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Thousands of Third Day fans were packed into the Benedictine University gymnasium in Lisle, Illinois, getting primed for the big show.

It was a few minutes past seven, and the concert was slated to start at 7:30.

Backstage, Third Day's road manager was frantically punching buttons on her cell phone. Somebody heard her shout, "But where are you now? The show starts in 25 minutes!"

Third Day was not in the building. They weren't even in town.

They were driving back from downtown Chicago—only about 30 miles away, but in the thick of rush-hour traffic—where they'd caught a few innings of a late afternoon White Sox game at Comiskey Park.

The five guys in the band, who grew up going to Braves games in Atlanta, are all nuts about baseball, and they try to catch a game in every major league city.

Well, the guys arrived in time, the show was fantastic, the fans were thrilled, the curtain fell and the band got back on the tour bus. Just another wild day for the hottest band in Christian music.

It's been an incredible year for Third Day. Yes, they were successful before the summer of 2000, selling almost a million copies of their first three CDs. But last summer's release of Offerings: A Worship Album pushed the band into, well, the major leagues.

Offerings spent months atop the charts, featured hits like "These Thousand Hills" and "Your Love Oh Lord," and went gold (500,000 sales) in less than a year. Then came the Offerings concert tour last fall, originally planned for 18 cities but extended through the winter and spring because of fan demand. More than 100,000 caught the second leg of the tour, including 15,000 at an Atlanta show now featured on a video/DVD called "The Offerings Experience."

Then came April's Dove Awards, where Third Day picked up wins in five categories, including Group of the Year and Artist of the Year. Offerings was named Praise & Worship Album of the Year.

As the band finishes up its next CD, Come Together, due November 6, lead singer Mac Powell reflects on what he calls an "incredible" year since the release of Offerings.

"It's been pretty overwhelming," says Mac, who writes most of Third Day's lyrics. "We've always gotten recognition, but now we've taken that next step. I think the hard work we've done over the years has finally caught up with us."

Worship music has always been a part of Third Day albums and concerts, but on Offerings, it was the whole package.

"I don't think people realized before how much worship is a part of who we are and what we do," Mac says. "People are really drawn to that right now, and God is doing some amazing things through worship music."

But why now?

"I don't know," Mac says. "I think it's just a genuine move of God, through his people, to bring us closer to him and to each other."

Bringing people closer to each other is the main theme of the new CD, Come Together. Mac says it's an issue he's been thinking about for some time.

"For the past couple of years, we've really been emphasizing the unity of the body of Christ," Mac says. "We think it's an important message, a message the church needs to hear."

Mac points to such projects as City on a Hill, where various artists came together for a common cause—to make a great worship album. He says he'd like to see as much cooperation—and less "competition"—between and even among various denominations of the church. Mac says he sees too much division among Christians.

"When we worked with other artists on things like City on a Hill, it was awesome to see that God can do such great things when we come together as the body of Christ," Mac says. "Now, if we could do that as a whole as the church, it would be incredible."

Mac wrote the lyrics to the title track. Here's a sampling:

You can all call me a dreamer
But these dreams they will come true
Yes I am a firm believer
In the things that we could do
If we could all just come together
And let the Lord lead our way
There's nothing that we can't do
There's nothing that we can't face

Mac says there will be a few worship songs on the new CD too, and, of course, plenty of what Third Day does best—good old rock and roll.

They'll follow up with a spring tour, hopefully coming to your town. … and maybe even your local ballpark.

But don't sweat: They'll be there when the curtain rises. Just barely, maybe, but they'll make it. And, as always, they'll hit another home run.

Read more from 'Bands & Artists'

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