Three Christian music powerhouses take to the Bryce Jordan Center stage at 7 p.m. Wednesday, as Casting Crowns, Hillsong Worship and Elevation Worship come together to provide a night of uplifting music.
The concert is one of the last few shows during the bands’ 2019 USA Tour, keeping them on the road in a busy, near-nightly performance schedule. One of the tour’s main themes has been unity and togetherness, both within the church and on a broader scale.
When the tour was announced by presenter Premier Productions earlier in the year, owner Shane Quick said that, “Everyone knows that unity is one of the most powerful forces in the world. These bands coming together represent that very force. The prayer is that this tour exemplifies the unity of the body of Christ…”
Casting Crowns’ lead singer and primary songwriter Mark Hall echoes this sentiment, saying that, while all the performing bands have different music styles, they’re coming together to get different churches and Christians in the same room.
“We need a greater sense of unity in the church,” Hall says. “Different churches and different denominations, different circles who believe different things, although we all believe in Jesus, sometimes some of the outer edges of our faith might be a little different [in what] we believe about certain things. That can be divisive between churches. Our goal is to get all these different kinds of churches in one room and show them that, if we’re all together and we just love God and love people, we can really help the world. That really, to me, is the biggest point of [the tour]: bringing the church together.”
The concert strives to provide an inclusive environment for attendees, with lyrics and other media shown on screens throughout the entire night.
“You can always be a part of every moment that’s happening. No one’s left in the dark,” Hall says. “I think people feel a part of what’s going on from the moment they walk in the door.”
For Hall, the type of music concertgoers can expect Wednesday evening is really about truth telling and hope.
“I like music that actually tells me the truth and points me to hope,” he says, mentioning that he prefers songs that don’t simply tell him everything’s going to be fine in life. “Maybe it’s not going to be fine. What do you do when it’s not going to be fine?”
Christian music, he says, talks not only about everyday life, but how to get through everyday life.
However, despite the concert’s theme of Christian unity and bringing different factions of churches together, Hall says personal faith isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for enjoying the concert. Anyone can have an uplifting evening of positive music.
“If you’re already a Jesus follower, I believe you’ll be encouraged in your faith and you’re going to be challenged a little bit and that’s what we all need,” he says. “I believe if you’re still on the outside looking in at who Jesus is, I think you’re going to come and you’re going to love the music and you’re going to love everything going on but then you might have your eyes opened up a little bit more to who Jesus is.
“You’re going to hear stories from people who aren’t better than you, less than ordinary people, broken people telling their stories and that’s what makes it real. Anyone can come to this concert and be lifted up and leave glad that they came.”
