American Band Rock: Casting Crowns' Lifesong

Review: Casting Crowns’ Lifesong
By Benjamin C. Squires

To listen to Casting Crowns means to cast away certain hang ups I have.

Hang Up #1
As a youth pastor, Casting Crowns intimidates me. Here is a group of youth ministers still connected to their church and still doing ministry in their church, while meanwhile recording albums, touring, and making huge waves in the Christian music world. I am often overwhelmed just by doing ministry in our relatively small congregation in our relatively small community. So I’ll admit that listening to Casting Crowns always gets me feeling a little anxious or like I’m not doing enough. Call it insecurity, which of course does deny that God is using me where He wants me in the way He wants to use me. I know that my insecurity has nothing to do with Casting Crowns, but that overwhelmed feeling is the first impression that the band gives me. I’ve got to cast away that hang up.

Besides, lead singer (and youth pastor) Mark Hall has even addressed that concern by launching Jumpstart Resources (now a part of Global Youth Ministry) as a way to help youth pastors, especially those just starting out.

Hang Up #2
Casting Crowns grows out of being a worship band. I typically shy away from worship bands, because their music is often good for worship but not as good for listening to in the car. When I want to crank my stereo up, I want music that cranks up too.

Casting Crowns, however, can sing “hallelujah” while also adding plenty of contemporary rock behind the songs. The title track of Lifesong has a chorus that invites everyone to sing, is a song that could easily be adapted for congregational use, but also has plenty of guitar wash, interesting drum fills, and soulful background vocals. Hang Up #2 doesn’t have to apply to Casting Crowns.

Hang Up #3
Besides the sound of worship bands sometimes being blah, the lyrics tend towards the insipid as well. Not with Casting Crowns. While the choruses are simple enough to be repeatable by a group, with melodies that are not too complex, the verses tell stories (“Praise You in This Storm,” “Does Anybody Hear Her”). The songs ask tough questions like why we act as Christians as if we never sin (“Stained Glass Masquerade”). Unlike a lot of worship music which simply repeat a verse or two of Scripture, Hall writes lyrics that use Scripture verses as accents, or perhaps the songs themselves are expounding on the Scripture texts. Therefore, after telling the story of the faith of Laurie Edwards in “Praise You in the Storm,” he then quotes Psalm 121, “I lift my eyes unto the hills,/Where does my help come from?/My help comes from the Lord/The Maker of Heaven and Earth.” When that lyric comes, the light clicks on. This is the faith of this woman; this is what this song is about; this song is an expanded explanation of Psalm 121. Now those words don’t just get repeated without context; now those words ring with the truth of how they strengthen our faith amid this world.

Hang Up #4
As Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay) was quoted in Sojourners recently, there’s an assumption that “Republicans are all Christians, and all Christians are Republicans.” I’m afraid of popular Christian bands, because they’ve taken on a Republican, pro-America image that sometimes seems to come into conflict with the social ministry aspect of the mission of Christ. This hang up might still be here with Casting Crowns; the jury is still out. On Lifesong in the song “While You Were Sleeping,” which is for the most part an excellent resetting, retelling of “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem,” there’s a hint of that assumption that conservative America has it all right. Halls words say, “United States of America/Looks like another silent night/As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies/That save the trees and kill the children.” That’s a line that continues the assumptions that: 1) environmentalists all believe in abortion rights, and 2) pro-life Christians are not concerned about the environment.

I think many of Casting Crowns’ song break out of that Christian, moral agenda viewpoint, and I don’t want them to end up proving Hang Up #4 true like Third Day has. Third Day wrapped themselves in the image of their major sponsor, Chevrolet, acting as if they are as American as “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet,” (and of course, George W. Bush), losing a good deal of the image of Christ being counter to American culture and values.

Hanging Up on the Hang Ups
Beyond my hang ups, there are two more strong points for Casting Crowns’ Lifesong. First, the title track comes out of the gate with passionate, contemporary rock, and has a lyric perfect to use for a Bible study about spiritual gifts. Second, “Stained Glass Masquerade,” which admits that Christians don’t like to let anyone see them sweat which gives everyone the impression that we think we’re perfect, does this by playing on the lyrics of R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” Hall sings the song co-written by Nicole Nordeman, “Are we happy plastic people,/Under shiny plastic steeples/With walls around our weakness.” Again, a great song for a Bible study especially if you need to help your church or youth group admit their sins—to the world—in order to help others see that they’re not going to be the only sinners coming to church today.

Thanks to Casting Crowns and Reunion/Beach Street Records for the review copy.