The worship band Bellarive is made up of six friends with a common goal: to lead others before the throne of God.
Their desire to craft innovative and inspiring songs designed to usher people into the presence of God has gifted the group with many opportunities to lead worship for churches, colleges, missions organizations and conferences.
“It’s so cool to step into a space with other believers and worship God together,” lead singer Sean Curran said. “It’s something that really motivates and stirs us to do this. It’s the core of who we are and what we love.”
In addition to Curran, the band is comprised of Melissa Mage and her brother Mike, Josh Luker, Zach Glotfelty and Kenny Werner.
The group’s name derives from a street near Curran’s house, where the band would regularly meet to discuss songs.
“When I was in college, I met the guys from Bellarive and we started writing songs,” Curran said. “That’s kind of how the band got started. Choosing a name was actually the last step for us. We had done all of the songwriting and recording at my house, which was kind of a special place to the group. We came up with the idea to take a street name in my neighborhood and change the letters around, to make it kind of mean ‘beautiful river.’”
Often songwriting inspiration starts flowing as band members are leading worship at events and seeing people respond to biblical truths. Their album, “The Heartbeat,” captures the group’s desire to cultivate songs that draw listeners closer to the Lord and deepen their relationship with Him.
“Most of the time, the songs come out of times of worship — whether it’s in a worship service or at home in my room,” Curran said. “A lot of times, song ideas just come from spending time with the Lord and kind of having a bit of a revelation about His love or His glory — a different glimpse of what He did for us, and it kind of stirs our hearts. So we’ll just grab onto that and base the content lyrically on that moment, when God gives you a new piece of His glory, opening your eyes to a new side of Him. That’s the floor plan of the song, and we just kind of take it from there.”
In fall 2013, Bellarive will be on a nationwide tour with The Digital Age. Then they will join The Rend Collective Experiment and Audrey Assad on “The Campfire Tour.” In addition, the group will be leading worship at the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville, and they are scheduled to lead worship for upcoming Student Life conferences.
During these events, Bellarive desires to keep the spotlight off of themselves and focused on Christ.
“When you strip everything away, the goal has nothing to do with music and everything to do with Jesus,” Curran said. “We hope that when people go to a worship service or listen to the album, that they would do more than just listen. We hope that they would kneel at the feet of the Father and praise Him for all that He is and for the love and grace that He has given us.”
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