Thrive Student Edition: Digging Deep, Reaching Out

Mark Hall is a true storyteller and a teacher with a heart for ministry. He is lead singer and songwriter for the Grammy Award-winning band Casting Crowns, whose first three albums have sold nearly four million copies. He has been in ministry nearly twenty years and has served at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia, for the last eight years. Mark admits he’d be overwhelmed by life’s demands were it not for his wife of nineteen years, Melanie, who also serves as Casting Crowns’ road manager. Even on tour, Mark and Melanie homeschool their four children: John Michael, Reagan, Zoe, and Hope.

Tim Luke serves as executive pastor of Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church, where he has been on staff for nine years after serving as editor of In Touch magazine, the devotional magazine of Dr. Charles Stanley’s ministry. Tim worked as sportswriter for ten years, the last four as a beat writer covering the Atlanta Braves. He has been married to Karen for twenty years and has two sons, Jacob and J.P.