Lunch With Ordinary Rock Stars
By J. Lee Grady
Mark Hall doesn’t act like a celebrity. It’s not that the lead singer of the rock worship band Casting Crowns doesn’t appreciate his two platinum records or the awards he’s received from the recording industry. It’s just that fame is not his goal.
I learned this last week when four members of Hall’s band stopped by my office in Orlando to visit with the editorial staff of Charisma. It was not a fancy interview. We ordered sandwiches and soft drinks from a bagel shop, and then Mark, Melodee, Megan and Juan played a couple songs?accompanied only by guitar and violin. (We begged to hear their classic anthem “Voice of Truth,” and then they sang “East to West,” the new hit single off their just-released album, The Altar and the Door.)
I typically don’t enjoy visits with recording artists?even if they are Christians?because the celebrity scene can be awkward. Over the years I’ve done my share of awards banquets and backstage meet-and-greet sessions. I’ve listened to music publicists offer enough spin to make me dizzy. And once I was politely kicked out of a gospel diva’s green room because she needed the privacy.
From what I can tell, the members of Casting Crowns don’t suffer from the diva syndrome. They dress in jeans and T-shirts, but they’re not trying too hard to be hip. They have the hottest-selling music in the Christian market today, but they are ordinary guys and girls with Southern accents who would rather not discuss their popularity or even their music. What they really want to talk about is youth ministry.
All the members of Casting Crowns are heavily involved in their home churches in suburban Atlanta, and Hall is still a full-time youth pastor who uses his musical platform to influence an entire generation. About 400 teens are currently involved in the youth discipleship program at his church, Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Ga.
“We focus on discipleship,” Hall told me while munching on potato chips. “And we train the older kids to disciple the younger ones. Older teens are completely in charge of our Sunday night groups. Our philosophy is that you really can’t own the [gospel] message until you are able to teach it to others.”
Hall pours his passion and resources into Global Youth Ministry, an organization that helps struggling, smaller churches disciple their teens using free, downloadable Bible studies. He speaks regularly at Momentum events?designed to train youth pastors?and encourages churches to focus their efforts on mentoring youth in small groups rather than just entertaining them in big events.
And he does all this quietly and without slick promotional gimmicks. That’s because the members of Casting Crowns are aware that their overwhelming success has nothing to do with them.
Megan Garrett, who plays the keyboard and does background vocals for the group, told CCM magazine recently: “Casting Crowns isn’t our priority. Our priority is to our churches and to our families. God’s made it so obvious that Casting Crowns is something He’s doing, and we know it’s not going to last forever.”
Hall’s attitude is that if God were to take away the recognition, the top-selling albums and the radio play, he’d go right on doing what he loves most: communicating Christ to the younger generation.
Leave it to these unassuming Southern Baptist musicians to model servanthood for the rest of us.
We are living in a time when the virus of celebrity Christianity is infecting leaders at an alarming rate. The members of Casting Crowns are modeling the cure for spiritual arrogance: They focus on Jesus and His Word; they don’t take themselves too seriously; they care more about the emerging generation than themselves; and, as the name of their band suggests, they are casting the crowns of human glory on heaven’s altar.
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J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
DISCLAIMER: Church of God and Faith News does not necessarily endorse or sanction all or any part of this news item.
