ach Bolen, lead singer of the Seattle worship band Citizens & Saints, plays to a crowd of worshippers at The Grove Community Church. The Grove, which hosts worship outreach events every fourth Sunday, plays songs by the band frequently during their services, which made the event especially significant to their congregation. Tyler Rhode | Banner
For Citizens & Saints, a Christian band hailing from Seattle, high energy and meaningful worship are just two pieces of their contribution to the greater goal of Christian unity.
The band, who played a concert Sept. 28 at the Grove Community Church and who will be playing a concert at California Baptist University on Oct. 3, consists of lead singer Zach Bolen and bandmates Nate Garvey, Nathan Furtado, Spencer Abbott and Adam Skatula. The Sunday night concert was the fifth performance Citizens & Saints did for The Grove that weekend, including four performances during the church’s four weekend services.
Brandon Stoppe, the Sunday night worship leader for The Grove, spent the weekend with the band while they performed at the church, and he saw their passion for God and community in the way each member was blessed by their time with his congregation.
“The cool thing about these guys is that, unlike so many bands I have seen, they aren’t exhausted or toured out,” said Stoppe, who spent time in Nashville with other worship bands before he worked at The Grove. “It was a very organic time for both them and our church. We sing a lot of their songs in our services, and were very encouraged by them.”
During the set, Citizens & Saints played songs both from their well-received album “Citizens,” released in 2013, and new music from their album “Join the Triumph,” set to be released Nov. 10.
Children and adults alike moved to the music, young ones filling the empty space at the foot of the stage with a joyful worship that warmed both the band and those who observed.
“It was really cool to see other people get excited and worship the Lord in a visible way,” said Emily Armstrong, sophomore kinesiology major at CBU. “I’ve been going to The Grove for a while, and Citizens coming definitely got the people excited. It was a really beautiful thing.”
The band, whose name changed from Citizens to Citizens & Saints after learning that there was a band in the United Kingdom already playing under their original name, has said both in person and in multiple interviews that their ultimate goal is not to play for any one church, but to proclaim the gospel of Christ.
