Casting Crowns shares tunes, testimony at Liberty University Convocation

It was a morning of ministry through music and testimony for those attending or tuning in online to Liberty University’s Convocation on Wednesday as the multiplatinum-selling and Grammy Award-winning Christian band Casting Crowns brought its melodic sound and powerfully transparent lyrics to the Vines Center stage.

Lead singer Mark Hall, who survived a battle with an aggressive form of cancer that required one of his kidneys to be removed in 2015, addressed the crowd as he would family, with his daughter, Reagan, among them as a student.

Casting Crowns, which released its 12th studio album, “Healer,” last year, played a variety of songs from the album and the extremely successful 2018 release, “Only Jesus,” as well as a few of its classic hits.

“These songs can never change your life, but they can pull you to the One who can,” Hall said. “We’re not here to tell you anything new. I think that’s the dangerous thing sometimes. We’re always looking for something new. But I want to just encourage you that God can handle you, God wants you, and He saved you because of Jesus. He loves you not because you are good; He loves you because He is good.”

Hall was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and dyslexia in his youth and said he battled depression as a result until he surrendered the disorders to God and confided in others about his struggles.

“You don’t have to be OK, because God can handle you today,” he said. “God is the God of your heart. He’s not the God of your profile. There might be people in your world that you feel like you have to be something for. I don’t have to be that with the Father. He knows me. He knows you, all of it. … We don’t worship God because today is good. We worship because God is good, even today.”

Hall encouraged students to place their identity and find their rest in the loving arms of Jesus, the Author and Perfector of their faith.

“You can get so lost in theology that you forget about Jesus,” Hall said. “It’s easy to hide behind theology and beliefs and convictions. Stay in the Word. Guard your time in the Word, just you and Him. Nothing will ever replace that.”

No matter what degree students may be pursuing at Liberty, or what profession they plan to enter after graduation, he challenged them to be world changers by sharing the Gospel with those who are lost.

“Remember that the reason you are here … is not to go be a doctor,” Hall said. “You are not here to be a performer; you are not here to be a filmmaker. You are here to know God and to make God known. You are here to pour Jesus into other people. If you can’t give your faith away, it might not be yours. So dig in and let God always be dissecting the motives of our hearts and why we do what we do.”

During a refrain in the final song, “Who am I?” off the band’s self-titled album released in 2003, Hall encouraged the students to trust in the God of creation and His only Son, Jesus, who died on the cross that those who believe in Him might have eternal life.

“Because of Jesus, we have no fear,” Hall said. “Because of Jesus, we rest in the finished work of what He has done. We fall on Him into a future that He is standing at the end of right now looking back on. That’s how big our God is; that’s how little we are, and He still loves us. We can rest in that.”

Afterward, Campus Pastor Jonathan Falwell invited students to the Academic Lawn from 5-7 p.m. to enjoy samplings from a variety of food trucks before an extended time of worship and prayer for the semester’s final Campus Community service on the lawn at 7 p.m.