Casting Crowns’ frontman Mark Hall may have made headlines recently by selling off his one-of-a-kind, Star Wars-inspired office collection for charity, totaling $15,000 to date for the humanitarian outfit World Vision, but the Atlanta-based youth pastor will have to make room for another new piece of memorabilia.

Casting Crowns’ 2007 studio project The Altar And The Door was recently certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, designating 1 million units sold. The honor marked the band’s third Platinum-selling full-length album (together with their self-titled debut and the sophomore project Lifesong), alongside RIAA Platinum awards for the long-form video projects Live From Atlanta and Lifesong Live.

On August 31, Casting Crowns also celebrates the release of its newest project, Until The Whole World Hears LIVE, a DVD/CD combo package featuring live concert video, 80 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, a Mark Hall-led teaching video series and more.

The band continues its tour in support of its most recent studio project, Until The Whole World Hears, with dates in the US through the fall, and appearances “across the pond” in Ireland, Great Britain, Norway and Germany scheduled for November.

The final piece of Hall’s Star Wars collection, the “Han Solo encased in carbonite” office desk, will be the last item auctioned this fall. Details to be announced soon.

About Casting Crowns:
Christian music’s GRAMMY, AMA and Dove Award-winning Artist of the Year, Casting Crowns is headed by frontman/principal songwriter Mark Hall. The Platinum-selling band’s fourth album, Until The Whole World Hears, sold 167,000 copies first-week, setting a sales record as the highest debuting Christian music artist in SoundScan history (week ending 11/22/09). The album certified RIAA Gold in four weeks, with more than 600,000 sold to date. The band’s career sales exceed 5.1 million.

All of the Atlanta-based band’s projects are RIAA certified, with a tally of three RIAA Platinum Albums, two RIAA Platinum DVDs, two RIAA Gold Albums and a Gold DVD, holding position as Billboard’s top-selling act in Christian music since 2007. Despite an unprecedented six-year career with Casting Crowns, the seven band members remain active in student ministry in the Atlanta area and tour part-time around their local church duties. Serving his 18th year in youth ministry, Hall is the student pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. As a testament to the band’s impact, Casting Crowns performed for a second time in North Korea in April 2009, in partnership with Global Resource Services, as the band continues to forge invaluable relationships with the people in the D.P.R.K.

For more information, visit http://www.providentpress.com/, or http://www.castingcrowns.com/.
Follow the band on Mark Hall’s Twitter at: http://twitter.com/markhallCC.