Dan Haseltine (lead vocals), Stephen Mason (lead guitars), Charlie Lowell (piano and keyboard) and Matt Bronleewe (guitar) formed Jars of Clay at Greenville College, in Greenville, Illinois in the early 1990s. Charlie Lowell first met Dan Haseltine an pursuing a career in music together was not necessarily their original goal. Some of the first songs they wrote together were for music and recording classes they were taking at the time. Their second guitarist Matt Odmark joined some time later. While in college playing together at local coffee houses, Jars gained a reputation for their original arrangement of ”Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” which had been adapted to the tune of Nirvana’s ”Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

The band’s name is derived from the New International Version’s translation of 2 Corinthians 4:7:

”But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

This verse is paraphrased in their song ”Four Seven”, which appears as a hidden track on the CD release of their self-titled album.

In 1994, the band submitted a demo to a talent competition run by the Gospel Music Association and were selected as finalists. They traveled to Nashville to perform and won the contest. Back in Greenville, they self-released a limited-run of the same demo, Frail, after their song of the same name. The buzz from their performance in Nashville and the demo’s popularity resulted in offers from record labels. So the band decided to drop school and move to Nashville. At this time, Bronleewe left the band to finish school and settle down with his fiancée. He was replaced with Matt Odmark, Lowell’s childhood friend and fellow McQuaid Jesuit High School alum.

The band signed with Essential Records and started recording their first full-length studio album, Jars of Clay. Adrian Belew, of progressive rock band King Crimson, heard the band and offered to produce, leading to him producing two songs: ”Liquid” and ”Flood”. The band’s self-titled debut released in 1995. When the single ”Flood” began to climb the charts on mainstream radio stations, Silvertone Records started to heavily promote the song. That turned it into one of the biggest mainstream hits ever by a band on a Christian label. The album has since reached multi-platinum certification according to the RIAA. ”Flood” peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 12 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and was the band’s only secular radio hit.

Jars of Clay have recorded 11 studio albums and have received 3 Grammy awards for ”Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album” for the albums Much Afraid, If I Left The Zoo and The Eleventh Hour.