Casting Crowns’ Story of True Success

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series called “The Law of Divine Elevation.” This article is excerpted from my worship study, Pure Praise: A Heart-focused Bible Study on Worship (Group Publishing, 2009). To pre-order Pure Praise, go here. Thanks! – Dwayne

Here’s a modern-day example that illustrates how and when God may choose to exalt us. The Christian music group Casting Crowns has enjoyed amazing popularity since its debut release. Lead singer and songwriter Mark Hall is also a fulltime minister to students at a church outside Atlanta. To help teach biblical principles, for years Mark has written songs for his students to take home and listen to. One such CD of songs went home with a college student named Chase.

As Melanie Hall, Mark’s wife, explained it to me, “Chase met Mark Miller, lead singer and front man for Sawyer Brown, at a basketball camp and gave it to him and asked him to listen to it. Mark Miller listened to the CD and loved it. Then one day in the spring of 2003, Mark Miller called my Mark and said that he had just gotten back from spring vacation with Steven Curtis Chapman and Terry Hemmings [soon to be named CEO of Provident Music Group] and he let them listen to the CD. They all agreed they needed to go together to make a CD with Casting Crowns. A month later we were in the studio.” Millions of albums have now been sold, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We will not all receive the notoriety among our peers that Asaph did. We will not all hear the thunderous applause that Mark Hall does when he steps onto a stage. True success is not defined by human applause. And greatness is not determined by people’s approval. Jesus said, “He who is least among you all-he is the greatest” (Luke 9:48). You and I will never be more exalted in God’s eyes than when we are plain, ordinary servants-of the most high King!

Excerpted from Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship by Dwayne Moore (Group Publishing, 2009). Used by permission.

>>To read Part 1 of this article, go here.

>>To read Part 2, go here.