Podcast Transcript
Hannah Rae: C3 NYC Worship is the musical expression of our church in New York City, And over the last I would say six years, we started writing our own music. And it’s been beautiful to see what it’s transformed and now releasing our first full album. But yeah, I think it’s, that’s pretty much it. It’s been a special thing to be a part of Just being a, the sound of worship from New York.
There’s done a lot of worship teams from New York City that are able to record music or just that I know of, and maybe there are, but yeah. Yeah, that’s who we are.
Matthew: Yeah. Cool.
Ryan: What what inspired you guys like. Talk a little bit about the process on what break brought you into, we need an album.
Like where did that come from? Did you have a bunch of songs at the church? Did you set out to write it for the sake of the album? Maybe just give a little bit
Matthew: of the process.
Yeah, I can, let me actually into that a little bit. Me and Hannah Ray Henry’s been a part of the church for a long time and I joined maybe in the last three or four years as well. But before that, they had started to, Just ripe for the church. Pastor Josh had always had a heart for just music coming out of our church, and so I think for a while we were trying to find.
A sound that is us, so we did a bunch of, a couple of eps that were more like studio. Then you kinda look back at our stuff. You just see a wide variety of things compared to what we even do now because we’re just searching for the heartbeat of our church and searching for the sound that we are trying to create.
So they were writing, they were taking trips to Nashville in writing with writers like Mia Fields and Lindsay Sweat and a bunch of others to just get some things in that in the ground. Yeah. But At that point, we had only made EPS about five songs late. And then I, about right before the pandemic started, I stepped into the role as worship director.
And then Hannah Ray stepped into a role as worship director as well. And it had been something on her ass’s heart, but it just became this thing that felt like so big and, but we wanted to achieve it, but it felt like it was just further out. So that’s why we always did like, all right, let’s do three songs.
Let’s do four songs, right? And all of a sudden it just felt Something was burning in our hearts and it needed to, it just needed to happen. And things literally just began to orchestrate so perfectly. Finances were a big thing that we were like, okay, we wanna do a full song album. What does that look like?
What does money look like? How do we do that in New York City when we don’t have our own building? We don’t have a lot of, we have our own resources, but. If you do an album, we have to load into a place, you have to rent a place out completely for three to four days week so that we can have rehearsals, we have to rent all the rehearsal spaces.
So that really began to add up and I think it was discouraging at first because we were just like, God we know that, we really feel like you’re leading to this. And I don’t know. As I look back, it’s just, it’s a miracle testimony of how God just supernaturally provided for everything and literally, When I say I don’t even exaggerate, it just literally felt like everything began to fall into place for this, the venue, the money.
We had a an awesome, beautiful donor who just was like, believed in like everything that we’re doing, and they were like, I have vision for this and I want a gift to this. And literally everything was supplied. It was cared for through our church, through our vision builders, and it just began to happen.
And then before we knew it, me and Henry were like, oh. We’re doing a album. We’re doing, oh, we’re doing 16 songs. Okay. We’re figuring this out. So we literally are behind the scenes. It’s so funny when you talk about it cuz I sometimes you forget all that went into that process we’re like so far beyond it now.
But we started, we had to form the groups, we had to choose the singers, we had to have all the rehearsals and the vocalists and things, and it just began to create something so beautiful. We had to take a bunch of cheers back to Nashville to write me even more music until we really felt like. We had enough.
The good thing is that we had wrote a bunch of songs over the last six years, so we had a bunch to choose from, but we still needed to write a few more. And so we were just back and forth between the writing sessions here with our team here, but also at Nashville and God just. He created something so beautiful.
And we literally began to, revival days began to just like unwrap between, be before our eyes and it was just like, wow, God, we’re really doing this. And it just was, it was a special time for our church and just the city and just finally releasing it was such a beautiful moment for us because of all that went into it.
So yeah. That’s killer. Who I think.
Hannah Rae: Sorry. I was just gonna say, okay. I just think off of that, I think our church, I really just wanna talk about the songs, like the songs started like Matt Matthew said six years ago. And our church grew up with some of these songs, which is really I did, cuz I joined the worship team six years ago when they were starting to write these gongs and then, To be able to be a part of making the album happen six years later.
I, I felt like I was almost a product of the maturing that we went through just as a worship team. And and it was cool. Like we, we really wasn’t like we were trying to control it at all. It was, we had a desire to do it, but to write a full al to have a full album, but at the right time.
And it just so happened that by the time we hit. 2020 and 2021. We were, we noticed we have enough songs cuz we’ve created a writing culture. God’s given us. So many downloads. And even the really, the, this few songs we added over the last two years, like 2020 to 20 21, 20 22, was through the crushing and the pressing of what everybody went through through pandemic.
And we had a new maturity in some of the songs that we were writing. And at that point we felt like our church was ready. To hear all the songs we’ve been writing over the last six years and that the new ones were just. What we’ve been waiting for and because what we’ve been through, we could write something that had a little bit more meat and just felt such a piece at looking at the themes that all came together.
So it was totally God, because I think it’s difficult when you’re like, I’m gonna write an album and I’m gonna write songs that like go under a topic. We hadn’t chosen the topic, we just looked at all the songs that we had, and we noticed that the Holy Spirit had inspired this divine theme of revival and then, Obviously after we released it in January.
Then there’s the revival happening in Asbury the week that we released our record in February. Cause we started releasing singles. January released our record in February, and then that same week revival was happening in Asbury. So just felt like a god wink and divine timing and yeah. Super humbling.
Yeah. That’s
Matthew: cool. What
Ryan: you talk about like the crushing and the pressing and I was in California, I’m in Nashville now, but like I was in California during all the pandemic. And you get New York it seems like these were the states that had it really rough. What? There’s tons to say about what how everybody responded.
But I’d love to hear what did God do in your church? Like through, what were they like before and what are they like now? Coming out of it? Like maybe just explain,
Matthew: What did it look like?
Hannah Rae: I think that. When you. I’m sure you experienced this in California, but in New York, our lockdown was so tight that gathering in large groups was absolutely impossible.
Way more than most places across the states. And I just don’t think we as a church had ever experienced that much of just obstacle to be able to gather as a church body. And so I. Think when you really have to fight to actually be in a room together and be in the presence of God together you learn you learn that your faith is really real and that it’s something that’s really important to you and that it’s a priority in your life.
And when you have to, and our, it was probably our first time as a church. As a whole suffering at the same time in similar areas, even outside of just being able to gather together, just the fear everybody was facing and especially in New York, we just, we were limited so much to be able to do anything.
And I think that, Through that, it just really reprioritized how our faith and what we, and brought up new hunger to be able to worship together and to be able to be in the presence of the Lord together as a body. And. I think in a way that we will never take it for granted again. Sure. Yeah.
Matthew: Yeah.
No, that’s so good. I think even on that too, it’s like we were, I think our church really went through the, just the everything, because we were such a thriving church before the pandemic. We were one church where we had five different locations within the city and all five locations were thriving.
Very health, like healthy, growing, and becoming so, Awesome. And then the pandemic hit and then so many people left the city. So many people on team were like, I don’t really wanna serve anymore. I don’t say it was like, like the word I just think about was just pivot. We had to pivot like crazy because most of the team, even on worship, they were either out of town or they weren’t here.
So I was like, how are we gonna, like, how are we gonna still worship? How are we gonna build a team? How are we still gonna do this? And we had to get creative and that’s how we started doing online things. And we had a whole online. Set up and stuff. But now I feel like right now our church is just now starting to regain with traction from the pandemic over the last two years as far as like people being in the room on Sundays and making it like a priority to be in the room and to seek God and to want to be in his presence.
But before, I feel like being Hannah, like Hannah Ray, like over the last few years we’ve had to do a lot of that groundwork to really get people back involved and to show the importance of like, why we come to church on Sundays and why is it important that we lead from a place of overflow and just all those things, because the pandemic really took a toll on people as far as I, to serve or I’ll serve like once a month or every, once every other month.
And we have a fully vol, it’s a full volunteer team, so we’ve really had to, but Hannah Ray’s leading our team so well now, and I think people are really. I don’t know. You go to church on Sundays and it’s beautiful because you really feel like everyone wants to be there and they’re expecting now. It hasn’t.
It really hasn’t. I felt that way in the last couple years as much sure as it is now. And I think it’s really starting to do something. I don’t know, you see it across the world. Something’s, something fresh is happening and just are seeing a different hunger which is beautiful to see. Cuz I feel like I haven’t really experienced it like this since before the pandemic, which is beautiful.
Yeah,
Ryan: You mentioned you have a, like a fully volunteer team, like I’m sure that just perked up a lot of ears cuz you know, when we’re talking like people that produce albums and stuff like that, we’re usually just assuming it’s all hired guns. Could you maybe just give some insight, like why are you volunteer led?
What’s the fruit of that? Because I think most of our audience for sure is coming from I’m just a paid worship leader and everybody else is a volunteer, and I’m lucky the bass player practiced this week. Talk a little bit. How do you get excellence outta volunteers?
Matthew: Oh, it’s been a journey.
But it’s been a, it’s been a good journey I think. It’s something that’s them in the pastor’s heart and their vision. Even before we were, before I stepped in, before Hannah Ray stepped in, before we did anything, it just was in their heart for what they wanted for the church that we’ve had to like just run with what that feels like and figure out how to create a system in a place to where.
People who are volunteers feel like they want to be a part of this. So we create, we’ve created events. We’ve created systems to where we reach out, pastor people love on people so that they don’t feel like they’re just doing it because they’re, they have to, but they feel like they’re doing it because they really want to.
And I really, I feel like I can strongly say we have a team of 70, 80 people. Yeah. I feel like a, we say out of all 80, like when people serve they really want to, it’s from a place of I’m excited. Like people want to sing on Sundays. They want to, it would be excellent. And I think also for the people who came before us, they created such a standard and even in worship that it was, you come prepared and you come doing this.
You come knowing your part that when you come into that culture already, It’s just set in the culture so you don’t think to do otherwise. So like I, I come making sure I know my words, I’m come making sure I know my part, especially when you’re in the band cuz we’ve created that culture where I can call out and just give feedback.
Hey, I noticed that you were as prepared this week. How, what’s going on? Is everything okay? Can we make sure that we’re prepared? We want to give God our best. Because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re created to do, is to give God our best in our worship. Whether we’re paid, whether or not. And so when someone says oh, I didn’t really practice this week.
Actually that is a representation of your heart posture because you should want to give God your best in this situation, not just because we’re on a stage or on a platform and we’ve, I think we’ve seen that when we’ve really driven, based it in the Bible and showing people like why we give God our best.
It’s helped them create a heart of worship to want to give their best on Sundays and grown that. But I’m sure Hannah Ray can speak on things too with just volunteers.
Hannah Rae: That’s great. I think that our why really just as a culture and our church, which is Stone from our lead pastors, Josh and Georgie was that as a member of this church, we’re all builders of the house.
And so worship is just, you identify your gifting and how you can use that as an offering to the Lord. And so worship is just one avenue of being able to do that. And so we, and so each team, whether it’s worship or whatever it. It really becomes a family and a way to serve and build together, and also an opportunity for us to be the body together.
So do life together, disciple each other, shepherd each other. But we really do. I tell our team all the time, like we, Matthew and I as you’re basically your pastors. We wanna help you step into the calling that God has on your life. And worship is just a part of that. And It’s an out, it’s just a way for us to give back to the Lord.
So I think with that, people just have an eagerness to serve and build the house. And especially cuz in New York it, it’s not really cool to be a part of a church. It’s not cool to serve and it’s difficult. So if you’re showing up and you’re giving that much time for free in New York City it really matters.
And I think that, but I think that people want to join this cuz they see the fruit of that, which is, You build community, you have brothers and sisters in Christ that you’re walking alongside with you are becoming more like Jesus. There’s such a joy when serving like that. And I don’t think that paying people for a Sunday or serving and worship is wrong.
I just think sometimes it can be a blockage for people to not make it about just, oh, it’s, I’m coming in just on Sunday. Cuz we don’t want it to be just, you show up on Sunday, it’s no, you’re a part of the team. You’re a part of. This house, and we wanna make sure that we are just the body together building the church in New York City.
So it’s, that’s really what it is. How do we build the church in New York City through worship? That’s the why.
Matthew: Yeah. Yeah. In like most churches, oh, I’m sorry. Worship too. I’m just saying we have a couple, there’s always there’s a few people that you do have to end up as far as musicians because there’s a certain skill level and things that.
We’ve grown to, and it becomes hard when it is not a lot of volunteers to a certain, depending on what it is, a certain skill level as far as like to be able to keep up with everything that’s happening. There might, there will be drummers and certain things that are paid, different things, but as far as majority of our team I’d say 90, 90, 90 5% of them are volunteer.
But there’s always, your, can you we’ve discovered a certain like puzzle to where it’s even if you have One paid musician in the intermingled with volunteers. It light helps everybody grow their gifting and come up to a different level, and we’ve nearly seen that work as well.
Hannah Rae: Yeah. And for, and our goal is to make sure our member, our members of our worship team call this place film. Yeah. So obviously sometimes we have to fill the gap until we can raise up a team that’s ready within our house to meet that skillset. Exactly. But the goal is to make sure that everybody calls.
C3 their church home simply because we want them to have the heart to serve the house and the heart that will come in the door. Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew: What what
Ryan: advice would you have for the worship leader that’s listening that likes the idea of all the comradery and community you’re talking about?
Doesn’t feel like they have it. What
Matthew: do you guys do?
Ryan: How can they help their worship team feel like more than just some musicians that show up on
Matthew: a weekend?
Hannah Rae: Spend time together. Honestly, it’s very, it’s like how would you wanna build friendships with people in your life? And I think you put it in that simple perspective.
And I think that Jesus did it best, right? He just spent time with people around a meal and it relationships build through time. And I think if you, I would say start small and people just, your team really just wants to know that you love them and that you see them and that you care for them and they want the space to be able to be with you and share that.
So I would say start small. Identify maybe 10 to 12 people that you really just see a gifting on or call in their lives, or you just, your heart really leans toward them and make space for them meeting with them regularly. And from then they’re on. I think it will, it’ll blossom and then they’ll wanna do the same for other members of the team.
Practically what Matthew and I have done is We create spaces for worship team to worship together outside of Sundays. We call them just worshiping counter nights. And it’s really relaxed. Somebody’s playing key, somebody’s singing, and we just pray for each other and very open. Anybody in worship can come.
We have it about five to six times a year. And then we have social hangs as a worship team five to six times a year where you just get opportunities on the weekends to hang out. Anybody can come. And then additionally we have bible studies with some of our leaders. I meet with some of the girls in our team and just create space in my home and we get to spend time together and the dream is that’ll keep going and growing and they’ll do that with other girls on the team.
And Matthew with the guys is gonna start doing that as well, but that’s some practical advice. But I’m sure Matt has some tips as
Matthew: well. That’s great. No, that’s so good. Literally just echoing completely what she said, like just create space. We’ve all been on teams before when we’ve been where we’ve done something and we’ve just felt Not the word, but we’ve just felt like we’ve just been used for our gift, right?
Yeah. I’ve been on a, I’ve been on a team like that where you’re just getting texts and constant Hey, can you do this? Can you do this? But no one’s checking in on me. No one’s asking me how I am. No one’s actually caring about my heart and my condition of my heart. And so I think we, because me and Henry as leaders in our lifetime have experienced that.
We understood that, like that was a missing piece that had to shift in order for that to change in our, and just our, in the leadership and then also just for the people to feel different that were under us. And so we just created that rhythm. You, I, it was crazy the breakthrough that I began to see when people or even just men saw that I cared about them.
Men at worship team, even musicians who tend to be, can be like, very, how you doing? Good. It’s great. Okay. So I was like, okay, I’m gonna make my priority to get past the, I’m just good. So you know what that means. I gotta sit down with you at a coffee shop and let’s talk about how you doing and then I can ask where much.
Okay, so like, how’s life? What are you going through? What are you facing? And then all of a sudden it’s like they just feel this breath of fresh air and then they finally just release all this stuff. And now we get to the meet and then now they actually see that like they can trust you. And then all of a sudden I started, people started coming to me about things that they were struggling with, not even approaching them.
It was just cool to see the fruit of that, because before that I didn’t really see that there wasn’t like intimacy with like in relationship as far as Getting to really know people and see beyond these walls that we can tend to put up. And it just, it was just the code that I felt like God was giving us the the access to to break.
Because as we begin to just make relationship with people we saw honesty and people just coming to us with stuff that they were really facing. Because before then I was just like, how’s everyone doing? What are you struggling with? That’d be no one would raise their hand, no one would say anything but.
Now we’ve created a culture to where it’s no I really, I tell people this all the time. I’m like, I honestly, I love your gifts. It’s awesome. Like your gift’s gonna make room for you, but I could care less about it because at the end of the day, if your heart’s not in a good place, what does your gift mean?
What good is it for you to be up there playing so skillfully on a Sunday? Playing the piano, but then like you are like the most broken, depressed person. But I would never know that if I’m just rostering you and I never get to actually see what’s going on in your world. So I just say that advice to worship leaders or people listening to this, so there’s gaps or people don’t really wanna share with you or be honest with you.
That will never come unless you make space to sit down and get to know them. And it’s like building a bridge. You gotta build that bridge of trust. And once you pursue them and show them that you’re interested in them, they’ll begin to feel safe to cross that bridge and come over and talk to you. But until you do that, I think it’s actually pretty crazy for you to think that people are gonna trust you.
Just to be honest, just cuz I’ve been there, I’ve been in that space and I’ve been in that place where I’ve, people have not done that. And I’m like, yeah, I’m fine. And I don’t really feel safe to really open up to you. But when someone comes and pursues me and shows me that they really care about the condition of my heart and what’s going on in my world.
I feel safe to just be like, actually, I’m really struggling with X, Y, Z and I’m addicted to this and I don’t know. I don’t know how to help. Actually, this happened last night. I saw last night and I want you to keep, pray for me. Can you invite this? And so I’ve seen breakthrough stories. I know Hannah Ray has and just a pastoring and just pastoring and loving people.
I think that has been the biggest key when it comes to growing a volunteer team and just showing people that we care. Yeah, that’s
Ryan: great. In my mind I thought of a couple situations in my own ministry experience. What do you say to in the middle of this relational, and we’re gonna get to know each other.
I’ve had those guys that are like fantastic
Matthew: players, but they don’t want
Ryan: that they don’t want the relationship. How, maybe just some advice have you dealt with that? How would you deal with that had you not
Matthew: Yeah, I’d say one is like prayer, right? So prayer like, ugh, it’s my favorite thing because it literally, It answers things that we can never do.
And I always feel like I love when I get the people that are really hard for me because it means that I get to depend on the Holy Spirit to give me the answers to get to this person, because I don’t care what anyone says. I could be like stretchy, but I feel like everyone wants some type of relationship and they want to feel loved and cared for, even though they may not say it at first, even though they may have a thousand balls as to why they don’t want it.
Yeah. Or because they’ve been hurt by X, Y, Z. At the deep core, they’re wanting to get that pastor and they want it to be shepherded. And and people that I feel like iv, I have had people that are very much there’s that wall every day. It’s Hey, how doing, you’re good. And I just, there’s one person particular I’m thinking about and I just was persistent man.
I just, yeah. Hey, no, like I just I’m doing this with a bunch of guys, but I really would love to just sit down and get to know you more. And there’s always gonna be people who you. Click with more, and people who maybe aren’t as much, but there’s one guy I just was persistent with.
He just was like, really? In both worlds, right? He’s in the church, but he is in the world and just confused and just praying. Praying. And God put him by my heart, say, pray for this person, pray for this person. And all of a sudden it’s just like this shift being gonna happen in this far.
He began to be at church every week, like even when he wasn’t serving, just wanting to be a part of what was happening, he would text me to hang out and just I would be like, whoa, this is scary. What is going on? This person would never do something like this. And so I would just say don’t give up.
Be persistent and not like creepy or weird, but just like from a pastoral place of just continuing to reach out. Even if it’s something as simple as Hey man, you’re on my heart. I’m praying for you. Anything I could be praying for you for this little text like that, show people. Oh wow.
This person I was like, cares for me. They’re like praying for me. Or if they shared something with you and you don’t ever talk about it again. I’m like, as a leader, I hate something like that. If someone shares something like really personal with you, I always like, even if I put it in my notes, I’m like texting a week later, Hey man, praying about this thing X, Y, Z.
How are you feeling about this? That shows somebody that like, oh man, this person has invested in me and I’ve just seen. When you’re just persistent and you keep going after it, you really see the walls. They can only keep the walls up for so long cuz the Holy Spirit, I promised he’ll give you the answers.
I don’t know. Hannah Ray, have you faced similar things with someone who’s closed off but, and they’re like, I don’t want
Hannah Rae: that. Oh yeah, it’s prayer. It’s definitely prayer. That prayer is your key. And I think waiting on God’s timing as well and just not trying to control it. And I think it also protects your heart to not be offended when you have God’s eyes to see those people when they don’t maybe meet you.
Halfway. And I think, yeah, I just think Matthew’s completely right, and I, it’s been beautiful. I’ve learned a lot from him and how he’s led in this way and shepherded his, our team this way. And it’s really inspired me. And I’m there’s one I. Yeah, I’ve had similar circumstances even when there was just like a fence with people on team, like relationally with me, with them.
And I think me as a leader, like this is a different route. But you know when there’s tension on team, maybe tension with you as a leader with one of the people on your team. Yes. I think the best way to break through that is you as a leader, to be humble and like when you as leader failed to say I’m to be the first to say you’re sorry and to create that space where they know that they don’t have to be perfect, but you’re willing and you’re not perfect, but you’re willing to admit when you’re wrong and wanna fight to, for the relationship to make it right. And it’s through prayer and leading with that way with this person.
It was beautiful like two years later to see the fruit of that and that there’s like a beautiful healed relationship and intimacy and even just growth in that person’s. Leadership and their ability to be vulnerable because I as a leader was willing to be vulnerable with them. And yeah, I just think that in simple, like to simplify, you partner with prayer and make sure your heart is to love those people, not just to.
Use them for their gifts or to meet a need on the team. Yeah. And if that filter like naturally, the actions will follow and the street will follow.
Ryan: Sure. That’s great. What you said gotten winked a little bit with revival with you I’d love to hear, granted the entire internet wants to talk about revival right now.
It’s like the Christin, but what’s your guys’ sense on all of it? Just speak to what are, what do you think God’s doing? With the global church, in worship. It’s really cool. Yeah.
Hannah Rae: Yeah. I think it was. Really beautiful to see what happened over the last two years just with songwriting and with worship leaders being being removed, having to be forced into the secret place, forced to look at themselves in the mirror forced to spend time with God without distraction.
And really just reis rediscover, I think what worship is at the core. It’s, and I think that we as human beings have tried to make it an industry and like what we want it to be. Yeah. And that’s just never what God intended it to be at the core. And I think that through the last two years it rewired that.
So the way that God winked to us was for me, Matt and I, were. We really had the dream to have this album. And we were praying about what does the theme need to be? And one of the songs the team had written a few years ago called Revival Days. And at the time when they wrote it, they felt like it just wasn’t time to sing it because it’s a very bold song.
And they were like, we just don’t feel like this, the timing, we’re gonna put it in the bookshelf. And then for this record, they were like, wait, this feels like it’s the right time, just because There is a new hunger for the presence of God and for God to do something new within the church. We weren’t willing to globally, I think people were in the, especially in the United States, we were tired of doing the same thing.
People don’t want performance. We want authenticity, we want God, we want the presence of the Lord and we just wanna to use this space, period. And so then for me, I went away and I was just praying God, what do you wanna do? Is revival really the title like. That’s bold and wanna make sure it’s not manmade and just the Holy Spirit gave me a download and a vision just show showing me.
Just through what had happened within the city, like our city had, New York City had been, just had died and like the old things had been cleared out, like people moved away. All the mess units within the city had been exposed, all the dirt, all the thin and in a huge way. And the Lord just told me that he wanted to.
Like really send his rain and like a storm again to wash it all away and to restart and reset the ground for a new harvest. And he led me to Isaiah 43 which talks about how Jesus or God was going to do a new thing. He’s going to make a way in the westlands and rivers in the desert. And he just spoke.
He’s I’m doing anything and it is revival. And that was 2020. 2022, the beginning of 2022 when I got that vision. Yeah. And that download, and then we recorded the album that summer and then released it a year, the full album basically a year later. Yeah. And then look what happened historically across the church.
And I think with revival as a theme, what Jesus what Jesus led us to as a team is he just showed us, revival starts in the heart and. You have to repent of areas that you haven’t let him in and place God first in your life and really just hunger after him. So I think for me personally, for Matthew, for our team, as we are recording and rehearsing, There was a beautiful purity apart that was coming back up and a repentance within the team.
Just really seeking after the Lord’s face. And we didn’t want to record this album without having our hearts revived in the right place. And yeah. Not in a performance way of being perfect, but we were just like, we wanna go after this in every way. And Mia Fields was really just, Our guardian angel in this and just such a pastor for us and showing us how to do this.
And she was like, you guys, it is about Jesus. And if you have sin in your life, if you have, if you, if your goal for this has to do with yourself, then like you can’t be here. And it, she was right. Like we, yeah, we couldn’t have the wrong heart posture going into this and. And she just really taught us.
And that revival, it starts, it’s personal, it starts in your heart, and then the fruit of that is. A beautiful presence of the Lord and intimacy with her. But it starts with you. And then that intimacy can be, can happen in a church service, can happen while you’re leading worship in the room, but the hearts have to be unified yeah.
On, in that space, yeah.
Matthew: That’s good.
Ryan: We I teach at the belonging Collge. So Mia has taught some of our students songwriting and stuff like that, and. Man, she brings it. For sure. That’s like here. What is the what made you guys decide to like, not we’re not gonna, we’re just gonna write it all ourself.
Like what made you reach out to a mentor, like a guide to help like craft that and maybe speak a little bit to Yeah. Just the need for mentorship and even in our lives, even if we’re at the top of the worship ministry food chain, like where, why do we need help or mentorship?
Hannah Rae: I think our lead pastors just really were humble and hungry to have help in creating this album.
And God’s given them really divine relationships. And Mia’s been a longtime friend for pastors, Josh and Georgie. And when they shared their dream to wanna do this, she was just all in and then I think That God just divinely brought people into our lives. We, Stephen Brewster has just been such an incredible help to our team, just connecting us as a friend and just giving us wisdom on how to do an album and connecting us to people in Nashville that could help us write and And then Mia connected us with, and he helped us connect with producers with Josh Holiday, who really has been with our team since the beginning, loving on us.
And then Mia connected us with the Producer Bead. And he has just been, he was the gift. He literally came in at the right time as we were beginning rehearsals and turned the album around and just had such a pastoral heart. And I think for me, And Matthew we’re always willing to ask for help because why be.
Why try to control it all ourselves. When, especially when it’s not about ourselves. And I think just having the vision that like, we’re all a part of the body and like we all have the specific role and I know I’m a hand and I cannot be a foot and I would hate to make the whole album look like a hand versus the body.
You know what I mean? Yeah, sure. Just does this silly example,
Matthew: but yeah, it’s like the angel that’s all
Ryan: eyeballs or something is what I like. Yeah,
Hannah Rae: exactly. That’s good. I think it’s freeing to know it’s not all up to me. And I think just teamwork’s so much more fun. And then I think that’s the buy-in is when everybody feels they’re valued and they’re a part of it.
It’s this whole record has been celebrated across the board because we involve so many people. And yeah. Matt, go for it. Speak on it
Matthew: back. No, just, I think in this realizing, yeah. Yeah. I think realizing too, like we just, we’ve we’re in like uncharted territory. Like we could act like we knew what we’re doing and try to just leap this off of our own chip on our shoulder.
But the reality is we don’t know. We didn’t know anything about songwriting, Billy. We didn’t know anything about producing a album. We didn’t, so we just knew that like we needed to seek wisdom from outside sources and I feel like we will forever be indebted to someone like Mia Fields, like just.
She always helped us write from the start cuz of just the connection she have with our pastors. But even over these last two years, I have never seen, she just championed us in the way that. Made us feel like what we were doing was actually about you. And I had just, I had never experienced someone just give we came to Nashville and she spent three days with us.
Like just full days of just going through all of our songs and editing in them and making them make big sure that their sound and just that they feel good. No woman had, no one had everyone spent a lot of time, but like at the beginning part, like Mia just really, he poured into us and then just gave.
And she’d be like, buy us. Like just even specifically she would just buy us all. I had just never seen that before. And then she would come into the city and she was just like I’m gonna be there. I’ll come in a few days earlier. Don’t worry about this. I’m just doing it. I just wanna be there.
And it just was, it was, she had no gain in doing something like that, but I knew that God had put it on her heart to be there for us in that way, because honestly it was the backbone that we needed to get through everything that we had, even just in the wisdom of making choices. She’s Just prophetic and just here’s God clearly again.
So she even led us to helping us to with bead and getting connected to that. She was like, no, he’s the one. You guys are going to be connected to him. And we connected and seems like everything that we’re doing. And so just, yeah, it just, it was the biggest blessing to have someone who had just done so much and knew what they were doing and how to pioneer it.
And she literally helped us pioneer it to the place where now we could do it again. And we feel like we know what we’re doing, but even When we do it again, we’ll still involve people like her because they’ve just, helped set the foundation in such a beautiful way. Yeah. Very cool.
Ryan: I’d love to hear your guys, it’s such a big talking revival a little bit, but like what’s your guys’ thoughts on I.
Where do you think the church is going? Where do you hope the church is going and worship ministry and all that? What’s your sense on where, what our
Matthew: future looks like? Boom. I mean it’s cool seeing like the Asbury thing i’s the question. It’s cool seeing the Asbury thing and it’s the revival that’s happening there and it’s it’s so funny how the church is.
When something good happens, how we can still be so divisive, right? Because it’s there is this isn’t happening. So it was a really revival and I just feel like what we’re saying is that there’s a huge repentance that needs to come back to the body of Christ. Christ. And yeah, that’s something that’s simple and that’s n word that’s in the heart and it may not feel like outta the spirit.
And speaking of tongues and like you I think that’s gonna come from that. But I feel like the first wave, it’s gonna be a wave of repentance and people just coming back. Yeah. To Jesus and what does that look like in our churches? Just the simplicity of what that feels like. Nothing.
And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the flashiness of worship in the sense of the big lights and the big productions and all that stuff. Like all that stuff is cool and it helps us to relate to people who maybe are in the world coming into what it is we’re doing. But I do feel like something was beautiful with just students leading worship and playing a guitar and singing a song of worship and people’s hearts being convicted.
I think it helps us. It’s a think even future. Like maybe we don’t need to do like a big rah set today. Maybe we can do something so simple and not rely on this big wave of something that’s happening. I d it’s been on Pastor Josh’s heart too of like just trying to get out of this huge wall of just sound that we’ve just been used to in this, in the world of worship, of alright, come on everybody.
No, we, everybody, we have this rhythm of like worship and then we. All right, now we’re gonna slow down and let’s lift our hands into worship. But maybe it could mean like just starting different and doing things different. So I feel like NRA has been like even, and she’s been choosing sets and doing things differently.
And like normally we do three songs and that’s just like how we do it. But she’s been creating different rhythms of doing a song and doing a tag and they’re doing another tag. And then transitioning to just like playing with the structure of I think we see something and oh, this is how it has to be.
But I feel like now as churches, we’re able to think outside the box of maybe we can think differently and how can we reach people in a different way? And we’ve seen people have such beautiful encounters, honestly, where we’ve taken away the big rah and just had an acoustic set, the presence of God that falls into place and he hearing people singing.
Has been so powerful, at least used here in New York City. Cuz I think it’s the loudest city, not the loudest, but it’s just the loud city in general. So people are always used to just hearing screaming. Yeah, I’m not that, I’m not saying that phrase is screaming, but I’m just saying like a balance of like just thinking differently on how to reach people.
But yeah, I just really feel like repentance is coming back and I think people inwardly in their heart posture is coming to a place of that. And how do we view that and take that then to the next wave that God is getting ready to send? Yeah,
Hannah Rae: I think that where the hand of God is moving, that it’s really humbling how he chooses to do it and who he chooses to do it for.
And I think that I would never wanna be one that was cynical and would miss what God was doing. I would rather look for God. Wherever he was moving. And I would rather have a childlike mindset about it. And I think that what is because I just, there’s so many stories in the Bible, like in, in acts when the disciples were filled with the spirit were preaching and the synagogues and all over.
And then the Pharisees were the ones to try to shut them up. And I just would never wanna be that, and yes, there’s discernment and yes. Take everything to the word, but I fully believe God is moving and the revival that’s happening and in Asbury is beautiful and in Gen Z as well.
And I think that it’s specific to what for Gen Z and a beautiful way. And I think that, That’s very humbling for us as of millennials and above. And I think that we can learn a lot from the heart posture that this generation is having. And I think there’s a purity to it. And I think that really what, how it’s transforming worship revival is that it we’re going back to what it’s all about, which is just Jesus.
Yeah. And wanting to speak his face and. To for him to feel to feel the love from our hearts so that he, it’s a place that he wants to dwell. There’s a purity to it. And I think sometimes we can, in worship, we wanna do a lot of things. We wanna go to war, we wanna declare things. We wanna shift the atmosphere.
And that’s not bad. I just think that we go where the spirit’s leading. And I think that again, revival starts with a repentant heart, but it’s his kindness that lends to repentance. It’s his loyal love that leads us there. And it starts with ex just wanting to experience him and see his face, see him for who he truly is.
Adorn Yeah. And be and honor him. And blessing’s. Name and then the fruit and just baskin his love. And the fruit of that is repentance and healing. And so I just think whatever that looks like, I think that we need to get outta the way with whatever manmade systems we’ve come up with. And I think that for us, in, in the worship realm, that might mean really going back to the basics.
And our sets just, I wanna limit any distraction. Possible for what God wants to do. And I just think it’s very humbling and it looks different for wherever you go to church across the states. But yeah. It’s trusting that God will show up the way that he will. But it’s trusting he’ll show up.
And wa it, it starts with seeking him and wanting him versus wanting revival. The fruit of wanting him and seeking him is revival happening. But I think if we go after wanting to make revival happen because it’s happening somewhere else, then yeah. It’s the wrong order, struggle. Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew: That’s great. Pray. Pray as leaders too. It was like, pray and ask the Holy Spirit. I think just what she was saying, like it’s different for every place. I think us as the church is so easy for us to see how it’s happening and then just try to recreate that and think that’s what revival is and it could happen that way.
But I really do feel and I sense that as whoever’s listening to this as worship leader, pray as the Holy Spirit. What does that look like for your church? Through worship, through your ministry, whatever that is. And he’ll give you like, I think he knows what he’s bringing to this world. He knows what he’s bringing to the earth, and I feel like it could look differently at this church than it is at this church.
And I feel like God will give the wisdom even when it comes to worship sets. Or he might be like, have a worship, whatever it might be. Just ask him and he’ll give it to you. Don’t try to be like Asbury so that we define students to let us from worship. It could be that way, but it doesn’t mean it has to be that way.
So
Hannah Rae: yeah, there’s nothing wrong. Like we’ve been praying for revival for a long time and Sure. This is so exciting to see what God’s answering the prayers. So pray for revival. One thing that in line with Matt what the Lord spoke to me. I was praying for my team or I was just basically God, I just wanna be a good pastor.
How do I do this? And he was like, you will make disciples handon you will your worship team. I will show up as much as you’re surrendered. And that’s really it. It’s just being an a surrendered vessel for him. And. It’s annoying how simple it is. But it’s also so free.
Matthew: Yeah.
Ryan: Always comes read your Bible, spend time with the Lord and work it out. And you’re like, yeah, but gimme the secret