The two members of the award-winning Christian band known for their energetic live performances and anthemic faith-filled lyrics say they want to bring hope to a society searching for answers. Joel and Luke Smallbone, who have won four Grammys and 10 GMA Dove Awards as part of For King & Country, are currently traveling the U.S. on their Unsung Hero tour and will embark on their Drummer Boy Christmas tour in December.
They also will release a concert-themed movie, A Drummer Boy Christmas, in theaters December 5-9.
The group's high-energy, multi-level concerts, they say, are a door to the gospel.
"You obviously want those to be stimulating; you want them to be interesting," Luke Smallbone told Crosswalk Headlines. "But it's the messages that people are coming to hear, which are hope-filled songs and words of encouragement."
Like the first-century Christian Barnabas in the Bible, Smallbone wants the group's music to encourage listeners.
"He walked around everywhere, just loving on people, encouraging people," Smallbone said. "My hope is that people come to a show and they leave a little bit better than we found them. And my hope is maybe [they leave] a little bit more built up, a little bit more encouraged, a little bit more purposeful in their life. All of the theatrics and things that we do -- that's just to get people's attention so that they will come, and hopefully, they feel very loved and seen -- and as I said, leave maybe just a little bit different, maybe a little bit more joy-filled than we found them."
Earlier this year, a movie about the Smallbones' parents -- Unsung Hero -- delivered a bit of joy and hope to moviegoers. It was an origin story and followed the Smallbones as they overcame hardship after hardship upon their move from Australia to the United States.
"We sort of put it all on the line in belief and faith that this was a story that the world needed to hear, that America needed to hear, that families needed to hear, that mums needed to hear, and by the grace of God, it was the number two movie in America when it released," Joel Smallbone said. "So we were very relieved."
Next year, the band will take a break from touring to concentrate on their next album and their next feature-length film.
Photo Credit: ©For King & Country
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.