Casting Crowns celebrates 20 years

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, August 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. In 2003, youth pastor Mark Hall led his local Baptist church worship band in releasing its first commercial project—co-produced by well-known artist Steven Curtis Chapman.

The band took the name Casting Crowns, a reference from the book of Revelation. The Christian rock group became one of the fastest selling debut artists in CCM history.

BROWN: Over the last two decades Casting Crowns has toured around the world. It’s released an impressive catalog of chart-topping songs, while earning dozens of awards, and selling millions of CDs.

But from the beginning, the seven members of Casting Crowns have made a priority of being home most weekends to serve the local church, something unique in CCM. And most of their music begins in church ministry.

EICHER: Last year Casting Crowns organized a celebration tour—marking two decades in the industry. The band’s just released a recording from one of those concerts … live album number six, titled: A 20 Year Celebration, Live at The Ryman Theater…

The project features twelve of Casting Crowns’ most loved songs. WORLD’s Paul Butler has a review.

MUSIC: [IF WE ARE THE BODY]

PAUL BUTLER: The latest live album from Casting Crowns holds few surprises—but fans will find themselves singing along with every well-known song.

The project kicks off with “If We are the Body” which also happens to be the first song frontman Mark Hall wrote for the band. He took a few minutes to talk to me by phone earlier this week before heading out of town with his family. He says a lot of radio stations were nervous about playing that song when it first came out…

MARK HALL: You know, I wrote that for my people at my church. And if you speak the truth in love, people can handle it. If it’s not: “hey Church this is what you need to do better.” It’s: “Hey, here’s where I’m lacking. Is anyone else dealing with this too? You know, let’s let God get us through this.”

But program directors soon changed their tune…and Casting Crowns singles became CCM radio standards. If you’ve spent any time listening to the radio the last 20 years, you’ll likely recognize almost all of the cuts on this recording. Songs like “Nobody” featuring Matthew West…

MUSIC: [NOBODY]

One of Casting Crowns’ most requested songs was also featured in The Kendrick Brothers film: “Facing the Giants.” It’s on this recording as well.

MUSIC: [VOICE OF TRUTH]

Casting Crowns has recorded eight studio CDs and dozens of singles. But as much as audiences have clamored for more, Hall and the other band members haven’t lost sight of their calling to the local church. And over the last 20 years, many of their songs have found their way into Evangelical worship services.

MUSIC MONTAGE: [EAST TO WEST / ALL BECAUSE OF MERCY / OH MY SOUL]

Live recordings are tricky, but the mastering of this project is very well done. You hear enough of the audience to feel like you’re there, but can still appreciate the musicality of the band, even hearing the supporting strings.

Hall says he loved playing at the historic Ryman theater. And the audience was clearly there to do much more than just listen…

MUSIC: [PRAISE YOU IN THIS STORM]

A “best of” CD can sometimes come off as gimmicky or too focused on the band. But I didn’t feel that way while listening through Live from the Ryman. It wasn’t really about Casting Crowns…it was about life in Christ.

Former CCM promoter and music minister Jim Dernell agrees:

DERNELL: They were just consistently God glorifying. They were biblically informed. And everything was gospel driven, you know, you could tell that was just part of the DNA of their music.

Dernell is currently a PhD student at Southern Seminary. He’s more of a traditionalist when it comes to church music, but he believes Casting Crowns’ legacy is in how they’ve encouraged the church…

DERNELL: I think it's just helping the common Christian see and praise God in everyday life. I think that's something that they do exceptionally well.

Dernell goes on to say that Casting Crowns’ songs aren’t preachy, but they are sermons. Sermons you can carry with you throughout the day. Mark Hall says that’s high praise.

HALL: There aren't a lot of people walking around humming sermons, but there are a lot of people walking around singing your song...So I've got to write arrows that point people back to Scripture and get them to see what God says about them and what God says about himself…So to me, that is the highest compliment that they’re little sermons.

MUSIC: [ONLY JESUS]

“A 20 Year Celebration, Live from the Ryman” is a dozen singable sermons that Mark Hall hopes will continue to encourage CCM audiences.

And it’s not just 20 years of music … the singer/songwriter is still a youth pastor too… he laughs as he admits he’s now ministering to teens that are children of students he served twenty years ago. He says it all proves one thing…

HALL: Proof that God can use anybody.

MUSIC: [ONLY JESUS]

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

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