Casting Crowns
Last Thursday night, a group of us from the YLM office and a few other friends/relations were privileged to attend a Casting Crowns concert! It's not often that a big name band performs in a market like El Paso, but this concert actually happened to be the kick-off of a 40 city tour promoting their newest album, "Come to the Well," that comes out on 10/18. Being the first night, there were a few hitches, like the lead singer forgetting the words to one of the songs! After a long instrumental interlude, he said, "This part of the song is really cool, but I forgot it." At first I was irked, but it also kind of endeared me to the performers onstage as fellow imperfect humans. Looking back, it was one of my favorite moments of the night!
Before the main act took the stage, there were 3 opening acts that were all excellent I thought: Lindsey McCall, The Afters, and Sanctus Real. During one of the Sanctus Real songs a music video was played on the screens that included shots of a tornado-damaged Joplin, MO. It kept flashing images of the LCMS church there and we cheered every time!
Then it was time for Casting Crowns. I recognized most of their songs from the radio, but there were some unfamiliar ones too since I'm not THAT up on Christian music and they are about to release a new album. All the band members are youth pastors or youth pastors' wives, so we were often treated to humorous discourses in between songs. One such mini-sermon was about how God is sitting on the front porch with us, watching our grandkids play. It's an interesting image that might not be precisely Biblical, but the message that God is bigger than time definitely is, and was comforting to me given the present uncertainty of my life in about 3 months. One of their numbers featured The Jesus Painter, and therefore skyrocketed to being my favorite moment of the concert! There are tons of pictures below of this guy--he uses his hands, just a few colors, and a seemingly imprecise splattering/smearing technique to create these incredibly complex masterpieces of Jesus's face. My camera took pretty good pictures of the rest of the evening too:
They opened with their newest single, "Courageous."
Lead singer Mark Hall.
We had awesome seats, 2 rows behind the priority seating section on the far left side, because Karla got there fairly early and saved them!
Karla, her daughter Michelle, and her sister Eunice.
Megan, one of two female band members.
Here begins the Jesus Painter sequence...scroll through them quickly for kind of a flip-book effect.
I liked my idea to take a picture of someone's smart-phone screen in the foreground with the actual stage in the background, except that it's a little dark.
All the acts came back onstage for the encore number.
In case you're wondering (like I was) where the band's name comes from, it's found in Revelation 4:10, in the ESV translation. The chapter describes John's vision of the post-Judgment Day throneroom of heaven as he sees it upon completing his letters to the 7 churches. The NIV reads: "[The twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing gold crowns] lay [cast] their crowns before the throne and say: 'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being," (Revelation 4:10-11). The footnote says that casting their crowns at Jesus' feet was "Acknowledgment that God alone is worthy of ultimate praise and worship." Amen!
Until next time, blessings!
Before the main act took the stage, there were 3 opening acts that were all excellent I thought: Lindsey McCall, The Afters, and Sanctus Real. During one of the Sanctus Real songs a music video was played on the screens that included shots of a tornado-damaged Joplin, MO. It kept flashing images of the LCMS church there and we cheered every time!
Then it was time for Casting Crowns. I recognized most of their songs from the radio, but there were some unfamiliar ones too since I'm not THAT up on Christian music and they are about to release a new album. All the band members are youth pastors or youth pastors' wives, so we were often treated to humorous discourses in between songs. One such mini-sermon was about how God is sitting on the front porch with us, watching our grandkids play. It's an interesting image that might not be precisely Biblical, but the message that God is bigger than time definitely is, and was comforting to me given the present uncertainty of my life in about 3 months. One of their numbers featured The Jesus Painter, and therefore skyrocketed to being my favorite moment of the concert! There are tons of pictures below of this guy--he uses his hands, just a few colors, and a seemingly imprecise splattering/smearing technique to create these incredibly complex masterpieces of Jesus's face. My camera took pretty good pictures of the rest of the evening too:
They opened with their newest single, "Courageous."
Lead singer Mark Hall.
We had awesome seats, 2 rows behind the priority seating section on the far left side, because Karla got there fairly early and saved them!
Karla, her daughter Michelle, and her sister Eunice.
Megan, one of two female band members.
Here begins the Jesus Painter sequence...scroll through them quickly for kind of a flip-book effect.
I liked my idea to take a picture of someone's smart-phone screen in the foreground with the actual stage in the background, except that it's a little dark.
All the acts came back onstage for the encore number.Until next time, blessings!
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