Music producer, songwriter and church leader, Henry Seeley, says The Belonging Co. was not what he planned for, saying the church “was definitely not what we thought we were moving to Nashville for”.
Well respected throughout the Christian music community, Henry’s credits include Hillsong United’s earlier records, and he won a Grammy for his collaboration with Gospel artist, Israel Houghton. Known the world over as a voice of Planetshakers – the international youth movement birthed out of Australia – Henry and his wife relocated to the United States, pioneering The Belonging Co.
The local church released their surprise debut album last year to very positive response. Without any marketing in the lead up, the local church released their live praise and worship record independent from any support from a major label. Church members and well-known recording artists Sarah Reeves, Natalie Grant and Lauren Daigle all lead worship on the album.
The local church you and your wife, Alex, planted just a few years ago has exploded in size and attendance. When you relocated from Australia to the States, did you have The Belonging Co. in mind?
Henry: It was definitely not what we thought we were moving to Nashville for. We had been part of an incredible worship movement for a long time in Australia and to be honest had thought we would stay there for life. God really began to stir our hearts about moving to the US. We didn’t know what that would look like, we really just moved out of obedience. In that first year we started to meet a lot of people who travelled on the weekends, were not really around for church on a Sunday… Even though they were out doing incredible things from a kingdom point of view, doing a lot of things to impact the church, a lot of these guys didn’t have a spiritual home base. For Alex and I that was a little bit distressing – watching these guys pour out, but not being poured into. We ended up starting a Tuesday night small group in our home. After a year or so we had 120 people showing up every week in our basement and realised that God was drawing these people together.
The debut album ‘All the Earth’ has done incredibly well. What has been your hope that listeners have taken away from the live worship record?
Henry: Our goal was that people would get a glimpse of the kind of thing that’s been happening in our church environment – encounters with God (and) that fresh sense of the presence of God as they listen and worship with these songs. That’s really our heart. We recorded this record over 3 or 4 different occasions because we didn’t want it to be one night where we tried to get all the best moments… we just wanted it to be church. So really we just took the best moments from church and put it together on a record. I hope that’s what people sense – that it feels like church. It feels like something that really isn’t about the artists on the songs, but is almost two hours of pure worship.
‘Height of Heart’ is a weekly podcast hosted by radio host and broadcaster, Deanna Fletcher. Listen to the full interview with Henry Seeley now and subscribe for more conversations. Visit the website for details.
