Shawn Craig (left), Dan Dean, and Randy Phillips—still recording and still pastoring.

While many music groups are hitting the stage on Saturday nights, Phillips, Craig & Dean are hitting the sack. Randy Phillips and Dan Dean need to be fresh on Sunday mornings to preach sermons to the congregations they pastor, while Shawn Craig, a music minister, is needed to lead worship at his church. Since their 1991 debut, they've blended their callings as pastors and musicians-all while churning out 18 No. 1 singles and selling almost 2 million albums. And lately, they've been busier than ever: Craig has worked on a Masters of Divinity degree, Phillips has hosted a television program and discovered new songwriting talent, and Dean has helped nurse his wife, Becky, back to health after a near-fatal car accident fractured her neck and back. PCD has also also recorded their tenth studio project, Let the Worshippers Arise, produced by Nathan Nockels (Watermark, Point of Grace, downhere, Charlie Hall), the third installment in the group's worship trilogy, after Let My Words Be Few and Let Your Glory Fall. We recently spoke with two-thirds of the group to catch up on things.

How do you manage to work as full time pastors, write and record music and go on tour?

Randy Phillips: It is definitely complicated juggling all of those plates. The main plate is our families. I have a 16-year-old and a 2-year-old. It's very important to me that my family comes first, then church, then Phillips, Craig & Dean. It has to stay in that order or things get out of balance.

How often do you tour?

Phillips: We're out at least every other week.

How do your music ministry and your jobs as pastors enhance each other?

Phillips: Being a pastor affects what we do on the road so much. We come from a different perspective than someone who just does concerts full time. We view the concert audience like our own congregation. People come who are struggling with marriages, whose children are away from God or addicted, who have bipolar disorder, who are under severe financial strain. For that two-hour window, we see ourselves as ministers who can bring people into the presence of God through music and help them put their burdens aside.

I believe that when people walk out of our concert, they view their lives differently than when they walked in. That can only come through being a pastor.

Why did you decide to use so much original or lesser-known cover material on your new album as opposed to just singing your favorite worship songs?

Phillips: The formula that has worked for us has been to do songs that people recognize coupled with some original songs. On Let My Words Be Few, our first worship album, there were so many familiar worship songs we loved, so we coupled those with some original songs. On the next one, Let Your Glory Fall, the worship songs were possibly not as well known, but people were singing them in the church. With this album, the worship songs are definitely not as well known.

The unique thing about us as three pastors, in the 14 years we've been in Christian music, we've been able to warm up to an audience who may have thought that praise-and-worship choruses were a little too cutting edge. We've been able to make some of these songs a little more mainstream to the churches that may not have been singing these kinds of songs before. We've been a bridge from our audience to the churches themselves.

Was it your intent to introduce an older, more traditional generation to modern worship, or did it just happen to turn out that way?

Phillips: God evidently wanted it that way. In the early days of Phillips, Craig & Dean, we were craving the spotlight. We wanted to be the new, hip and featured group. We wanted to be the CCM darlings and be on the cover of CCM magazine. We wanted to be on the awards shows, presenting, singing. It just didn't happen. They never embraced us in that light.

Radio played our music and the audience embraced our music. We've had 18 number one songs and sold a lot of albums. But, we never got the Christian music spotlight. It was a great disappointment for us-until, somewhere in the middle of that, we came to grips with the fact that this is not what we should crave. We aren't called to be CCM darlings. We're called to minister to the body of Christ, whether that be a middle-aged audience, an older audience or whatever.

It's a pretty eclectic audience, really. When we began to relax in that calling and become comfortable in our own skin and with our place in Christian music, then we could say that whatever God wants to do with us is fine. We've given up the pursuit of being cool and hip and adored and all that. We're not going to be on the cover of anything. We're not going to be featured. We've come to grips with that and know God has given us favor.

Hey, you're gonna be on our cover-well, our home page, anyway!

Phillips: Yes. But we're just not going to be the new, hip thing.

Yet, your music reaches an audience that record labels often neglect. What's the reason for that? Is it your vocal harmonizing?

Phillips: Absolutely. Also, coming to the table as pastors and music pastors, we've had to appeal to a broad base of people for 20 some years. We have old, young, black, Hispanic, white. We have people who love country music, who love rock, who love blues, who love contemporary. As a pastor, particularly a music pastor, you have to know who your audience is and sing to that audience. It's the fusion of so many styles that appeals to a broad base. There's a little bit of country, a little bit of contemporary, some rock, some soul, some gospel. It's a fusion of who we are as individuals that pours into each other and makes whatever the Phillips, Craig & Dean sound is.

How did you choose to put the 1994 Dove Award Song of the Year, "In Christ Alone," on this CD?

Shawn Craig: "In Christ Alone" began as an idea for Steve Green. At the time, I wanted to write a song about the all-sufficient work of Christ that perhaps he would sing. I gave the idea to Don Koch and he took a stab at some music. When I heard the music, I was inspired to write. The second verse went deeper because I was able to tap into a loss that I had experienced. The journey through grief actually helped me to write. Walking through that loss with the Lord gave me words I hadn't considered before. I was especially drawn to the apostle Paul's writing in Philippians 3:7-10. This passage was key to my journey.

When we heard Stuart Townend's song, "In Christ Alone," we agreed that we needed to do the song. But, we had never recorded my song, "In Christ Alone." Wanting to do both, [INO Records President] Jeff Moseley came up with the idea of a medley. Wow. It worked! We did both songs without sacrificing either. I'm excited about the way it turned out.

Randy, you discovered a new songwriter on your TV show and titled your album after his song. What was that process like?

Phillips: I have a TV show called The Awakening. A revival that we had in 2000 spawned it. It introduces an audience that may not be familiar with praise and worship to its power. We did a songwriter showcase where we invited songwriters from all over the world to send in their best praise-and-worship song. We listened to hundreds of songs, selected the top five and flew them into Austin to appear on The Awakening. We performed their songs. Then, Michael Ferrin performed the top song that he wrote. It's a great, prophetic song called, "Let the Worshippers Arise." When I heard that song, it just blew my mind. I knew I had to pitch it for the album. We had already selected all the songs, but our record producer and record president so believed in the song that they added it. Then, we ended up titling the album after it.

What made "Let the Worshippers Arise" a great worship song?

Phillips: It combined so many strong elements. It's singable, it stirs up your spirit and it combines a prophetic move of God, a call to all the nations, to rise and worship God. I believe it will cause people to rise and unashamedly worship the Lord.

Will you try to discover another worship music writer this coming year?

Phillips: Absolutely. One mission of The Awakening is to find undiscovered writers and give them a platform.

What else is on your agenda?

Phillips: We just want to continue to do what God has called us to do: be faithful over a music ministry and people he's brought to our path, handle our audience with care as Christ would handle them, continue to find and write songs that glorify Jesus Christ and sing them to the best of our ability.

Visit our artist page for the trio to learn more about Phillips, Craig & Dean and read previous interviews and reviews, including our take on their latest album, Let the Worshippers Arise. To listen to sound clips and buy their music, visit Christianbook.com.

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