Yesterday, my sister, my father and I got the opportunity to volunteer at a sponsorship table for World Vision during a Casting Crowns concert they were hosting. We did get to see a good portion of the show, but I’ll talk about that a little bit later.

First, I’d like to write about something that Mark Hall said during the course of the presentation. One of the times he spoke, he pleaded with the audience to avoid worshipping them or their songs. He pressed that we should stop looking at him and his songs, and start looking at God instead. This got me thinking. If we are not supposed to worship the singer or the songs, why do we go to concerts? What’s the point? If we want to worship God, couldn’t we save our forty dollars and attend a church service? (That’s for the people who paid for the concert; the volunteers got in free).

I can’t give a universal answer to that question. I will, however, tell what I personally got out of it. (Besides a World Vision T-shirt and an autograph, that is.).

It is so easy to listen to a Christian artist’s album and begin to find yourself worshipping the songs or the singer. It is so easy to envision the person who is singing as some glorified, untouchable, superChristian being who is perfect. It is so easy to begin to enjoy the artist so much that you lose the message that their music is trying to encourage.

That’s where the concert comes in. I was able to watch Casting Crowns play their music and sing it, less than 90 yards in front of me. I was able to view them and see them as normal human beings. They could blend in with everyone else. My friend and I didn’t recognize them for a couple seconds when they walked twenty feet past us. It brought them back down to a human level in my mind.

Okay that’s all for my philosophical rambling about it. I hope I didn’t bore you to death.

The concert itself was pretty good. The music was loud, but it wasn’t too bad. I’ve been to youth rallies that were worse than that. Casting Crowns is a pretty good band overall. I think that they did very well with it. The guest artists were John Waller and Leeland. I had never heard any of John Waller’s songs, and I wasn’t in the auditorium for that part. My sister, our friends, and I went in for a couple of Leeland’s songs, but we came back out after a while.

We were at a table for World Vision, where we were helping people sign up to sponsor a child in a foreign country. It wasn’t hard, and we were able to see most of the concert. I would have taken pictures, but I forgot my camera in the van until the very end.

After the concert, a few of us went and helped pass out water bottles at the doors. That was nice because we got to stay until almost everyone else had gone. That meant that line at the autographing table was almost non-existent. I ran and retrieved my camera from the van and got in line. My dad took a picture of Mr. Hall for me while I was in line, but it didn’t turn out very well. I got my fluorescent orange World Vision volunteer shirt autographed by all of the band members except for Andy Williams, the drummer. I hung it up on my wall. I don’t wear shirts that people have written on because the “permanent” marker fades after repeated washings.

Well, that’s about it. I’d say that I’ve had a pretty profitable time lately. I’ve gotten to see two famous artists sing for free, and meet a famous political columnist, all within the space of a month. Not bad.

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