Casting Crowns: Worship turned to record success for Christian rock band
When pastor Mark Hall started writing songs for his church youth group in the late 1990s, he had no idea it would become one of Christian rock’s longest-running success stories, Casting Crowns.
“If anything, I kind of felt like the Casting Crowns thing would be a season,” Hall said. “I’m really amazed that we’re still going.”
Since those inauspicious beginnings, Casting Crowns has released eight studio albums and 24 singles and won both Grammy and Dove awards.
The group is scheduled to perform with Matthew West on Saturday in the Crown Theatre.
Hall was a youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, when he started Casting Crowns. He later relocated to the Atlanta area.
The group started as a student worship band. Its first, self-titled album sold about 2 million copies in 2003.
Hall is the lead singer and chief songwriter.
Along with several Dove Awards, the group won a Grammy for Best Pop or Contemporary Gospel Album in 2006 for “Lifesong.” Its most recent album, “Only Jesus,” was released in November 2018.
Recently, Hall answered some questions by telephone:
Weekender: Tell me about the show you’ll be bringing here.
Hall: We’ll be coming with Matthew West — good friend of mine. We’ve been co-writers for years, so it’s really cool to kick off the tour with him. ... It’s going to be a great night.
Weekender: Will you perform with Matthew West or does he open for you?
Hall: He’ll start us out for the night, and then, of course, he’ll come out and join us on some of our songs. And who knows, I may storm the stage on him, too.
Weekender: What are your audiences like? Is it mostly a Christian audience, or more than that?
Hall: I would say it’s at least believers and those who just like a little hope in their songs. It’s definitely a believer crowd, but I think what’s cool about our concerts is that a lot of people who follow Jesus will bring friends who may have questions or may just kind of feel like they’re on the outside looking in, wondering who Jesus is and what living a life of faith looks like.
As my dad says, we put everything on the bottom shelf. In other words, we make everything plain and real and we show all of our scars and tell our stories about what God’s done in us. So everybody that walks in, nobody feels left in the dark.
Weekender: When you started more than 20 years ago, did you think you’d still be at it now?
Hall: I really didn’t. I’m a youth pastor still, full time here in Atlanta. I’m at the church now, today. So Sunday through Wednesday, we’re at home, leading worship on Sunday morning, and I’m in the office through the week. And I was just writing songs for my students and their families and then the music world heard it and asked if we wanted to share our music with a bigger group of people. But we still stayed at our church and still stayed connected to what we do.
Weekender: How long do you see the band continuing?
Hall: The way I’m seeing it is, as long as I’m in the church and as long as I’m teaching the teenagers and families, that’s where the songs come from. So as long as I’m (teaching) the Bible to the students, that’s where the songs come from. To me, I think they just kind of go hand-in-hand.
Weekender: What’s next for you and the band?
Hall: We’re going to Europe this summer and playing some different festivals. We have a lot of student ministries stuff in our church that goes on in the summer, too, so we kind of take a little of the summer off. And then in the fall, we’ll head back out on tour again.
Staff writer Rodger Mullen can be reached at rmullen@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3561.
Casting Crowns
Where: Crown Theatre
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $27.50 to $92.50
Information: 910-438-4100 or crowncomplexnc.com
