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When Thomas Paine wrote of times that try men's souls, he probably didn't stop to think how apropos his words would be during moments of crisis for all people in the years that followed.

For the members of Christian contemporary band MercyMe, one of those moments occurred a few months ago, when an accident involving the group's tour bus claimed the lives of two people -- as well as that of an unborn child -- in Fort Wayne, Ind. It called upon the members to dig deep and find comfort in their faith in a way they'd never had to do before, vocalist Bart Millard told The Daily Times during a recent phone interview.

"For whatever reason, every night during our shows, we tell people that whenever the worst possible scenarios take place, God never steps off his throne, that he's always in control," Millard said. "We've said it every night for three years, and when this happened, it was almost like we had to take what we say to heart.

"Not that we weren't doing it already, but we had to do so in a different way. We're still in shock that it actually happened, and you do try to push something like that away from you as far as you can. We still hurt for the families and what they had to go through, and we'll probably be talking about God's control for another three years."

The August accident occurred as the band was on its way to a Six Flags St. Louis show, when the vehicle's driver made a left turn on red in front of the bus. At the time, Millard said, the band members didn't realize how badly those riding in the other vehicle had been injured; as soon as they were informed, their world went into an immediate tailspin, he added.

"It was a little overwhelming at first -- we got hit so hard the day it happened, all over Twitter and e-mail, and it was a little scary," he said. "When it happened, there were headlines immediately all over the Internet -- 'MercyMe in fatal bus accident' was all it said, and I started getting messages as if I had already passed away. People were leaving memorial messages, and we couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Then, we started getting messages like, 'Thank God it was them and not you,' and all I could think was, 'Are you kidding me?' It was out of control. I'm sure they meant well, but they didn't realize what they were writing. It finally straightened itself out, and we've gotten thousands and thousands of prayers and support."

Through it all, the band members have been insistent on fans praying for the victims of the crash as well. As soon as the accident occurred, Millard and his bandmates sent out prayer requests via Twitter, and even though secular guidelines kept the band members from contacting the victims' families, they have continued to seek spiritual solace for them.

Lawyers and insurance companies quietly urged the band members to remain silent on the matter until certain questions and issues were resolved; because of that, some members of the media and the public took an accusatory stance that Millard had never experienced before.

"It was really weird, because we weren't used to that," he said. "That's what we do as ministers -- we reach out to people. And to not be able to do that because of legal aspects was really difficult. And then to have the media try to smoke us out because we wouldn't talk about it, having to have undercover cops in the audience when we played Indianapolis ... it was all very bizarre."

Now, the legal issues have been resolved, but Millard and his bandmates are still treading carefully. The grieving process is a tricky thing, he said, and now that the initial shock has worn off, MercyMe doesn't want to cause fresh pain, especially during the holiday season. And so the guys maintain contact with local law enforcement personnel -- especially a particular Fort Wayne chaplain -- and wait for an opportune moment to do what they do best -- minister.

The group first formed in 1994, and after signing with INO Records in 2001, the group released the album "Almost There." Driven by the single "I Can Only Imagine," which earned the group a 2002 Dove Award for Song of the Year and crossed over to top the Adult Contemporary and Country charts, the album eventually sold 2 million copies.

The band's sophomore record, "Spoken For," included two No. 1 Christian singles, and additional success followed -- the 2006 album "Coming Up to Breathe" landed at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart, a greatest hits package was released earlier this year and MercyMe has started work on a new album that will be released in May of 2010, Millard said.

"There's a little bit of a different direction for us on a few of the songs," he said. "Because we're sort of the power ballad poster child or whatever, we've paid a lot of attention to our upbeat songs and tried to create a little bit of an identity there. I'd say a lot of the album is very current as far as what's out there as far as pop music goes.

"We're trying to promote the songs to a little bit of a younger audience, so to speak, and it's been a blast trying to come up with stuff. We're doing it kind of like how we made our (2005) Christmas record, where we went into the studio with no real rules to go by. We just said, 'Let's do whatever we want,' and we went all over the place with it. It ended up being one of the most favorite albums I've ever done.

"With this new one, we're trying to do that again," he added. "There are songs we've cut because they sound too much like 'typical' MercyMe. We want to try something out of the ordinary."