<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Is there a distinction between leading worship and performing for a crowd? It\u2019s a line musicians and audiences in the faith community have long struggled to define. But instead of choosing a side, The City Harmonic would rather ignore it altogether.\r\n\r\n\u201CThe best expression of loving God is loving your neighbor, not closing my eyes and \u2018loving God,\u2019\u201D frontman Elias Dummer says. \u201CSo if the guy in the back row with his arms crossed is my neighbor, I have to care about his expectations if I\u2019m serving him.\u201D\r\n\r\nThe City Harmonic\u2019s music begs for participation\u2014but not by petitioning you to stand and clap your hands. The Canadian band\u2019s broad instrumentation sounds remarkably like anthemic Brit-rock\u2014heavy pianos, soaring strings, chanting crowds\u2014except this time you\u2019re likely to get caught up in swaying and shouting an old spiritual.\r\n\r\n\u201CThe goal in worship leading is to try to make that stage disappear,\u201D Dummer says. \u201CIt\u2019s giving people something to\r\nget lost in.\u201D\r\n\r\nThe collective experience has always been The City Harmonic\u2019s focus\u2014 even when they aren\u2019t making music. The four members are each involved in a different church in the Hamilton, Ontario, area, though their congregations collaborate regularly through a grassroots movement known as TrueCity\u2014a community representing the harmony these guys are so passionate about.\r\n\r\n\u201CTrueCity is a partnership of a number of churches that really work together for the good of the city,\u201D Dummer says. \u201CThe cool thing is it has actually been true.\u201D\r\n\r\nLast year saw the release of their six-song EP, Introducing The City Harmonic, and a full-length album is around the corner. But the band prefers the live experience to the studio, connecting heart- to- heart. After all, these are the faces and stories behind their choruses.\r\n\r\n\u201C[Jesus] told stories with characters in them. With people in them. With a sense of rootedness, not just a sort of philosophical background,\u201D Dummer says. \u201CI wonder if as writers and as worship leaders, we can use stories to tell of these ideas. It gives us something to grab onto so we can actually understand these ideas and ingest them in a way we can relate to, in a way we can make our own.\u201D "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/music/city-harmonics>