Casting Crowns concert with Matt Redman, band meet-n-greet a great night in Nashville (photos)

Casting Crowns photo © Kathryn E. Darden

Casting Crowns at the Sommet Center, Nashville

As reported in Casting Crowns at Sommet Center tonight, Grammy and Dove Award winning gospel group Casting Crowns played the Sommet Center in Nashville last night with special guest English Christian worship leader, songwriter and author Matt Redman. The drenching rains and earlier tornado warnings had passed, so I decided to brave the remaining drizzles and head downtown.

Casting Crowns  - Worship Rock 'n Roll
This was not your typical rock concert: the concert was a worship service which just happened to feature great soft-rock gospel music! Casting Crowns front man Mark Hall has referred to their music as "ministry of discipleship." With great music interspersed with scripture and prayer, and hard-hitting lyrics that focused on what Christians and the church should be doing, the Casting Crowns concert certainly challenged many Christians there to get out of the way and let Jesus lead. Hall revealed a particular lesson he had learned was has a "saved spirit but a lost brain." He shared a key prayer of his is to ask the Lord, "Is there anything that stands between me and You, anything I need to leave in this building?"

Casting Crowns & Mark Hall Deliver
But the Casting Crowns concert also did what concerts are supposed to do - it entertained. Mark Hall talked about having dyslexia and ADD and joked that if you had to pick one, you should go for the "complete set." Hall shared in a moment both poignant and humorous, that he his ADD causes him to forget the words to songs he wrote, so they show up on a monitor on stage, which he can't read due to his dyslexia. However, the songs he writes are eloquent, and backed by a team of superb musicians, Mark Hall has the voice to lend powerful emotion to the lyrics he writes. This concert ROCKED! (See slideshow below.)

Casting Crowns Meet 'n Greet
After the rock and roll worship service, I had two backstage passes to attend a meet 'n greet with the band. A cute teen had sat down next to me halfway through the show, followed a few minutes later by an older woman. The youngster was so into the Casting Crowns concert, that after the show, I asked them if I could give the teen my extra pass. They talked it over and soon I had a young guest for the meet 'n greet. Calling upon my great experience as a concert-goer/journalist, I explained to Caroline, my young charge, how these things worked. She listened politely and seemed very excited to be going to the meet 'n greet.

PureNRG Surprise
However, backstage something odd began to occur. One by one, Casting Crowns roadies and staff came up to greet my young guest BEFORE the meet 'n greet. I asked her to 'fess up and tell me why all the staff seemed to know her. She admitted she was Caroline Williams, part of the teen group PureNRG, and PureNRG toured with Casting Crowns on the Crowns Christmas Celebration tour in 2008!  The delightful Miss Williams shared that PureNRG had released a new project in July and were soon heading to Mexico to perform.

Casting Crowns in Nashville, Chattanooga
The Casting Crowns meet 'n greet was even more fun with Caroline there as each band member spent extra time hanging with her, hugging Caroline and giving me ample opportunity to snap some candid camera pics. All in all it was a special evening. If you missed it, you have two more chances to catch the best-selling band in gospel music - Casting Crowns - live in the area as well as on a live web performance. See Casting Crowns in Nashville, Chattanooga three times in four days for more details.