MQ: You mentioned Charlie Hall and knowing him, is that how you got started working with the Passion conferences?

Nathan: Passion started in '97 in Austin, Texas. ... and there were about 1500 to 2000 college students in Austin. In '97 and '98 Christy and I started getting involved with it. I remember after the Passion conference in '98...we had dinner with Louie and Shelly (Passion founder Louie Giglio and his wife Shelly). Louie was just kind of unhappy with how the music was at Passion. He felt like it was dated.

Christy: It was very adult contemporary.

Nathan: So he said 'Guys, what do you all think of when you think of Passion '99, it's coming up.' We thought, we've got to get Charlie Hall up there. At that point, he really didn't know Charlie...didn't know him personally at all.

Christy: But he got a hold of that independent record and that's how Louie even found us to begin with. We told him about Charlie leading....

Nathan: ...and then, it was funny though, when Charlie came to the table, we started talking about Passion '99 and the songs we were going to do - and by that time there was about 6 to 8 thousand people there- that's when Charlie brought in all these songs from Matt Redman... 'the heart of worship', 'better is one day', 'everything that has breath'....nobody had ever heard these songs. Charlie was getting these independent cd's from the UK, and he was doing them in his church. And so it was really through Charlie that these songs got put on the Passion '99 record that was called 'Better is One Day'...which kind of helped kick things off...which was cool. Chris Tomlin was at Passion '99, then David Crowder got involved in 2000,2001...

MQ: What's your personal preference in terms of church worship style ...traditional, contemporary, or a blend?

Christy: I love a blend. We were just able to lead at our church this past Sunday and we did 2 hymns. We did them contemporary style, but I just think that the hymns are amazing and there are so many things that I skipped over as a child, that I wasn't able to internalize or digest as a child. Now as an adult after experiencing things...doing that Passion hymns record - just released in March, we did that...and it had to be...what...?

Nathan: ...No songs could be newer than a hundred years....

Christy: Yeah, so we had to do research and find hymns and then we all added a modern spin. We wrote little parts that would add to that. I looked at our parts as a response to those old hymn writers, saying...you know, this is a modern response saying that 'we still believe.' Ours was 'Fairest Lord Jesus' and 'Praise to the Lord the Almighty.' It was just really cool so I definitely, really love a blend.

Nathan: I agree.

MQ: Do you have any thoughts for those seeking to work among different denominations and faith backgrounds without compromising their core beliefs...is there a happy medium there?

Nathan: We deal with that all the time as far as, we will go and sing at churches...that's mainly where we sing. In one weekend we will be at a Baptist church, then we'll be at a Presbyterian church, a nondenominational church, or a charismatic church. Each one of those churches has very unique worship styles, and teaching styles...and stuff that they emphasize, and other churches that don't emphasize. I think in those situations we always have a worship time at our concerts. There is just something about a church...believers that believe in God. Whether you believe that God heals people now, or does He not? Do we love God? Do we believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God? Have you committed your life to Jesus Christ? At that point, it's like, 'Ok, that's settled...we can all agree on that part.' So we feel at our concerts, we feel that it doesn't matter from there. Let's celebrate that fact....that fact alone is enough to celebrate.

Christy: We have seen everything that you can imagine. Nothing really freaks us out. We've seen all kinds of things. I've seen some stuff that I believe was real, but obviously I think there is flesh in every church. There is no perfect church. So I think you can get caught up on things that don't matter and I think it's just real important that Jesus is the center. As long as you believe that He's the way to the Father, and that He died and rose again. If you can as an artist, focus in on that and find that happy medium there.