Casting Crown's Mark Hall on Stepping Out

[Kelly]

This really inspiries me

From In Touch Ministries:

Every Sunday, Mark Hall purposefully forgot his Bible so no one at church would ask him to do what he feared most: read aloud.

His mom knew his "secret" but wouldn't let Mark define himself by his learning disabilities: dyslexia and ADD. Still, worried that friends would discover he was "stupid," Mark pled with his mom to reenter normal classes at school. He could hardly read a single page, yet somehow, pulling Cs and Ds, Mark finished high school.

Raised in a Christian family, he had received Christ at nine years of age. "But the fledgling relationship with God in my back pocket hadn't grown at all," says Mark. As a young man desperate for love and acceptance, he built his life around a girlfriend. "But if that person leaves, you no longer have a life," he says. When the sandcastle was eventually swept to sea, he "crashed and burned" and even contemplated ending his life.

Then, with one masterstroke, Mark's life changed. After falling so far, he finally saw that he'd missed something—something big. "I realized that relationship with God is really what life's all about!" Gradually, his purpose began to take shape.

Rather than seeking validation from people, Mark sought Jesus. As he pursued friendship with Christ rather than 'religion,' he felt God's acceptance and love continually wash over him.

"I realized that God doesn't need me; He wants me!" Mark recalls. "Through the lives of Moses, Joseph, David, and Paul, I saw that God wasn't looking for talents—He was looking for hearts. If He'd wanted a trained warrior to kill Goliath, He could have used King Saul, but He used a shepherd boy instead." As Mark learned to believe that the Lord's power was made perfect in his own weakness, God began to use him for greater things than he'd imagined possible.

Soon after this turning point in his early twenties, Mark felt called to full-time ministry. Simultaneously, a romance began to blossom with Melanie, a church friend since childhood. "Boom, boom, boom—it was like God had been holding everything back, saying, 'As soon as you're ready for this, I'd really like to get started.'"

So Mark stepped out of hiding. He and Melanie married and moved to Florida for college, where he began to pray about becoming a youth pastor. Meanwhile, songs were dancing in his head, although he could barely read a note. Mark kept fighting the lie he'd heard whispered in his head throughout his life—You're not good enough to do this—and forged ahead in the growing strength of his new-found identity in Christ.

In his first position ministering to youth, he had eight kids and a monthly budget of $50. Within a year, 40 kids were attending. "I realized that being a youth pastor is just about loving Jesus and loving kids," says Mark, "and that I can do this!"

But God called Mark to step out evenfurther. When he was invited to lead worship for 300 students at a retreat, he was scared to death. "I still am!" he says. "But something just made sense up there. I knew I was going to be doing this for the rest of my life."

Today Mark pastors 400 teens at the sprawling Eagle's Landing Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia, where he also fronts his band, Casting Crowns. "The band is just part of the ministry," says Mark from behind his cluttered desk. "It can't be a side job, or my heart would be divided."

When an email arrives announcing that Casting Crowns has topped all four Christian radio charts, Mark—recently named Dove/Gospel Music Association Songwriter of the Year—shakes his head. "I don't have a file in my brain for that. To me, that's not real. This," he says, pointing to his planner, "is real. I've got to meet with Kimmy at three and Dylan after that. This is what's important. Yes, God will take you to the mountain every once in a while, but you can't hang out there forever."

His heart-cry isn't for fame or even validation as a Christian leader; it's for the teens at Eagle's Landing. "I want our kids to be transformed from seeing God as 'religion' to having a deep relationship with Him," he says. "Transparency is everything. When people appear to have it all together, their faith seems unobtainable. My approach is, 'Let me tell you how I've messed up and how God led me through it. If I could do this again, here's what I'd do differently.'"

Mark's passion for teens to authentically know God has touched the entire church. "Often," he says, "the feeling when you come to church is that if you've failed, you shouldn't let anyone know. So you act like everything's fine while you're surrounded by people who aren't fine—that's what 'religion' is. The world wants nothing to do with that. They want to see people who are real."

The secret is out: Step out in faith and God will give you wings.

- by Creston Mapes

[todd d.]

the good lord needs more humble servents like mark, you know i can relate to a step of faith with the childern i teach every wedesday night in reliogion classes and i have a heart for those young Teens out there, what there faced with every day, and my class room is propably the most unique arround , i start with a outline on the board, we light a candle ,i bring in my gaitar some nights and we sit in a circle and offer up your prayers , then the rest i have to say used to be a strruggle. NOT NO MORE i toke a leep of faith a few years ago ,and stopped trying to follow the book [our teachers class room guide] and went with the kids on there questions as they came up with in the peramiators im given .result a fun class.And i decieded to hold nothing back on my faith share share share and i dont care what any one says period...... Keep the faith....


thanks for sharing the story of mark from casting crowns that was neat Kelli.

Todd

[BlessedLady]

This has touched me in a way I can't put into words. Thank You for taking the time to post it.
BlessedLady

[mijahe]

Originally Posted by OP

This really inspiries me

I'll say. They were downunder last week and I went to their concert last week. Fantastic concert. I had no idea about Mark's ADD. No idea at all, until he mentioned it at the concert. Well that just made the concert so much better after that. On a completely different level.

Now I know why their songs are so good, (I've heard some pretty awful Christian bands). Some of the best musicians aren't the ones that come up with the best songs, but the ones who play the music with emotion.
They feel the lyrics, because they write them from the heart.... and they sing them the same way.