MEETING CASTING CROWNS

Okay, so this post is a big change from my usual "teen trends" posts, but this was the highlight of my day...week...year!

Hollie and I went to the Casting Crowns concert in Jackson, MS on Saturday, December 5, 2009. I won tickets, plus meet and greets. (Exciting!!) (Thanks Mark!)

Saturday night, the members of Casting Crowns walked down the line, talking to everyone, signing autographs, plus we got our picture made with each member. They were very friendly and down-to-earth, such a thrill to meet, and I kept thinking, "Wow! They are real."

First, we met Chris.

Okay, I was talking when they snapped the picture.

Below: Brian, Hollie & Mark : Brian, Me & Mark

Hollie and Megan :

Me and Megan

Hector, Hollie, and Melodee : Melodee, Me, and Hector

Hollie and Juan : Juan and Me

Hollie wanted her picture made with Melanie Hall, Mark's wife.

First on stage was Matt Redman. For those who didn't know, he is originally from the UK, but now lives in Atlanta. He has four kids, with one on the way. (Boy! I bet he's a busy man.)

Then Casting Crowns performed.

(Sorry these pictures are all over the place, but they would not stay where I put them...go figure.)

And they sung my favorite song, "If We Are The Body".



(This video is taken in Atlanta in 2007, which I didn't go to.)

If We Are The Body...every time I hear this song, it gets me thinking about how sad it is that the church/Christians often turn people away from God by the way they treat others visiting their church for the first time. Sometimes it feels like junior high where everybody has their own little clique and they don't want anybody invading their group. A church should always make a person feel welcome no matter what they look like or how they are dressed. (I believe I discussed the topic of judgmental Christians in another post TATTOOS & PIERCINGS...MY DEEP DARK SECRET.)

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 tells us "For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we are all baptized into one body...

...But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

And even Jesus ate with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors. If he can make everyone feel loved, then so should we.

Okay, back to the concert. I didn't mean to get preachy.

At one point, Matt Redman and his band came back on stage and performed with Casting Crowns.

It was just a great night of worship, which is something I really needed. With me working full-time, in school full-time, and having two teenagers, I get very, very tired. And I'm ashamed to say, there are times when I sleep right through the alarm clock on Sunday morning and miss church (not on purpose). This night really helped me to get refocused. I know I'm doing what God wants me to do (studying to teach special education), but I don't think he intended for my studies to interfere with my time spent with him, so I got a louder alarm clock.

If you get the chance to see Casting Crowns and Matt Redman in concert, I highly recommend that you go. You will be blessed.