The unique ministry of The Belonging Co just hit their ten-year mark in Nashville , TN .
Its humble beginnings started on Tuesday nights in the basement of a home with Australian transplant pastors Henry and Alex Seeley and a simple desire to minister to the touring Christian artists who were out on the road on weekends . It has grown into something quite special , with several well-known worship leaders that we cover here in [ WM ] Worship Musician under its tent . Two of them , Hope Darst and Andrew Holt , we got to meet for the first time in this interview . We believe the conversation that unfolds here holds some rich content for you , our readers , as we get to know Hope and Andrew .
[ WM ] I watched The Belonging Co ’ s 10th anniversary celebration service . It was good to see your church ’ s particular culture on display for all to see through live streaming . Your new record called 10 isn ’ t just a rich reimagined ten songs that you have accumulated over the past decade , but it ’ s a celebration of the whole journey that this Nashville-based ministry has been on .
Before we discuss the music , though , I am curious how were each of you first drawn to The Belonging Co and then what keeps you there ?
[ Andrew ] Great question . Hope , you started before me .
[ Hope ] Well , I ended up at The Belonging Co in a kind of normal , organic way . We had some friends that had been going for a couple of weeks to this gathering that was happening in Alex and Henry Seeley ’ s basement . At this point , there ’ s maybe 10 or 12 people going , and our friends had been asking us for weeks , and we kept saying , “ No .” And I don ’ t know if you ’ ve ever had that with a friend who keeps inviting you and you keep saying no . Then it starts getting awkward , and you ’ re kind of like , “ We ’ re going to have to go to this thing so our friendship can stay intact .” ( laughing ) But we had no intention of going back . It was true :
“ We ’ re going to go one time just to get this over with so it stops being awkward with our friends , and then we ’ re going to just move on and do something else .”
Because , as a family , I had just transitioned off of staff at a church that I had loved and been a part of from the age of 19 to 33 . And a lot had happened . I got married , I had two kids , and my husband and I just found ourselves in a season where God was asking us to really just take a step of faith . And I had come off staff ; I was a worship leader , and I was traveling , and I had decided to just take a season and be at home with my kids and my husband . I really did feel like God was asking us to trust him with a transition . And we really didn ’ t know what that meant , but we were like , “ Okay , God , we ’ re going to just be open-handed to whatever you want us to do .” And so we were kind of looking , possibly , for a new home church .
So this random Bible study in a basement didn ’ t make sense to us , but we showed up , and I just remember walking into their
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