Steve Schmutzer reports on American metal team WHITECROSS.

Mike supplements this, "It is important to remember that God doesn't always look at things the way we might. There's a lot of success and ministry that a band can have with the people out there. Sometimes God may be putting bands out there not necessarily for any element of success, but rather for commitment within a ministry."

It's not always easy to blend a heart burdened for ministry with a sincere and worthy desire to pursue musical excellence and artistic integrity. Whitecross is discovering the roads to that end are rife with success and failure, joy and despair, and trials and triumphs.

Charles Colson, the founder and director of Prison Fellowship Ministries, once said, "It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our successes; He wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements; He demands our obedience."

Whitecross couldn't agree more.

This feature first appeared in issue 25 of Heaven's Metal' magazine.