Adult contemporary

Casting Crowns

Reunion Records

CBN.com – UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD HEARS
Casting Crowns remains focused on discipleship through music. With lead singer and songwriter Mark Hall’s 18 years in youth ministry, the band’s message remains rooted in the student services he has led on a weekly basis since 2001 at Eagles Landing Baptist church near Atlanta. The songs start as messages for his 400 teenagers and their families. The band continues to challenge, strengthen and pour into the body of Christ, giving listeners a fresh, relevant perspective on loving God and loving people.

Their latest album and fourth studio release titled Until The Whole World Hears is about living life with a kingdom focus and reaching out and loving the world like Jesus does. Above all else, the group’s main purpose is to know Him more. It’s that unwavering desire and the intent of a personal friendship with Jesus that drives Casting Crowns and shapes its latest offering of message-centered songs into powerful tools for discipleship.

The title track on the album comes from a signature line in an e-mail from Roger Glidewell, Mark Hall’s mentor in student ministry. Glidewell always closed his e-mails with the phrase, “Until the whole world hears.” “Those simple words are a challenge to be intentional with the way we live our lives,” Mark said.

The lyrics were born out of John the Baptist’s life. “He was the voice crying out in the wilderness, eating grasshoppers, and speaking into the world about their sin. Speaking out in the wilderness is never popular but in the body of Christ, we’ve got to do it in love.”

One song from the album, “To Know You” encapsulates the Apostle Paul’s struggles and fears, and brings them down to a personal level for every believer. Steeped in Scripture, every line of the song is a declaration of total surrender. Mark explains, “In Romans 8:29, we’re told that God is conforming us into the image of His Son. His goal for my life is to make me like Jesus. To bring Him glory. Everything else is rubbish, Paul says, compared to knowing Him. And if my life goal is really to know Him and to honor Him, is He going to steer me off a cliff? No. Is this easy to say and hard to do? Yeah. But that doesn’t make it not true.”

The members of Casting Crowns each serve in student ministry in their local churches. “Our songs have always come from our ministry in the church,” Mark said. “They start as messages on Wednesday night, things we’re teaching our teenagers and their families. Our typical Wednesday night crowd is about 70% students and 30% parents. You’ll see a six-year-old and a 60-year-old at a Crowns concert.”

“Until The Whole World Hears” showcases the signature sound of Casting Crowns and its members: Mark Hall, Megan Garrett, Melodee DeVevo, Hector Cervantes, Chris Huffman, Juan DeVevo, and new member Brian Scoggin. Brian makes his debut with Casting Crowns on this album. A veteran musician and Middle School Pastor at a church near Atlanta, Scoggin is now the drummer for the band. Mark notes that former Crowns’ drummer Andy Williams, the “Bald Wonder,” is serving in ministry with his wife and doing well.

For the first time on a Crowns’ album, Juan DeVevo and Hector Cervantes add their vocals to Mark’s worship song, “At Your Feet.” This song provides an opportunity for listeners to respond to the gospel by laying their past, their present, and their future at Jesus’ feet. In an effort to connect others to the powerful theology of hymns, the album includes modern reinventions of songs Mark grew up with, including “Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)".

Why does Casting Crowns continue to do what they do? After all the accolades, awards and time on the road and in the studio; the answer is simple: It’s their calling – God’s calling on the lives of seven committed and talented musicians. Casting Crowns pour their lives into the students and families God has placed in their paths. They challenge, strengthen and disciple the body of Christ through music. It’s what brought them together and it’s what keeps them going.

YOUR OWN JESUS
Mark Hall challenges readers to break the cycle of compromise in his new book, Your Own Jesus: A God Insistent on Making It Personal. Mark says that Your Own Jesus is a cry against the compromise found within the church and its members today. It’s a guidebook to identifying any sign of sin in readers’ lives and a call for them to find their own Jesus. Mark urges readers to examine their own lives and identify the source of their faith - is it coming from a pastor, parent, friend, band or significant other? He suggests that people must pursue Jesus for themselves, so they can move past imitating a religion to experiencing a relationship that is vibrant, personal and fulfilling.

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