Fellowship Creative Reveals Their Heart for the Community Especially Those Struggling with Mental Issues

Fellowship Creative, a new worship collective out of Dallas, TX, emerges from Fellowship Church. They are mission driven and passionate about empowering youth and prioritizing mental health. With their diverse background they aim to reach the English and Spanish speaking communities through their music.

They put actions to their words in their newest single "HELP!!!" where they launched The Help Project, an organization that provides resources for those struggling with mental health. Their second single, "Phone Song" will be released on Aug. 25, and can be found on their forthcoming album The Help Project that releases Sept. 22. 

Q: Thank you for doing this interview with us. Can you tell us briefly who is Fellowship Creative?

Fellowship Creative is the musical heart and soul of Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas; a collection of songwriters and artists who believe the Church should be the most creative entity on the planet. We know words like "Jesus" and "church" can cause a lot of people to tune-out, but those words changed our lives and fill us with hope every day, so we're trying to create art that opens people's minds, helps them tune-in, and discover the Jesus they never knew. 

Q: How and why do you feel God calling you to write and release these worship/alternative songs?

If you're referring to the songs we write in general, the answer would be these are songs that have either overflowed from our personal time with God, or from trying to tell a story, or create a soundtrack, to what we as a whole, or someone personally, is walking through in our church. Some songs have been birthed out of loss & grief, while others out of new life & indescribable joy! But if you're referring to these new songs, all part of our upcoming release, 'The Help Project,' these are songs we created to intentionally connect with a younger audience who our hearts deeply go out to. Being a part of a church, we have a front row seat into a lot of families and young people's lives, and there's no doubt a cry for help today that is louder than anything we've ever heard before. We wanted to write some songs and create a project that meets them where they're at, talks about the crazy stuff they're having to navigate and figure out, and introduces them to the Helper, Jesus. 

Q: You also have a heart to reach the Spanish-speaking community; how did that calling come about?

We have a real diverse church, thus a real diverse team, with a heart to reach every community. We had wanted to release something in Spanish for a while, it was just a timing thing, and then, we got word that Spanish-speaking Christian artist, Christine D'Clario, wanted to record our song "Even So." This song was very personal to us as it came from walking through the pain of losing some very close loved ones in our lives. We felt a little hesitant at first, until she opened up about how the song spoke to her and her battles with postpartum depression and suicidal thoughts. We wrote the song wanting to give people a voice to express their grief to God, to lament, and the thought of her sharing that with the Spanish-speaking community gave us so much joy. We hope and plan to release more songs in Spanish, and hopefully in other languages too as God open's those doors.   

Q: Your new album is unique because you specifically address the issue of mental health. Why is this important for worship teams and churches to address?

These are crazy times because almost everywhere you turn what's wrong is right and what's right is wrong, and everyone's afraid to speak up for fear of being cancelled, including a lot of those in the Church. We get it, but we can't be shy to speak the truth. Jesus said if we don't build our lives on truth then we won't be able to withstand the storms, and we see a lot of families and young people's lives wrecked right now for that very reason. The truth can sometimes be painful or offensive, but without it, all we've got is our feelings, and you can't build a life that can withstand the storms we're facing today off nothing, but your feelings. 

Q: Your new song "HELP!!!" is already gaining traction with fans and radio. Can you share with us the heart behind the song?

Jesus. That's the heart. It feels like the world is upside down and nothing seems to be helping; it's getting worse and worse every day. We all need help and Jesus can help us. It feels like people are literally going out of their way to avoid him, when all the while, he's not given up on us and has given everything he has to help us. If we would just stop running from him, stop thinking we know everything there is to know about him, stop thinking our hope is going to be found in anything but him, then we could truly experience the help we seek. 

Q: What is your upcoming single "Phone Song" about?

Our addiction to our phones and what it's doing to our lives. Look it up, the rise of mental health gained serious momentum in 2007 and has been increasing ever since. What happened in 2007? The introduction of the iPhone. We live on our phones, find our identity on our phones, compare ourselves to others on our phones, search for validation on our phones, and it's not just the kids, it's the parents; it's all of us. We heard a mom say her teenage daughters phone broke and she went ballistic, like a drug-addict would trying to quit a drug. That's because of what these things are doing and the chemicals they're releasing in our brain. It's messed up. We thought what a radical statement to make in the 21^st century, "For you, I'd turn my phone off." We really hope it will inspire people to take a technology fast and discover how good that is for your mental health. 

Q: How do you hope this new album will minister to your listeners, especially those struggling with mental health issues?

We hope it feels relatable to what they're going through, gives them a feeling of hope, and sets them on a path to looking to Jesus for help. We created TheHelpProject.com which goes live on the release day of the album and it will have a lot of resources, such as The Help Book, which is a free book we've created with the help of a lot of people who have worked through all sorts of trials and trauma in their lives. We don't just want to write songs that help people find help, we want to do as much as we can to help them, so hopefully this will give us a chance to get them connected with people who want to help them, and ultimately, Jesus.  

 

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