The Music of Casting Crowns

Reality. Sometimes harsh reality. Truth. Spreading the Gospel to a broken world. Our Christian lives are not just about seeing our friends in church on Sundays, attending a Bible study, volunteering every now and then for the spring clean up and throwing up a prayer to God every now and then. It's about much more than that - it's about loving people who are broken. It's about sharing our faith in a dying world. It's about living what we preach. A real Christian's life includes struggles, heartache and sometimes trouble on every side. The Lord told us in His word to not be surprised when we are faced with such trials.

Casting Crowns is a band whose music encompasses all that a Christian life should be. Their music deals with the simple and complex truths of having a relationship with Jesus. Many have testified that this Grammy-award winning band's music has spoken to their hearts on more than one occasion. Just check out their website to see how their songs have touched lives.

Their music really makes us listeners think about their faith. Are we living a life of complacency or are we doing what the Lord is calling us to do? How giving are we, really? How honest? How judgemental? Do we even care about the dying world around us? The lost souls? Do we engage in spiritual warfare against the enemy? All three Casting Crowns albums force its listeners to ask the tough questions, to seek the truth, to want to love others just a little bit more. Their music is convicting, though not condemning. Below are some songs from this amazing band that deal with the reality we as Christians should be facing everyday.

If We are the Body - the truth about what Christians should be doing and aren't.

If we are the body, why aren't His arms reaching? Why aren't His hands healing? Why aren't His words teaching? And if we are the body, why aren't His feet going? Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

American Dream - the truth about fathers who work too much and don't take time for their family.

His American Dream is beginning to seem more and more like a nightmare. With every passing day. "Daddy, can you come to my game?" "Oh Baby, please don't work late." Another wasted weekend and they are slipping away.

Here I Go Again - the truth about what a struggle it can be for someone to tell their friend about Jesus.

And as I dance around the truth, time is not my friend, This might be my last chance to tell him that You love him, but here I go again

What if His People Prayed? - the truth about what our lives on this earth could really be like if all of us Christians prayed as we are commanded to do.

And what would happen if we prayed for those raised up to lead the way, then maybe kids in school could pray and unborn children see the light of day...What if the life that we pursue came from a hunger for the truth, what if the family turned to Jesus instead of asking Oprah what to do...What if His people prayed. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The Casting Crowns sophomore album, Lifesong, continues what they began on their first album with even more hard-hitting truths.

Does Anybody Hear Her - the truth about how Christians can be so judgemental and are not willing to talk to those who appear to be less than we are.

She is running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction...If judgement looms under every steeple, If lofty glances from lofty people can't see past her scarlet letter and we never even met her.

Stained Glass Masquerade - the truth about being in a church where everyone pretends they are living the perfect Christian life and don't have any problems at all.

Are we happy plastic people under shiny plastic steeples, with walls around our weakness and smiles to hide our pain...The performance is convincing and we know every line by heart, only when no one is watching, can we really fall apart.

While You were Sleeping - the truth about missing Jesus when He was and will be right in front of our eyes.

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. And while we're lying in the dark there's a shout heard across the eastern sky for the bridegroom has returned and has carried his bride away in the night.

Set Me Free - the truth about the enemy and his demons trying to keep us from living out our faith.

It hasn't always been this way, I remember brighter days, before the dark ones came, stole my mind, wrapped my soul in chains. Now I live among the dead, fighting voices in my head...Set me free of the chains holding me. Is anybody out there hearing me? Set me free.

In the inside cover of this CD, Casting Crowns writes, "This is where we all live as believers - somewhere between the altar and the door...God is calling us to take what He gives us."

What This World Needs - the truth about the need for our Saviour, the need for God to change our hearts, the need to be different than the world.

What this world needs is for us to care more about the inside than the outside, have we become so blind that we can't see...What this world needs is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance, blending in so well that people can't see the difference and it's the difference that sets the world free.

Somewhere in the Middle - the truth about knowing who we are and knowing who we need to be.

Somewhere between the wrong and the right...Somewhere between who I was and who You're making me, somewhere in the middle you'll find me, just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control.

Every Man -the truth about not telling a dying world about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

I'm the coach of every winning team and still a loser in my mind, I am the woman shamed and haunted by the cry of unborn life, I'm every broken man, nervous child, lonely wife...Is there hope for every man...in this dry and weary land, is there love that never dies, is there peace in troubled times, someone help me understand.

Slow Fade - the truth about guarding our hearts and about being careful about what we allow ourselves to hear and see.

It's a slow fade when when black and white have turned to gray, thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid, when you give yourself away, people never crumble in a day, daddies never crumble in a day, families never crumble in a day...it's a slow fade.