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A Note from Blake

In early 2016 I was working for a creative multi-parish ministry in New York City. We were writing liturgies, arranging hymns, and embracing the history of the church while exploring how we could best communicate the truth of the Gospel. We however, were faced with another truth. We as a ministry, were running out of the initial funding we had to continue the work we had been called to. I eventually shifted into a part-time role there, taking freelance gigs, playing conferences and touring. It was during this time, that I discovered something that was lacking.

You see, I was asked on a few different occasions that year, to interview for churches that were adding a full-time worship leader position. The interesting thing was, they all had someone actively leading worship who loved it, but simply felt like they needed more training or more resources to do their job well. It was through those experiences, and at the encouragement of others, that I realized, God was calling me into a new thing. He was calling me to serve that part-time worship leader, to equip them with the resources they needed to accomplish the work of their local ministry.

A year later, through the tremendous work of a small core team we had launched CommunionArts.org and we had begun to equip churches and to broaden the discussion beyond “how do we make it through Sunday?” To a larger discussion of “how do we fulfill our calling well as the creative people we were in fact created to be in a way that clearly communicates the Gospel to those we have been called to?”. It did not take long, as several artists, writers and songwriters reached out to us, to realize that there is little space for artists to publicly grow within the church.

We as a church, tend to find the ones deemed safe and gravitate towards them for every event. Our hope as we continue to equip churches and empower artists is that artists will find a space here for growth. That we collectively will find a space that promotes healthy and thoughtful discussion as iron sharpens iron. And, at times, we may not all agree and that is ok too. But, we do know that we are all here to share the Gospel, to help tell that story, the one we are all part of and welcomed into as people redeemed by a loving Savior. To that end, we will keep equipping churches and empowering artists because it's what we’ve been called to do.