The Belonging Co is a collective of worship artists who also function as a church in Nashville. These artists are members of the church's worship team and the songs they release result from their weekly worship experiences. The team formed through their shared passion for God and the desire to exalt Jesus's name.
In 2022, The Belonging Co released two albums, Hereand Now. The inspiration behind both albums is God’s presence and how it changes and shapes people and leads them to worship Him.
Two songs from the albums, “Come Alive (Resurrection Power)” and “Just the Mention of His Name” have received positive reviews from churches and the music industry. I connected with worship team member Andrew Holt to talk about them and their new music.
The worship team has an impressive roster of artists: Danny Gokey, Natalie Grant, Kari Jobe, and the list goes on. What brought all these artists together?
God’s presence. Our pastors Henry and Alex Seeley started a weekly Tuesday night meeting in their home back in 2013 with the heart of reaching touring artists and musicians who couldn’t attend church most Sundays because they were on the road.
The church has grown beyond Tuesday night meetings in someone’s house, but the heart is still the same. We’re passionate about lifting the name of Jesus above every other name. It’s this passion that has drawn our team to join The Belonging Co.
All of them have had their lives radically changed by the power of God in our church and have been planted along with their families in our community.
Now is the second album released by The Belonging Co in 2022 [the first being Here (Live) in March]. Why release the two albums so close together?
They are absolutely two separate records. They were both written and recorded around the same time throughout our conference and several church services.
When we started working on them, it made the most sense to break them up into two records. But we also wanted to release every song at once, as we had been singing them in church for a while and didn't want them to come out too far apart. Each song felt timely for the season we were in, so we wanted them to be connected.
What's the inspiration behind Now and Here? How are they different?
Both records focus on God’s presence and how it changes and shapes us, which then leads us to worship Him. We were in a season as a church where we were seeing tangible examples of people in our community not letting God’s presence stay in a building on a Sunday morning, but rather carrying it with them in their day-to-day lives.
Our album Here represents the weightiness of God’s presence and Now highlights the joy and freedom of God’s presence and how we never leave the same after we encounter Him.
Describe the songwriting process for each album.
Our songwriting process is similar for every record we’ve released. Our team collaborates to write music that reflects our church's needs and messages from God, while also responding to how he's working in our community.
Sometimes that looks like dedicated writing retreats where we set aside a week to all write together. And other times, individual writes happen at each other’s homes throughout the year, but it always has that same heart and motive.
What songs from the new albums have received the best response from churches and the music industry?
I think the songs “Come Alive (Resurrection Power)” and “Just the Mention of His Name” stands out the most. It's been amazing to see many churches incorporating songs from our albums into their worship services.
Do you have any takeaway messages for our readers?
My biggest takeaway message would be to pursue God for yourself. We live in a time where we have so much access to Christian information and resources, whether it’s through worship music, podcasts, live streams, or books.
But, sometimes, we forget to pursue God, His word, and His presence for ourselves. We have so much available at our fingertips, but I don’t want to ever lose the desire and hunger for a new revelation and encounter with God that I could find on my own.
What's next for The Belonging Co?
We’re serving and building our community here in Nashville. We’ve been writing and leading some new songs in the church over the past couple of months. So, we’re excited to record and release them soon.
How can we be praying for you?
The biggest prayer for us as a community would be that we would keep our focus on Jesus. That we wouldn’t look to the left or the right, but we would always center our vision on Him and Him alone. And because of that, everything we touch our hands to would look and sound like Him.
Paul Phillips is a Canadian journalist with 20 years of experience writing and editing digital and print content. He specializes in health, fitness, nutrition, and travel. He loves music, movies, and, of course, living for Jesus.
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