 2016 follow-up Edge of the Universe.
Cruse Ratcliff entered musical ministry at age six alongside her relatives in the Cruse Family, the well-known evangelistic vocal ensemble that produced roughly 25 albums, earned two Dove Awards, and toured internationally throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Although she became the youngest licensed ASCAP songwriter at nine, her initial releases leaned toward a more secular sound; after the 1984 cassettes Cruse and Cruse 2, she delivered the melodic, spiritually rooted rock albums The Edge in 1989 and Small Town Girl in 1991. Hired by Joel Osteen in 2000 as worship director at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, she advanced to senior worship leader in 2008, a period when Joel Osteen Ministries ranked among the nation’s largest organizations. Cruse Ratcliff served as a principal participant in Osteen’s arena worship events and the live CDs they generated. Her first solo project in more than a decade, the 2010 album Twenty Three, contained twelve original songs. Produced by David Hanley for Capitol-affiliated Dream Label Group, Heaven Raining Down appeared in 2014, captured live at Lakewood Church and featuring original praise & worship songs she wrote from Osteen’s sermons. A Spanish-language edition, Lluvia Celestial, followed in 2015, succeeded later that year by the live album Edge of the Universe, also recorded at the Houston church. Cruse Ratcliff issued the Christmas EP Glorius in time for the 2018 holiday season.
Cruse Ratcliff entered musical ministry at age six alongside her relatives in the Cruse Family, the well-known evangelistic vocal ensemble that produced roughly 25 albums, earned two Dove Awards, and toured internationally throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Although she became the youngest licensed ASCAP songwriter at nine, her initial releases leaned toward a more secular sound; after the 1984 cassettes Cruse and Cruse 2, she delivered the melodic, spiritually rooted rock albums The Edge in 1989 and Small Town Girl in 1991. Hired by Joel Osteen in 2000 as worship director at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, she advanced to senior worship leader in 2008, a period when Joel Osteen Ministries ranked among the nation’s largest organizations. Cruse Ratcliff served as a principal participant in Osteen’s arena worship events and the live CDs they generated. Her first solo project in more than a decade, the 2010 album Twenty Three, contained twelve original songs. Produced by David Hanley for Capitol-affiliated Dream Label Group, Heaven Raining Down appeared in 2014, captured live at Lakewood Church and featuring original praise & worship songs she wrote from Osteen’s sermons. A Spanish-language edition, Lluvia Celestial, followed in 2015, succeeded later that year by the live album Edge of the Universe, also recorded at the Houston church. Cruse Ratcliff issued the Christmas EP Glorius in time for the 2018 holiday season.
Albums
Singles
