The origins of the band lie in the musicians Crowder gathered around him to perform live at worship sessions he led at the University Baptist Church, which he had formed while studying at Baylor University in Waco. The band’s original line-up comprised Jack Parker (guitar), Jason Solley (guitar/vocals), Mike Dodson (bass/keyboards), Jeremy Bush (drums), and Mike Hogan (violin/programming). The independently released Pour Over Me was a result of the band’s growing repertoire of original material. The subsequent All I Can Say in 1999 brought the band to wider attention, and they began touring nationally for the first time.

At the start of the new millennium they signed a recording contract with Louie Giglio’s Christian label sixstepsrecords, releasing the EP The Green CD and the album Can You Hear Us? in 2002. The latter’s blend of modern worship lyrics with alternative rock and electronica placed the band firmly in the territory inhabited by UK Christian rockers Delirious? The blueprint proved a successful one, with subsequent albums attracting an ever-expanding national audience and earning critical approval from the non-Christian press. The ambitious 2005 release, A Collision, featured 21 tracks broken down into four parts, and saw the band genre hopping through alternative rock, electronica, folk and country.

The first line-up changes since the band’s inauguration occurred in 2006 when Taylor Johnson, who in turn made way for Mark Waldrop, replaced Solley. The new line-up released the following year’s Remedy, an excellent album that broke into the mainstream US charts.