While all of these members have contributed to the composition of the band's music, Karen Peris serves as the innocence mission's primary songwriter.

Glow contains songs that appear on the soundtracks of the films Empire Records and Dream for an Insomniac, as well as the television series Party of Five.

When drummer Steve Brown left, Karen Peris (guitars, piano, pump organ, accordion, voice), Don Peris (guitars, drums, voice) and Mike Bitts (upright bass) forged ahead with an orchestral and sometimes cinematic folk-pop sound.

The 2000 release, Christ Is My Hope, featuring folk songs and hymns that had inspired them over the years, was independently distributed by their own label, LAMP, with all proceeds from sales of the record being donated to hunger relief charities.

Their first album on Badman Records in the US and Agenda in Europe, Befriended, was released in 2003 and was followed a year later by a collection of lullabies, standards, traditional and classical songs called Now the Day Is Over.

Also on this album are "Happy Birthday" and closing song "Over the Moon", both of which are featured in the Julia Roberts film Fireflies in the Garden.

On June 6, 2008, "Bright as Yellow" was played as the official NASA wake-up call for the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-124 on flight day 7.

[17] Don Peris has recorded four solo albums: Ten Silver Slide Trombones (2001), the mostly instrumental Go When the Morning Shineth (2006), which features a vocal contribution from Karen Peris on "North Atlantic Sand", and an instrumental solo guitar album, Brighter Visions Beam Afar (2007), which raised money for local food banks.

Sufjan Stevens calls The Innocence Mission "moving and profound",[18] adding, "What makes Karen Peris' lyrics so remarkable is the economy of words, sensory language, concrete nouns – everyday objects take on tremendous meaning.