Casting Crowns Christmas

KXOJ welcomes the Casting Crowns Christmas Celebration Sunday, November 30th at BOK Arena downtown Tulsa! Special guests include Natalie Grant, Denver & The Mile High Orchestra, Avalon, Michael English and Pure NRG!

It's the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season! Tickets are on sale now through the BOK Arena Box Office. Listen for a Casting Crowns Weekend November 22nd and 23rd and a chance to win front row seats!

Grammy winning, multi-platinum recording artists Casting Crowns, who sold 450,000 tickets in more than 80 cities during its last outing, will headline the 14-city "Casting Crowns Christmas Celebration" with a full orchestra and choir touring this November and December, performing songs from their first and highly anticipated Christmas Album, Peace On Earth. The tour, billed as Casting Crowns Christmas Celebration, will feature special guest, three-time GMA Dove Award winning Female Vocalist of the Year, Natalie Grant, Denver & The Mile High Orchestra, Avalon, Michael English and new music from Radio Disney favorites, pureNRG. "I want to see people rediscover the worship that Christmas songs have in them," says Mark Hall, front man and principal songwriter for Casting Crowns. "A lot of times, when we sing carols, we sort of shift into Christmas carol mode -- singing songs that we've been singing for so long, we might not be hearing what they're really saying," explains Hall.

Hall and Casting Crowns hope to point audiences this Christmas season to the deeper meaning of songs sung for generations, many which were written from a place of searching and pure desperation. Peace on Earth's featured single "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which features a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based boys choir personifying the bells, was originally penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poetic lyrics document how hope emerged from a crisis of faith the writer experienced after he lost his wife in a house fire and soon saw his son crippled in the Civil War. Hall explains, "He wrote about how every year when these Christmas bells ring, it reminds him that there's peace on earth, good will toward men. The verses change, and suddenly he's saying, 'But there is no peace. There's war, and there's hate. And this hate mocks the song of the bells.' He's working through his understanding of Christmas. And as the bells keep ringing, he just has this moment when he realizes God is not dead, nor does He sleep. Good will prevail. God is going to save the day." The timelessness of the song's potent hope-filled message is glaring to Hall -- especially in light of today's world events. "This generation needs to hear this song," he says. "My kids need to hear this song." So when the people of God are here, there's peace, because there's hope that God can change anyone's life."