Living with a kingdom focus is the theme of Until the Whole World Hears, the latest studio album from Grammy Award-winning group Casting Crowns.
“Our main purpose, above all else, is to know Him more,” says singer-songwriter Mark Hall. The title track on the album comes from an e-mail signature from Roger Glidewell, Hall’s mentor in student ministry, who always closed his messages with the phrase, “Until the whole world hears.”
“Those simple words are a challenge to be intentional with the way we live our lives,” Hall says.
“To Know You” centers on the apostle Paul’s struggles and fears, and brings them down to a personal level, while the song “Always Enough” was inspired by a fellow churchgoer’s death while serving in Afghanistan. “When things that are constants in our lives are stripped away, that’s when we have to know He’s always enough,” Hall says.
Until the Whole World Hears showcases the signature sound of Casting Crowns and its members: Mark Hall, Megan Garrett, Melodee DeVevo, Hector Cervantes, Chris Huffman, Juan DeVevo and new member Brian Scoggin, who replaced drummer Andy Williams. For the first time on a Crowns’ album, Cervantes and Juan DeVevo add their vocals to Hall’s on the worshipful “At Your Feet.”
In an effort to connect others to the powerful theology of hymns, the album includes modern re-inventions of songs Hall grew up with, including “Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)” (from the hymn “One Day”), “Joyful, Joyful” and “Blessed Redeemer,” which features violinist Melodee DeVevo as lead vocalist and includes the group’s home congregation from Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of McDonough, Ga.
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