You have bought me back with the riches of
Your amazing grace and relentless love
I’m made alive forever with You, life forever
By Your grace I’m saved
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‍—Made Alive, Citizens

When you walk into church, there are a few things you always expect. And singing together is a big one. God’s people singing out “You have bought me back with the riches of, Your amazing grace and relentless love” have a profound impact on us.

Church music isn't a man-made concept, it's from God and is part of the biblical model for church, as well as being a wholly appropriate way to praise God for who He is and what He has done.

As Zac Hicks (author of The Worship Pastor) notes, not only are there 40 direct commands from God to sing in the bible, it is actually for our GOOD. And if we are what we worship, then we desire to be more like Him who sings!

Take Zephaniah 3:14-17 where the Lord your God “will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” or in Hebrews 2:10-12 when Jesus says “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

The legacy of Asaph

In the Old Testament, Asaph was one of King David’s first music directors. David appointed Asaph as the chief musician to minister before the ark. He led and trained a team of musicians that had a huge impact over many many years. And time and again during the revivals of the nation’s faith, it was Asaph’s descendants who led God’s people in worship. It's this legacy of worship ministry, of leading God's people in gathered worship, that worship teams are part of today.

Music in our churches is more than just singing in a group. It’s not just musicians standing in front of a congregation, or experiencing their own moment of worship while others look on. Musicians in our churches serve in an important, biblical ministry. And to do that well, they need to be trained.

Supporting leaders and training teams

Like seemingly every sphere in the church, training our musicians and song leaders can be a challenge. Talk to any long-serving worship leader or music director about their journey in the role and you’ll hear a similar story.

Leaders start as passionate church musicians who love Jesus and love serving God’s people through music, and they’re asked to lead a team.

More often than not, this person has spent their time investing in their gift, but has little to no idea about how to lead and train a team of people, let alone deal with congregational criticism.

Over time their passion and calling turns into people chasing (or cat-herding) and administration. And eventually, the very thing that was a joy and a significant part of their own personal worship becomes a burden.

Music leaders in local churches are burning out in a broken system - the idea that leading music at church is an administrative role. This idea also permeates our teams, who can easily fall into the trap of seeing music as a task to complete, not an important ministry. Without the ability to effectively train and shape their team in a way that works in their busy lives, and often without the support of a time-poor church leadership, they step-out, burnt-out.  

Why Citizens (and others) are partnering with Asaph

The need to train our teams and support our leaders is clear. But current solutions, like conferences or books, simply aren’t working for a team of volunteers who have full-time jobs and limited time to invest in their own training. That's why we created Asaph!

Through Asaph, music leaders and their teams get access to great training and devotions from artists, authors, leaders and pastors from around the world - diverse voices, all from the convenience of an app. No more struggling to bring together your music team to listen to training or attend a workshop, you can now engage your team in rich training and communicate easily, all in the same place.

Honestly, the way we look at our role is we're more or less setting a table. We're trying to invite people to that table, but we're not the main attraction. We're not the reason that people are showing up. We're part of the thing that gets 'em to the table.
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‍—Zach Bolen, Citizens

One such artist that is partnering with us is band Citizens. Citizens singer songwriter Zach Bolen says, “When I first went into ministry, for the most part, our worship leader role was just seen as someone who sings songs. And that wasn't really satisfying to me. I remember one time hearing this song and thinking, ‘oh man, I'd love to know what passage they used’. And realising that those resources were really hard to come by. [Plus] I didn't have the support of people leading me. I was kind of on an island by myself.”

As a worship leader himself, Zach understands the experiences and needs of those in the same ministry. He shares, “It gets pretty lonely and you can get burned out. Not only are resources and training really helpful but through Asaph, there being a place for worship leaders and team members to be able to come together and learn and grow is pretty invaluable.”

For Zach and the rest of Citizens, bringing Christians together to praise God in song is one of their big values and one of the reasons they love touring around the world to play their music.

Zach says, “Honestly, the way we look at our role is we're more or less setting a table. We're trying to invite people to that table, but we're not the main attraction. We're not the reason that people are showing up. We're part of the thing that gets 'em to the table. Whenever we’re playing songs for groups of people, we just want it to be as conversational as possible, because that's what worship songs are. They're conversational, they're prayers to God, and sometimes they're reminders for ourselves. Together, we're all singing the same theme, which is that we're loved by God no matter what and that the forgiveness that God has given us and extended to us is a gift to the whole world.”