December 27-29 Gatlinburg 1

Casting Crowns

Casting Crowns is a Grammy Award and Dove Award winning Christian band that employs a soft rock music style. The band was created in 1999 by youth pastor Mark Hall at First Baptist Church in Downtown Daytona Beach, Florida as part of a youth group. He also serves as a lead vocalist. Later they moved to McDonough, Georgia and more members joined creating the band now known as Casting Crowns. Some members of the band currently work as ministers for Eagles Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. Casting Crowns frontman Mark Hall calls the band's work a ministry akin to what the world would call "preaching to the choir." In keeping with The Great Commission, Hall describes their music as a "ministry of discipleship." We believe your youth group will be greatly blessed through the blessed music ministry of Casting Crowns.

Newsboys

Newsboys are a Grammy Award-nominated Christian pop rock band. Since the band's founding in Australia in 1985, Newsboys have released fourteen studio albums and have been one of the most popular Christian music artists of the past two decades. One of the more media-exposed Christian rock bands of the '90s, Newsboys gained six number one singles on the Christian charts, and have been featured in more secular media outlets than the average Christian band. Newsboys are considered one of the most popular bands in the Christian music industry. They have had numerous hit singles on the Christian pop charts, including Shine (1994), Take Me To Your Leader (1996) and He Reigns (2003). Their latest well-received effort, God's Not Dead (2011), has been exploding up the charts and shows just how far Newsboys have come since those early days of 1985.

Thousand Foot Krutch

Toronto-area Christian band Thousand Foot Krutch first appeared in 1997, when Trevor McNevan, Joel Bruyere, and Steve Augustine started putting a worship song spin on a rap-metal sound. After building a buzz around Ontario with numerous shows, a strong demo, and thriving trade of MP3s through its website, Thousand Foot Krutch signed with Diamante and issued Set It Off, its official debut, in March 2001. TFK jumped to the much higher profile Tooth & Nail for September 2003's Phenomenon. They'd grown up considerably in the two years since Set It Off, and the new album reflected a more focused, rocking sound. 2005's The Art of Breaking adopted a more mainstream rock sound, which carried over to 2007's The Flame in All of Us as well. 2009's Welcome to the Masquerade, which would be the band's last release with Tooth & Nail, entered the Billboard Top 200 at number 35, peaking at number two on Christian rock radio. The group's sixth studio album, The End Is Where We Begin, arrived in 2012.

Tenth Avenue North

We've all heard it said that music is the universal language, and it's so true. No other vehicle more powerfully captures our collective hopes and fears or more poignantly celebrates our dreams and triumphs. With one listen to the music of Tenth Avenue North, it becomes obvious that songwriter Mike Donehey and his bandmates have a gift for expressing truth in a way that simultaneously educates, enlightens and entertains. "Most of the themes in our songs are about truth and about the struggle to believe it," Donehey says of the music on the band's debut disc Over and Underneath. "I think we have to represent both sides of that coin. Jesus said, 'True worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.' When we sit down to write a song, essentially we are dealing with two things: Truth and the struggle to accept that truth. Emotion without truth is just sentimental and truth without emotion becomes cruel. Hopefully in our music, we are talking about the truth of God, but marrying that with the struggle that is within every person to believe. I think it's a struggle that will last for our whole lives." It's that rare ability to tap into those complex emotions that is at the core of Tenth Avenue North's music. Its songs are intellectual, melodic pop/rock that listeners will find reminiscent of Jars of Clay, yet there's a vulnerability that makes its music even more accessible in many ways. "To me, the most amazing thing is the songs," says Jason Ingram, who co-produced the band with Phillip LaRue. "The songs are just rooted in so much truth and passion. Mike's ability to communicate, both as a singer and songwriter, is on an exceptional level. I'm still overwhelmed at the way God uses these guys to teach us and compel us into a greater understanding of the gospel."

Britt Nicole

Christian contemporary music singer Britt Nicole grew up in the church, her grandfather's church, actually, along with his TV ministry, which aired weekly on the Charlotte, NC, station WAXN. It was there that Nicole made her first public appearances, singing gospel songs in a trio with her brother and cousin. A scholarship offer from Belmont University to study commercial music was turned down so Nicole could focus on perusing a recording contract. She landed it in 2006 when the Sparrow label came calling. A year later they released her debut album, Say It, featuring the singles "Set the World on Fire" and "You." Another track from the album, "Sunshine Girl," landed on MTV's teen reality show Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County.

Trip Lee

William Lee Barefield III, better known by his stage name, "Trip Lee", is a Christian rapper who is signed to Reach Records and has recorded both independently and as a founding member of the 116 Clique. Originally from Dallas, Texas, he now resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first gained recognition after appearing on the Reach Records website at the age of 16. His debut album, If They Only Knew, was released in 2006. His second album, 20/20, was released on May 20, 2008.

Newsong

Newsong started out 30 years ago as a 9 member church band for Morningside Baptist Church in Valdosta, GA, never imagining that they would still be together in 2010. Founding member, Billy Goodwin, explains the group's faith attitude, "The commitment that we made was, 'God, we'll do this as long as Your hand is on it, as long as we see You working.' One of the joys in my walk has been learning that God is faithful even when things look impossible." Throughout the years, and changes in the group, they have had 17 #1 singles, six Gospel Music Association Dove Award nominations, numerous songwriting awards, and five of the Top 100 Christian radio singles of the past decade. They are known for their songs, "Arise, My Love," "Miracles," "Jesus To The World (Roaring Lambs), and "The Christmas Shoes," which is also the title of their first Christmas Album.

Unhindered

Every once in a while, you come across a group of people who refuse to let things stay the way they are. Fueled by a passion for what they believe, they cannot sit by and watch culture consistently walk down the wrong path — they are mobilized to action. Without these people, society would never change. Enter Unhindered, a Christian worship band cased out of Atlanta, GA. More than just a group of musicians playing together, Unhindered is a community that is dedicated to tirelessly laboring to lead people to God. A band that has been forming since some of its' members were in high school, Unhindered released their first CD (City Streets. independent) in Fall of 2005 and have since sold over 10,000 copies. With a passionate heart for engaging students in worship, the band now travels across the United States declaring that not only does God want to be involved in students' lives while they are at church, but He also desires to play play a huge part in their every day activities and decisions. "The same God that you sing to now, in church," says Patrick (Pat), "wants to play a part in every decision you make tomorrow at school, with your friends, at your job, wherever you are, in everything that you do.