Casting Crowns encourages
The Body of Christ
By Frank "Buzz" Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, April 8, 2005
Mark Hall's voice sounds a little gravely on a recent Wednesday morning
as he makes time for a telephone interview from his home in McDonough,
Ga., just south of Atlanta.
It's an area that has been a hotbed of talent for contemporary
Christian musicians, birthing musicians such as Mark Heard and groups that
include The Waiting, Third Day, Newsong, Sixpence None The Richer and
Smalltown Poets.
Now, it's home to Casting Crowns and the 35-year-old Hall, though the
singer-songwriter isn't a native. He admits to being from a neighboring
state: ``I grew up in Montgomery, Ala., but I've always considered myself
a Georgia boy,'' he says with an unmistakable Southern drawl.
Hall and his wife, Melanie (who is the road manager), have three
children: John Michael, 6, Regan, 4, and 19-month-old Zoe. While it would
be tough enough to handle the tours and record projects when you're
married with a young family, Hall has an added dimension: He's a youth
minister, and he says it's been his goal from his early days of studying
music at Baptist College of Florida.
``I really felt a burden for teenagers, which I knew came from God
because I didn't like teenagers at the time,'' Hall recalls. ``So, that
was definitely a God thing and I've been doing it ever since. I don't want
to be anything else when I grow up; this is what I want to be.''
However, it would seem that youth ministry and music ministry, which
also addresses adults, are similar in Hall's mind.
``I think students are really not much different than adults, in a lot
of ways,'' he said. ``I think the main things teenagers are looking for is
acceptance and you see it in everything they do. ... I don't see much
difference in adults, either.''
Like the cut ``Who Am I,'' from the band's self-titled debut album,
Hall sees the search for an identity in God as a primary focus of youth
ministry.
``For me as a youth pastor, my goal is that they define themselves in
who God is making them and what God is doing in their lives,'' he
explains. ``So, one of my biggest goals as a youth pastor is to help a
teenager see that he has gifts, he has importance, he has significance, he
was created on purpose, and he has a ministry of his own.''
Serving at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Hall said
he tries to ``create a ministry of purpose, of ownership in the student
ministry, so they don't just show up to watch the band. There are no
audiences in the body of Christ.''
The theology behind the church being the ``body of Christ'' and
reaching those outside of the ``body'' birthed the band's hit song, ``If
We Are The Body.'' Hall said he wrote the song years ago while leading a
youth Bible study on James, Chapter 2.
With the popularity of Rick Warren's ``Purpose Driven Life'' and
related books concerning the use of God-given gifts within the church and
outside of the church walls, it's no wonder the song soared through the
charts.
It's a trend Hall welcomes, and one he expects to continue.
``I think the church now is starting to awaken to the fact that there's
a lot more going on in the world than what you can do on a stage,'' Hall
said, referring to the emphasis that is normally put upon those who stand
in front of a congregation on any given Sunday. ``The cool thing about the
body of Christ is you've got a couple hundred different people, with a
couple hundred different passions, with a couple hundred different gifts,
and that's how it's supposed to work.''
Casting Crowns is currently working on a new project that Hall said
``speaks to areas that we all struggle with, but do not talked about as
much.''
``I think the best way to approach a sensitive area is from your own
weakness, so you don't shoot from above,'' he said. ``I think it's a lot
easier to hear somebody that's real, that's got warts and freckles just
like you.''
The acceptance and restoration of those who fail is something the
church fails to exhibit at times, Hall said. ``If you're scared that
you're going to be judged, you won't be yourself at church, and that
creates a million problems.
``Because if you're not yourself at church and the church is where you
go to worship, then inside your heart you know you're not really being
yourself in worship, you're not really being yourself in ministry, you're
not really being yourself anywhere,'' he explained. ``And what Satan will
start attacking you with the first storm that comes is, `Was any of this
real to start with?'''
``It's a spiral down.''
The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The
Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org.
You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.
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