Exclusive: Casting Crowns’ Mark Hall Talks New Movie, Cancer Battle
By Movieguide® Contributor
Movieguide® recently touched base with Christian musician Mark Hall from Casting Crowns, who had a lot to share about his battle with cancer, new documentary and music’s impact on him.
“I think my dad got saved when I was about seven. And that’s when music started changing,” Hall said about when Christian music started to influence him. “I remember as a little kid, we all kind of had the soft rock thing going, it was always going in the house. And, and all of a sudden, man, the music changed. My dad started singing in the choir.”
“And I remember the song ‘Rise Again,’ by Dallas Holm, was such a huge song to him. So music change that was one of the first big changes in my house,” he continued.
47 years later, the 54-year-old looks back on his success. Yet, he still doesn’t think he is anyone special and believes that God uses him because of that.
“It’s been an amazing journey…I don’t think God uses less than ordinary people, because he knows we’re not going to get a big head about it. Because I know who’s who in the zoo here. I know, at the end of the day, on my best day, what I can accomplish, and I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” the artist said. “So what I what I’ve tried to do is just bloom where I’m planted, and just whatever gifts I do have given back to him. And he’s used that. And that’s what I want people to see in my life.”
The band’s new documentary, HOME BY SUNDAY, will come out on Nov. 30, 2023. At first, Hall wrestled with the idea of a movie because “We don’t have any car chases in our story,” but he saw value in the idea after some more thought.
“I told them that if you make it about the songs, and you tell the stories of real people, and what God’s done in their lives because of the songs that he led us [to], if that’s the area that we go, we’ll do it,” Hall shared. “And I feel like they really stay true to that. So you get to hear our story and a lot of the things that God’s brought us through, but you also get to see songs and the fact that we’re pointing people to Jesus, and they’re getting there. So that’s pretty awesome.”
The documentary covers 20 years of tours with Hall, his wife and their four kids. Hall recalls that it “was tough.” When he first hit the road, his daughter Zoe was just a baby, and the couple homeschooled their kids. Juan DeVevo, Casting Crowns’ lead guitarist, also homeschooled his kids on the road. He said, “Homeschooling on the road is a bear.”
Hall said, “We had no way no way to know how it’s gonna go. There weren’t a lot of people to call and say, ‘How did you do this with your family?’ You know, but since then, many, many, many artists have come to us and said, ‘How did you do this with your family?’ And I feel like some of the biggest changes that we’ve seen happen in Christian music is people wanting to know ‘How did you stay plugged into your church?”
“And it’s expensive, it’s going to cost you. But I’m not going to let ministry take me away from my kids. We’re going to do it together. And that’s why we’ve done it. The fame in people being excited about you is really a bit of an illusion,” he continued. “When the music world came to us, I was like, I’m a youth pastor, and I want to stay a youth pastor. How can we do this? Leave Saturday night, get the bus back home. They said we really believe [in continuing] this ministry to the local church. As beautiful as art can be, if it’s not pointing to the truth, we’re staring people in the wrong direction. That’s why music is powerful to me because it can point us to the father.”
In 2015, Mark Hall got news that he had cancer in his kidneys. He told Movieguide® that he struggled with the emotional and spiritual part of it. The singer didn’t want to accept help and prayers when he needed it.
“The big lesson that came from cancer for me is that I’m pretty good at giving. I’m pretty good at loving people through things. And that’s something I’ve done all my life. I’m not very good at receiving. I never really had to face that,” he admitted. “…But when I found out about cancer, I just started backing up. I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want people to know. And I told myself, there were some really good reasons for that, oh, I don’t need people worrying. It’s just pride.”
The singer continued, “I had so much pride. I didn’t know how to hurt like that or be scared in front of people. And God really had to show that to me. And, and I remember telling people in my church, this is going on and telling some people in Christian radio that I trusted and, and it just sort of blew up. And I started seeing this ‘Pray for Mark’…it was on a billboard, ‘Pray for me. [It] was really humbling.”
“And so the lesson I learned is that, you know, this big church I’ve been preaching so much about, you got to let the church be the church. When you’re hurting, you got to let them in. And people aren’t going to say the right thing,” he continued. “And they’re going to say, you know, God’s got this, you know, all these little things that people say because you feel like, as a believer, you feel like, you’ve got to fix the problem with your little words.
“And I’ve always taught kids through that part, like, you don’t have to know what to say, you just love them. You just be there. And I wrote a song called, ‘Love Them Like Jesus’ about that…but I haven’t written a song yet being too strong to let people love you. And so man, God just really got a hold on me about that, and just letting people in and let him pray for you,” Hall shared.
Movieguide® recently reported on Casting Crowns’ 20th anniversary of making music:
Casting Crowns is celebrating 20 years of sharing the good news of Jesus through music with a new album, a tour and a documentary.
To commemorate the milestone, the band released a special edition legacy album titled “Lifesong: A Celebration of the First 20 Years.”
The new album includes 21 songs with 20 guest artists. It features hits such as “Voice of Truth,” “Nobody,” “Praise You In This Storm” and more.
The band recently posted a group photo of themselves with their tour members and said, “20 years has been such a gift, and to be able to celebrate with this group of people was extra special!”
