Casting Crowns Interview

Christian Rock Band Invited Into 'Hermit Kingdom'

Casting Crowns were invited to be part of a Spring festival that they hold every year honouring their leader. It was unbelievable when we heard that they were even thinking of us...

Casting Crowns are not your average Christian rock band. First and foremost before the music, comes ministry and missions. In their own churches, each band member is involved in full-time youth ministry. Mark Hall, the lead singer is a Youth Pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in the US and is also Senior Director of Global Youth Ministry, an organization that focus on training and equipping young leaders in global missions. HistoryMakers met with Casting Crowns in June 2007.

What’s the most important question you want to get across to Christian youth?
MARK: “As a youth Pastor with my students, the thing I want them to notice first is their own walk with Jesus – not their Youth Pastor’s or favourite band’s walk with Jesus. I think sometimes we tend to take a group-approach to God. When we’re together we can really ‘feel it’ but when we’re by ourselves we can’t. That’s the first step before missions can even happen – they have to develop their own friendship with Jesus. After that, I want them to see they can have a ministry with the people around them. Often, we don’t think we are good enough, worthy enough or maybe feel we’ve made too many mistakes or we’re not talented enough – but God can use all of us and has called all of us into a ministry”.

How can Casting Crowns be a platform for challenging youth about missions?
JUAN: Our music in general challenges people in their relationship with Jesus to be a growing one. If you look at ‘We Are The Body’ – the surface of the lyrics talk about reaching out to people who are hurting, the hands of Christ are hands that heal”.
Do you think that when the majority of young people decide to go abroad to the mission field, they are going for the right reasons rather than some kind of adventure or vacation?
CHRIS: “On my first mission trip I didn’t know what to expect. We went to Kenya last year and took about a dozen students from our church. Before that, we went to a town in South Africa and because it’s a third world country we expected to see poverty to a small degree. It was worse than I thought. At that time, I wasn’t even thinking about vacation. When we first left the States and we all talked about going on this really cool ‘Jeep Safari’ that was really exciting about that part of the trip but when we were in this little town and seeing the people there – the exciting things were the last thing on my mind. When your really focused on what you’re there to see God do, it makes the vacation or adventure part take a back seat”.

HM: You’re involved in Global Youth Ministry which has these Evangelism Values:
1 Action: Everyone is a missionary, first to his own Jerusalem, then to the uttermost parts of the earth.
2 Focus: Our task is finish the job of taking the gospel to the globe
In view of this, does Global Youth Ministry equip young people and youth leaders to be involved in reaching the remaining 6,500 un-reached people groups?
MARK: “Yes we do, in several ways. Firstly we organize youth camps in the summer so that the average teenagers can see that they’re called to ministry and have gifts and value. At these camps, we start to see some who already feel a calling in their life and we begin spending time with them. After that we train youth on weekends. The problem we face is that often when youth see a calling on their life, they think it’s for the future; but when God puts a calling on your life, it’s for now. So if God’s calling you to be a missionary, your a missionary now – you need to be a missionary to your high-school class or whatever grade you’re in. At Global Youth Ministry we also train students and young adults to go to another country and live there. We take mission trips to these countries and we stay for 2 or 3 years so that we can train the local church. We have mentors in Moldova, Kenya and other countries.

HM: Can you tell us a bit about your involvement in North Korea?
MARK: “Casting Crowns were invited to be part of a Spring festival that they hold every year honouring their leader. It was unbelievable when we heard that they were even thinking of us just because we know that the message isn’t hidden in our music and we knew that it might not fit very well with their beliefs! When we sent our music and our lyrics we thought it wouldn't happen. But we were invited to go and be a part of it. We played three different times to over 1500 people each time and it was broadcast over the entire country, Songs like ‘Lifesong’, ‘Voice of Truth’, ‘Who Am I’ and ‘Amazing Grace’. We saw pretty interesting things happen there. To me it was a relationship building trip – let’s just go and be friends, love people and serve them. It wasn’t a ‘planting the seeds trip’ – it wasn’t even a ‘tilling the soil trip.’ It was more like tilling the concrete!

HM: HistoryMakers aims to encourage and challenge young people to be passionate for Christ and Mission. ‘Passion’ comes from the Latin word ‘to suffer’. Do you think that the vast majority youth that you come across in your ministry are prepared to suffer for the Gospel, as Paul suggests in 2 Timothy 1:8?
MARK: “The Apostle Paul said ‘not many of you have suffered to the point of shedding blood’ – I think that most teenagers suffering is being laughed at in the lunchroom for wearing a Christian shirt, but I still can’t look down on a student that does see that as suffering because in their world and culture, they’re trying and getting beat down. That’s where the importance of the body of Christ comes in, to be a part of a group that goes into the world to love, serve and speak truth and if you get pounded on you come back to the body, get encouraged, pray for one another and go right back out. The trick is to start understanding what a ‘win’ is, and the trouble is that most believers think that a ‘win’ is if the person drops to their knees and repents. The ‘win’ is the obedience of doing what you were called to do. If you go sit by the person all alone – that’s ministry. If you stand up in class and share something about your faith and everyone laughs – that’s victory.