The Altar and the Door stands as the No.1 album of the year according to SoundScan’s Christian/Gospel year-end chart (week ending 12/9) with more than 450,000 units sold since debuting at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart with historic first-week sales of 130,000 (Sept.2).The RIAA Gold album spent 11 weeks in the No.1 slot on the Top Christian Albums chart and held 13 weeks at No.1 on iTunes.

Incredibly, all three of the band’s albums rank in the top 25 for 2007, with Lifesong at No.11 and Casting Crowns at No. 22 on the year-end sales chart. Casting Crowns is the only artist with multiple projects in the year’s top rankings.

At Christian radio, Casting Crowns was the most-played artist in 2007, with the group’s seventh No.1 song, the mega-hit “East to West,” receiving 470 million cumulative impressions according to Christian Radio & Retail Weekly charts (12/10). This giant airplay, hitting highs of more than 26 million impressions a week, is equivalent to a top 10 hit at Top 40 radio, comparable to Top 40 spins of hitmakers Kanye West and Avril Lavigne (for week of Sept.3).

“East to West” topped four Christian radio charts, including 13 weeks at No.1 on R&R’s AC-Monitored chart and a record-setting 14 weeks at No.1 on R&R’s AC-Indicator chart. The song also has garnered two GRAMMY nods, and the band along with lead singer Mark Hall leads the Gospel GRAMMY nominations with nods in three total categories, including best song, best performance and best album. The band recently took home a win at November’s fan-voted American Music Awards, picking up the trophy for Favorite Artist in the Contemporary Inspirational category.

The immense impact of this seven-member band of youth workers has been the subject of countless media stories in 2007, including the Today Show, USA Today and the Associated Press, plus cover stories in CCM Magazine, HomeLife, Christian Musician, FaithTalk, and major features in Billboard, Atlanta Journal Constitution, LA Times, and Hollywood Reporter.

Casting Crowns’ headlining “The Altar and The Door Tour,” grossed 4.4.million in ticket sales this fall after a three month, 36-city run that marked an unprecedented 20 sellouts and connected them with an incredible 200,000 fans in attendance. The tour comes in as the highest-grossing Christian music concert event of 2007, ranking at No. 30in Pollstar magazine’s concert pulse which measures across all genres of music. The tour also had a profound humanitarian impact, allowing Casting Crowns the opportunity to unite more than 8,000 children with sponsors through the World Vision child relief organization.

Casting Crowns consistently ranks as the No.1 Christian artist MySpace page by number of daily views. This week, Casting Crowns even ranks No.39 in the general pop category above Madonna, Matchbox Twenty, Usher, Shakira, Ashley Tisdale and Mat Kearney, and No.46 in the rock category above U2, Nirvana, Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World, Dave Matthews Band and MUSE.

The band’s active fan base also is responsible for more than 4 million song plays, 3.1 million profile views and over 100,000 “MySpace friends” since the official page launched on January 3.

Earlier this year, Casting Crowns set an RIAA record as the fastest Christian music artist in its career to have its first two albums certified Platinum, and only the second in RIAA history ever to achieve it. All four of the band’s previous projects, including two Live DVDs, are now certified platinum.

Casting Crowns’ lead singer and songwriter is full-time Youth Pastor Mark Hall, who is serving his 17th year as student pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. All seven band members remain active in student ministry in the Atlanta-area and tour part-time around their local-church duties. In April, the group made a historic trip to North Korea, as the only U.S. band invited to play at the April Art Friendship Festival. For more information on Casting Crowns and for updated spring concert listings, please visit www.castingcrowns.com or www.reunionrecords.com.