NOIZE: First of all, who would you say are some of the musical groups who have influenced the music of Casting Crowns?

HALL: The cool thing is, we listen to a wide variety of music. On the rock side we really like Third Day, Michael Tait, Toby Mac, Switchfoot, Delirious, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Jars of Clay and Caedmon’s Call, as well as KJ52 and other stuff on the rap and hip-hop side. I only began listening to Christian music about 8-9 years ago, but I’ve got plenty to listen to on this side!

NOIZE: What did you listen to 8-9 years ago?

HALL: Eight or nine years ago it was U2. Right around that time the classic rock stations were starting, so I really got into Pink Floyd and Foreigner. Then I went over to the Euro side, with Depeche Mode and The Smiths and Sting. I’ll get on a CD for a month and then I’ll get on another one, and I never really have one favorite.

NOIZE: How would you describe the name of your band to a person who wouldn’t claim to be a Christian?

HALL: I’d want to draw a picture of the statement that sooner or later, in a believer’s life, every little kingdom has to fall down and take its place behind our walk and our relationship with Jesus. It’s the idea of building little castles in the sand—all the little crowns we may think are important have to come in second and third and fourth and fifth. And on the other side of all the awards that will come our way (in Heaven), they’re all going to pale when we do see Jesus. They’re going to fall down as well.

NOIZE: Describe the look and a feel of a Casting Crowns show.

HALL: Well, we’re definitely not rock stars, so we’re very comfortable and very transparent. We share a lot about how our songs came about, and we share a lot about what God’s teaching us. We share how we’ve failed and about where we see God speaking to the church right now. We’re not going around and singing ABOUT the church—we’re IN the church. The main message you’d hear at one of our shows is the fact that a lot of us, as really young believers, were fooled into thinking that religion was all there was to it. But a relationship and a walk with Jesus will go home with people when the concert’s over. Our songs will not go home with you after a show or to school with you on Monday, but you have to have your own walk with Jesus. Bands will come and go, and as cool as our band might be, the most we’ll ever do is pour water on a seed that someone else—some Sunday School teacher or pastor—watered in the church. We’re out there to complement what the church is doing.

NOIZE: Your album seems to be made up of two parts, with the first half being teaching and the second half being of the worship variety. Was that intended?

HALL: I’m not sure how the order of the songs on our album came about, and I think it was more of a musical flow. We’re rookies at this, and the whole process of putting together the album moved so fast. When you come to one of our concerts, though, we’re going to do a lot of worship music, because to me worship is a first step to building a relationship out of a religion. Worship is prayer, and prayer is conversation, and conversation is how friendships start.

NOIZE: If you could change anything about the album, is there anything you’d do differently?

HALL: I probably would have had the song “Glory” first, so we could start off with a worship song. I always thought it funny in the flow that the CD starts out with “What If His People Prayed,” but I don’t think about it too much.

NOIZE: Casting Crowns has been called “the fastest-selling new artist of 2003 and 2004.” Within the Christian music industry, is there such a thing as stardom?

HALL: We’re in Atlanta, so we’re pretty removed from that and there’s not a lot of hype about it here. We don’t really need to hear that stuff either, not because I’m above it but I do know myself and I’d get caught up in it. I need to keep my focus where it needs to be with my students, so it’s really neat being more removed from the hype.

NOIZE: Do you plan to stay in Atlanta?

HALL: Oh yeah, I’m staying in student ministries and I’m staying in Atlanta. The band only travels on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and I’m still full-time in the church. Things are moving very well, and I really don’t really feel a calling to be out of the church in the capacity I’m in. I really have a burden for the church.

NOIZE: Tell us about what you do in the church there in Atlanta.

HALL: I’m youth pastor for 6th-12th grades at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church. I’ve been here for two years, and we’ve really built a strong ministry with four parts. Our Wednesday-night ministry is called Refuge, and it’s the front door to our student ministries. That follows down into our Faith ministry, which is where our outreach teams encourage students to do more. Our third ministry is our Bible studies on Sunday morning, Discipleship, and from there we try to move students out into Ministry.

NOIZE: What’s the response of your students been like to the success of the band?

HALL: Well, we don’t play songs like “If We Are the Body” too much at Refuge, because I think they’ve heard it a few times! But there’s a ton of excitement there. We did our CD release party here, where there were probably 2,300 people in our 2,100-seat auditorium. It’s a young church, and everyone has been very supportive. It’s like Casting Crowns is an arm of our church, and it’s been accepted well.

NOIZE: Within the next five years, what trends do you see on the horizon when it comes to working with youth at the root level, and how are you preparing for those trends?

HALL: For me, I think that students reach students. Trends come and go, and there will be a “new way” to do student ministry about every 2-3 years. But if you can disciple a student and get enough adult leaders who can do one-on-one or small groups with students, I don’t think there’s another model. If I can pour into 10 adults who can pour into 10 students each who can then pour into 10 other students each, that’s discipleship! The church may be way behind when it comes to culture, but if they can just turn out people who love people and don’t judge people, we can’t build enough church buildings for that many people.

NOIZE: And finally if you had the attention of the youth of America for 20 seconds, what would you tell them?

HALL: I would tell them that God is not a book, and that Jesus is not an idea or a lesson in your Sunday School curriculum. He’s a person, and a person can have a friendship with you. He loves you in a way that’s unconditional—the kind of love that many students don’t know. It’s the value of having a relationship over having a set of goals to live by or a notebook of cool little spiritual nuggets. We need to move away from “churchiness” to just a friendship with Jesus. I know you can have that with Jesus, because I was just with Him this morning!

                                                             ~The Noize

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