Praise song school

Casting Crowns; Casting Crowns

I embarked on a vacation from the Lutherans in May of 2004. The Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church needed me. Until June 23, 2009, the members of Wallace congregated in the auditorium of a local high school while they constructed a brand new building across the street from the University of Maryland. You may infer from the previous sentence that the job description of their Church Musician didn’t require the skills of an organist. They needed a pianist.

The music format on a Sunday morning at Wallace usually calls for between two and four hymns and a pairing of two praise songs with me, at the piano, a guitar or two, perhaps an upright bass player and any number of singers. When I first started as Church Musician with this congregation, I had no history to speak of with praise songs. So I started attending an evening worship service in downtown Washington, D.C., with my friend B. He played drums with a praise band for a congregation comprised of young Christians who attended George Washington University, a few short blocks from the White House, and Georgetown University, a few long blocks from the White House. Over the course of many months of Sunday evenings, I began to acquaint myself, and develop the beginnings of a comfort level, with this new sacred music style.

One warm fall Sunday evening, after worship, one of the students talked to me about a Christian concert he had attended a few nights before that featured Casting Crowns. Casting Crowns? Who’s that? “You haven’t heard of them?” No, but I’m pretty new to the realm of contemporary Christian music. Where are they from? “They are a praise and worship band at a church in Atlanta, GA, and, despite being hot on the current contemporary Christians music scene, they are committed to their music ministry at their home church. They are there every Sunday.” Are they good? “Oh, baby.”

So I downloaded their only album at the time called - what else? - “Casting Crowns”. Their high-energy musical drive would generally do the trick for the younger Christian crowd. I DID enjoy it, by the way, though I’ve already talked at length on this blog about my fondness for everything acoustic; there’s not much that’s acoustic here. The words tugged at my ears.

Steven Curtis Chapman co-produced this album, having heard an earlier self-produced album by Casting Crowns. The songs that Mr. Chapman records for his own albums tend to be reactionary and thoughtful in nature. He evaluates events that he has experienced and reflects on how they impact his faith. Mark Hall, who leads the band and writes their songs, composes a harder-hitting message, convicting the listener, if successful, to walk a more righteous path. Not very many hymns or songs of praise accomplish this task with a high degree of success.

The message of Mr. Hall and his band definitely speak to a specific audience: young people, early in their Christian walk, needing examples by which to live their faith. That’s a fairly narrow demographic to engage.

What if his people prayed

And those who bare his name

Would humbly seek his face

And turn from their own ways?

What if the life that we pursue

Came from a hunger for the truth?

What if the family turned to Jesus

Stopped asking Oprah what to do?

Powerful words. They border on idealism. Or, maybe they’re neck deep in idealism. Did Christ work with idealism? I think that he did. The expectations that He set forth for us as Christians put the bar pretty high. So high that it’s unattainable. That makes it uber-idealism. Or super-idealism.

Anyway, these songs don’t seem to fall under the category of “praise song”. They would fail to induce the appropriate atmosphere for a worship setting. I don’t know if the songs accomplish the task that the composer intends. It appears to me that the likely fans of this band and their songs would have progressed beyond the messages that the songs supply. So let me say once again: I don’t know if the songs accomplish the task that the composer intends. But I love that they try.

Credits: To Casting Crowns, for reaching out to a young generation that has a hard time deciding what they like.