Jars of Clay, the Illinois-based band playing Praise in the Rockies Thursday night, found itself in a tough spot last September, when its second album, Much Afraid, was released. Not only was the band facing the possibility of sophomore slump, it also had to live up to the reputation it had developed as the band that reinvented Christian rock.

Of course, it was the band members' fault. Had they not written the catchy crossover single, "Flood," with its driving acoustic guitars and earnest vocal harmonies, there would have been nothing to live up to. But with the success of the single, the band's self-titled debut went platinum and the group opened a series of shows for Sting. These were impressive feats for an album released on Christian label Essential (and its mainstream sister label Silvertone) with lyrics that made direct references to God and Jesus.

"Philosophically, I have a problem with the term 'Christian music,' " says bass player Stephen Mason, calling en route to a Christian music festival in Washington. "As a Christian, I believe the only thing that can be saved is a human. But we all understand what the label means and that's fine. Our goal is to be bridge-builders between the church and our culture, versus being responsible for helping the church's music grow. We all understand that it's just semantics to help insecure consumers - when they buy French Roast coffee, they know it's French Roast, and when they buy our album, they know it's Christian."

Jars of Clay is in the studio working on an album tentatively slated for November release, barely a year after the release of Much Afraid. Mason admits the album's sales were disappointing compared to the debut's.

"It wasn't what it was on the first record, because we didn't have the 'Flood' single on the second record," he says. "What we wanted to do more than anything was to follow up with a record we all felt really good about. One of our goals (on the new album) is to recapture the energy we had the first time as four college students making a record, but have the maturity in the songwriting of the second. We want to meet in the middle of the two."