By JOHN PATRICK GATTA

Correspondent

While MercyMe has relied on the members’ faith in Jesus Christ to see them through good times and bad, the band’s talent for melodic songwriting has brought platinum and gold-selling albums, crossover hits, Grammy nominations and American Music, Billboard Music and Dove awards.

On the title track of its latest album, “Lifer,” lead singer Bart Millard declared an unending allegiance to the Lord over undeniably catchy pop. The combination reminded longtime fans that the group’s spiritual and hook-filled approach hasn’t changed.

As the group continues to celebrate its 25th year, the Christian rock act brings its 20 / 20 tour to Youngstown’s Covelli Centre on Friday with a set that spans past hits as well as new material for its upcoming album that should come out later this year.

“There’s still a fair bit of work to do, but the heavy lifting is done,” said guitarist and band co-founder Mike Scheuchzer.

“Almost Home,” the first single for the next release, tentatively titled “The Spaceman,” came out last October.

He explained that as the band works on its 17th album, the approach remains the same. “Every record that we go in to make I’m ready for us to be Led Zeppelin, and Bart’s ready for us to be Leo Sayer…everybody’s got a different opinion within the band of who we are. That’s kind of what gives us something a little different. In my mind we’re gonna be a rock band and in Bart’s mind, we’re a total pop band, ELO or whatever.

“So, I put my one-fifth in, and Bart puts his one-fifth of what he thinks the album should be and it comes out this different thing instead of us all being, ‘This is what we are. We’re going to have this sound.’ We all have our own opinions and we’re very open to hearing each other’s opinions and letting that steer the song.”

Started by Scheuchzer and Millard, MercyMe released six independent albums before signing to a major label. The success of “I Can Only Imagine,” off the 2001 release, “Almost There,” broke the band to a wide audience.

Scheuchzer still seems amazed by non-Christian audiences embracing the band’s music. “It was never the goal. We didn’t chase it. Our record label didn’t really chase it. They did when ‘Imagine’ started to happen on its own.

“We knew who we were. We were honored that people were willing to take a chance because there were a lot of program directors at radio stations that play pop music and don’t play Christian music and thought, ‘I just have to play this song.'”

He continued, “We’ve always said, ‘A songwriter writes about what is the most important thing to them and for us it’s our faith.’ We weren’t signing on to cross over to the mainstream. The song that we had that crossed over was “I Can Only Imagine,” and you can’t get more blatantly Christian than that. It was never an attempt but it just happened. We were super-grateful and we didn’t want to waste that opportunity. So, we tried to write a few other songs that we felt might fit in the mainstream format such as ‘Here With Me,’ which crossed over a little bit, and ‘So Long Self.'”

Currently, the group has 67 multi-format No. 1 hits including four mainstream radio hits, while “I Can Only Imagine” was the first digital single in Christian music history to be certified platinum, and now triple-platinum.

The song and the story behind its creation — Millard’s early days with MercyMe as he reconciled with his onetime abusive father who found his way to God before cancer claimed his life — inspired the 2018 film starring Dennis Quaid, Trace Adkins and Cloris Leachman. It grossed nearly $90 million dollars worldwide.

Seeing the transformation from song to screen, Scheuchzer said, “It was such a cool experience for us because we didn’t start a band to make a movie. All the best things that have ever happened to us in our career happened out of the blue. They weren’t things we hustled to make happen. Certainly, there was work that went into it but the inception of it happened on its own. So, it was cool to get to watch that.”

Scheuchzer has been more inclined than ever to count his blessings with MercyMe ever since the band nearly called it quits in 2013. He and Millard along with Robby Shaffer (drums), Nathan Cochran (bass) and Barry Graul (guitars) reassessed their heavy touring ways, how their career affected their families and frankly discussed their views on faith.

“We got to a point where something had to change,” Scheuchzer explained. “The machine had gotten so big and clunky that we were constantly having to work to keep the machine working.”

Contractually obligated to record one more album, the members approached it as their possible final musical statement, which encouraged a renewed sense of creativity.

“If this was going to be our last record, let’s just make the record we want to make and have a blast with it. The fun of that attitude came across in the record and on the tour.”

Besides streamlining the business side of the band, MercyMe also reconsidered playing nearly 200 concerts a year.

“As far as cutting our number of shows a year in half, it doesn’t make sense but, honestly, it’s been way better in every possible way. Our mental state is better to the point where it makes us still enjoy what we’re doing, and our families are healthier and better off for it. If our families are better off then our mental state is better then we’re more into creating. So, it feeds itself.”

Altogether, the break, band members’ dialogue and working with a more sustainable touring schedule has caused MercyMe to return stronger than ever on a musical, personal and spiritual level.

“It sounds dumb to be 25 years in (our career) but we’re still hungry. We still love to create music. We love to push ourselves and not make the same record twice.

“It’s easy to phone it in. You have success with a certain song and you try to recreate it. We certainly have been guilty of that before but the last few years we’ve really tried to push ourselves to not make the same music every time. It’s boring for us if we do. So, we’re trying to make ourselves better and challenge ourselves to do something different.”