I met ten-year-old Erin Browning on ValentineΓÇÖs Day, 2004 at Westover Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her mother, Laurie, had visited our website to share ErinΓÇÖs story. Erin loved Jesus and Casting Crowns, and, after six years of dance lessons, she had choreographed a dance to our song Here I Go Again.
Read moreI remember some of the water fountains at my elementary school. IΓÇÖd come in from recess, sweat streaking my face and matting my hair, the goal of a long drink of cold waterΓÇöonly to find that a broken compressor had left the water tepid. Few moments are more unsatisfying than slurping from a lukewarm water supply.
Read moreMost of us in the Church have been trained well beyond our obedience. So when it comes to telling others about Jesus, what are we so afraid of? We know about the Power Band bracelets with colored beads that symbolize a different step in the gospel. WeΓÇÖve heard a version of ΓÇ£The Romans RoadΓÇ¥ or some other witnessing tool. But IΓÇÖm not sure we all truly understand how God saves people and if we are enough to help Him.
Read moreAs I drove a backcountry road in Alabama late one night, a thought hit me: Mark, really, youΓÇÖre a vapor. YouΓÇÖre no bigger than a minute. YouΓÇÖre here and gone. Nobody is going to remember you in a hundred years because youΓÇÖre not the point here. So the truth that youΓÇÖre so small and so broken and so self-destructive and so self-absorbed yet God cares about you anyway? ThatΓÇÖs what you should share.
Read moreA lady at one of our concerts in North Carolina told us she and her two boys were living out our song American Dream. After 17 years of marriage and ministry, her husband had quit both. The boys had sent their father a copy of the song. How sad that a child has to ΓÇ£sendΓÇ¥ his father anything, much less a song that basically begs, ΓÇ£Daddy, please donΓÇÖt. All we really want is you.ΓÇ¥ What leads a man to walk away from everyone he has ever really lovedΓÇöand certainly everyone who has ever loved him? I had to shake my head at the story of the tearful mother trying to hold it all together for two little ones because her husband likes the feel of sand between his toes. A little shack on the Rock wasnΓÇÖt good enough.
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