Casting Crowns' Hall: It's time to step back and put community over isolation

Mark Hall chooses community over isolation.

Since the last time that Hall and the Christian band Casting Crowns were on tour in the area in 2018, a great deal has gone on in the world. The national division already accelerating was further fueled by the separation caused by a pandemic.

Casting Crowns makes the first of four Texas stops on its The Healer Tour here, on stage at Kay Yeager Coliseum in Wichita Falls.

There is a greater need today for coming together.

And that's the plan for Friday night.

If You Go

What: Casting Crowns concert on The Healer Tour, with We Are Messengers and Ben Fuller

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Kay Yeager Coliseum, 1000 Fifth St., Wichita Falls

Tickets: Prices begin at $36

The divide grows

Addressing an uncertain and sometimes violent world in 2018, Hall said the answer was to "Love each other to start with." Not, he said, just "when things go bad. Love each other, and help each other."

More:Very next thing in Abilene after Easter is Casting Crowns show

Things did go bad. There was a pandemic and the killing of a Black man by police that set emotions in motion. The nation even changed presidents, though some question how that has helped.

The nation became more divided.

"Right now, the world is seeing how bad it got," Hall said. "People are starting to back up, step back a little bit from social media and the way we did things because we really blew it.

"One big lesson we learned is we need to be around people. When you're not around people and at home with your phone, people stop being people. They start becoming situations. And they start becoming issues. They start becoming views and causes. We've already learned with Facebook and Twitter that we don't handle talking with our phones very well."

We sometimes forget there's a person at the receiving end of the conversation.

"We don't think about people, we think about topics," Hall said. "We throw rocks with topics. It's so easy to slam people when you don't know who they are."

People say things online they never would say in person. And even when an insult is hurled, it does not always hit the intended target, he said.

That already was a problem, he said. Then came the pandemic.

"Then, everyone had to go home and lock themselves in with the news for a year," he said. "So everybody picks their favorite news and picks their favorite accounts they follow and they all get tanked up and angry. It's so much easier to get tanked up at an issue or a situation or a view."

The anxiety mounted as people became concerned about their health and job, and they created a villain in their lives.

"We like nothing more than to have a bad guy," Hall said.

An awakening

Hall has called Casting Crowns concerts church. And church is where people gather.

"It has been refreshing to see such a spiritual awakening," he said. "There are pockets of things happening."

That includes what has been called the "Asbury Awakening" at Asbury University, south of Lexington, Ken. On Feb. 8, a chapel service ended but those in attendance did not leave. They stayed to sing, pray and give testimonials. The event drew national attention as it continued, and similar gatherings were organized elsewhere.

"It seems like it's normal people, not the professional Christians leading this stuff," Hall said. "People are waking up."

Hall said the nation saw that, too, when a football player was injured and prayer was offered on the field around him.

"There have been so many things to see about everyday people who are realizing that the answers aren't down here but they're up," he said. "People are looking up.

"To me, that's very special."

Hall has not had time to see the movie "The Jesus Revolution," which spotlights the movement of the early 1970s. And there is the documentary "The Jesus Music," directed by the Erwin Brothers ("I Can Only Imagine").

Jon and Andrew Erwin were directors and producers of the movie.

The documentary and movie detail the birth of a genre from hippie folk singers in the 1970s.

It's the foundation of what groups such as Casting Crowns are doing today.

"The Erwin Brothers are friends of mine and shot a few of our music videos in the past," Hall said. "It has been amazing to watch them bloom."

Listen to the music

Music has been central to bringing a spiritual message to people, especially 50 years ago.

"You had people who didn't have any connection to church. When you go to church, you hear the church's songs. When my mom opens a hymn book and sings a hymn, she remembers all the moments in her life where that song was. But you've got brand new people being saved, they don't have a nostalgia with it. They don't have a walk or milestones with these songs.

"So, they want to write their own songs. In the '70s on until now."

Churches are known to battle some music styles "but what you've got to see is there's no such thing as Christian music," he said. "It's Christian lyrics."

And that's why at a Casting Crowns concert, while the music rocks along and light effects flash, their songs lyrics are shown on a screen. That allows people to sing along and to let the message sink in.

"It's people singing their story, and you've got to let people tell their story," Hall said. "It's a beautiful thing to hear."

Still a homeboy

Though touring takes Hall and others away from home, his base remains Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church, which is southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. He is youth pastor there. and also assists at the church's school.

He ventured into that role when he noted that athletic teams have chaplains.

"They pray with them and do devos with them. I want to a chaplain to the arts," he said. "I help the singers and the drama kids and the art kids and build relationships. It has been amazing.

"I'm still loving it and doing it," said Hall, who now is 53.

Looking ahead, staying focused

Next up is an anniversary project. Casting Crowns is coming up on 25 years.

Hall said songs will be redone and some of what used to be called "deep cuts" revisited.

"It's going to be a special thing," he said.

For one thing, John Michael Hall, his son, is the group's bass player now. He was on "The Healer" recording.

"Getting to create music with him has been a lot of fun," Hall said.

In the movie "The Jesus Revolution," a point of conflict develops when a charismatic leader's popularity is seen as overwhelming his message.

How does Mark Hall avoid that as the leader of one of the best-known Christian groups?

For starters, Melanie, his wife, has been "running Crowns since the start," he said. "I just keep my head in the church. I'm meeting with teenagers, I'm spending time with families, I'm walking through life with people.

"And that's where the songs come from."

For more information, visit https://wfmpec.com/event/casting-crowns-the-healer-tour/

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Crowns' Hall: It's time to step back and put community over isolation