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.