As the young pastor of a fast–growing Dallas church, Dr. Tony Evans couldn't help looking at his namesake toddler son and wondering whether someday young Anthony Evans, Jr., would feel the tug of ministry, too.

Twenty–plus years later, the 55–year–old preacher has his answer, though not exactly the one he envisioned.

Anthony, now 25, has just released his debut CD, an eclectic mix of Christian pop and R&B, and ministers from the concert stage rather than the pulpit.

But sometimes for father and son, the two converge, with Dr. Evans preaching and Anthony singing.

"That's a dream come true," Dr. Evans says.

"There's nobody I'd rather be out there with than my dad," Anthony adds.

Many ties bind Evans senior and junior—their names, their relationship, and, most of all, their call to reach souls for Christ.

Toward the end of Anthony's CD, Even More, he sings a gentle, thoughtful song called "Just Like You." It's about his dad, pastor of the 7,000–member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas and an internationally known speaker and evangelist. But those achievements don't really matter in the context of the song. It's about faith, handed down from father to son, generation to generation.

"I saw my grandfather's faithfulness fulfilled in my father's life, and I'm here now because my father was faithful, too," Anthony says.

If you've ever heard Dr. Tony Evans preach, you remember it. Evans is renowned for dynamic, biblical messages that inspire and provoke listeners into a deeper understanding of what it means to follow Christ. Most people know his distinctive voice—that scratchy, authoritative tenor that often rises into a rhythmic, high–pitched wail once he gets warmed up—from his popular radio and television broadcasts, not to mention his numerous speaking engagements.

But of all his accomplishments—postgraduate degrees, best–selling books, and international ministry—Dr. Evans is most proud of his family life and how he's managed to balance the demands of ministry with being a good husband to Lois and father to Anthony, Chrystal, 31, Priscilla, 29, and Jonathan, 24.

In fact, a lot of his teaching focuses on the importance of keeping your priorities straight. "The biblical order is your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, and then your ministry," he told CBN's Scott Ross last year. "The last couple of verses of Malachi in the Old Testament says, 'The land is cursed when there's fatherlessness, and it abounds.' Today, you see it, in crime and juvenile delinquency, in the rebellion. That's why it's such a passion with me to see men take their rightful fathering role. Because it has a lot to say about how the kids wind up."

Back when Tony Evans was a boy growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, it wasn't always clear that his dad would succeed in his fathering role. "Our family was in disarray, and we were on our way to becoming another statistic," he remembers. "My father was a decent man, but all I remember growing up was the conflict. There was always conflict in the house. It was not a happy place to go home to.

"But when my dad came to faith, that totally transformed him."

Dr. Evans was around 12 years old then, and he'll never forget that day when his father, who was a fisherman working out of Baltimore Harbor, came home a changed man.

"We didn't know this man who came home. He brought this new faith with him, and my mother resisted it," remembers Evans. "She didn't like him already, and this new thing made it even worse. But she would see him get up late at night and pray for his family, and eventually he led her to faith, and we children followed.

"When my father came to faith, he started taking us all to church," Evans says, "and that revolutionized the family. That's when I realized the importance of faith for the family, because the family is critical to the future. We've tried to do that with our family, too—family and faith connected."