Anointing is something that's difficult, really, to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it firsthand. At Creation Northwest 2013, there are plenty of bands and plenty of worship leaders singing praises to God. But there are some rare instances where an artist's anointing sends goosebumps through the crowd as the presence of God is palpable.

I only caught the last half of the final song of Bellarive's set at Creation Northwest, and yet it was probably the most powerful worship moment of the entire festival for me. There's something powerful about each of the six members of a band not just singing to God, but demonstratively pouring their hearts out to Him in praise—mentally, physically and spiritually.

It was an otherworldly, transcendent moment of praise, and I knew I had to talk with the creative, unorthodox worshipers—to see where they are in 2013, and their thoughts on worship to Jesus. I sat down with lead singer Sean Curran and brother-sister tandem Mike and Melissa Mage.

So you recently moved from Florida to Atlanta. So why not all the way to Nashville? 

Sean: We already have some friends in Atlanta. Because of our relationship with them we've developed relationships with other people networking and honestly just felt some spiritual favor there. We've only spent a little time in Nashville, but it's just not something we can call home I don't think.

I was saying to Melissa I've only heard you guys for the last 30 seconds of your set and there was just such an anointing. It was so awesome. The power of when everybody on a team is going for it in worship. It's just amazing.

How long have you all been together? What, was there eight of you on stage?

Sean: Six. I guess initially as a band it's been over four years now. They're brother and sister. I met them in college way before a band thing was ever on the table. We connected real quick and started leading worship together.

What college was that?

Sean: UCF. Central Florida. Camp Crusade was a strong ministry on campus at the time and we got involved there. We just led worship together a lot and really felt connected there. We started serving at a church, primarily the student ministry, and the other three members of the band were already serving there.

It was just one of those things we felt kindred spirits about what all this meant, so we started meeting up at my house and praying through it and writing some songs. Even after we officially thought I think we're a band we spent a couple of years just serving at the church. 

There was a time where we were leading worship there in some capacity four or five times a week. Like Sunday morning, college ministry, youth ministry, all that stuff and then we just started… people started contacting us.

It blew up rather quickly. You were together for a long time and then all of a sudden things just accelerated.

Sean: It was definitely a groundwork lay that we weren't even aware of really and had no agenda to be a part of it, but then you feel like you offer God this leading.

We're a year past your debut album, The Heartbeat, being released. Where do we find Bellarive in 2013?

Sean: We've learned a lot. Again, we went from just serving at a local capacity to—since January, in some respects—not having more than five days consecutively at home. That was a huge difference, a huge adjustment. That kind of shocked us into the realization that we need to get out of Florida I think.

A lot of traveling, but when you're doing this all the time in different settings I think you naturally just learn a lot. You learn a lot about yourself. You grow a lot closer to each other or you grow a lot farther away from each other. Luckily, we grew a lot closer.

I think the new songs we're writing are a reflection of what we're learning and there's definitely a deeper foundation to what we think is happening right now and just being sensitive to the audience that we're in front of. It spans a large spectrum, so really being able to know how to lead, what songs to play, what songs to write so that these people encounter Jesus. That's the point.

It's just been cool. I think it's a natural, maturing process that happens to people continuing to become adults and also just the reflection of music and everything else.

You mentioned writing and a new foundation of where you're at right now. What does that look like now as far as what you're writing, what are some themes and things that God's pressing on your heart?

Sean: I think there's an overarching theme of "may your kingdom come," and us having some revelation about what that might actually mean, what that might look like, the reality of it. I think what's affected me so much is even just looking at the one prayer that Jesus modeled for us. The first call to action in that is, "May your kingdom done. May your will be done."

We're supposed to pray that as if it's possible, as if it's actually happening, as if because of what Jesus has done for us a part of that process is seeing God's kingdom on the move in our very present state. That has really affected us in terms of our identity in Christ and the realization that grace is not just something that pulled the darkness out of us, but that is commissioning us into the kingdom, what's clothing us in light. Because of what Jesus has done we've not just been pardoned, but we are being reconciled and we are invited into God's family.

There's a theme there that is really at the core of what we're wanting to sing right now, what we think is important for God's people to sing—being able to claim that. If you find your identity in Jesus, it would change everything. It would change everything. There is a bit of a theme.

Are you getting a new record ready? Where are you guys at in that?

Mike: We're in the process. All of our time spent in Atlanta has been getting settled and all that kind of stuff, but we've had summer camps all summer, obviously, and all of our downtime, which is few and far in between at summer camps.

It's really strange. You have so much free time and you have no free time. It's so weird. You look at the schedule and you're like, "I'm going to have four hours of free time. We can really get stuff done." That turns into an hour and a half, but all that time we've been trying to record some songs, like demo some songs out and get a good feel to how are these going to sound and what are these going to feel like? How are these going to affect the people that are going to hear them?

In sort of our maturation process it's kind of our step in saying just looking at it objectively and saying, "What do we need to do to make this better, to make this the best thing that we possibly can, not just for the people, but for ourselves, too?" We've been trying to work super hard at demoing out songs and to get ready relatively shortly to record our second album.

So that that would be sometime probably first half of next year?

Sean: We have a tentative schedule that's super tentative, but we'll probably start recording soon.

How do you guys keep your worship fresh? To be able to go out there and give it all for Jesus, just go in for it with only five days break and being in summer camps. How do you do it?

Melissa: I think more and more you just have to rely so much on the Holy Spirit and you just have to let Him do what He wants to do no matter what. Being the mouthpiece a lot of times you can get it confused with being the focal point, and we're not the focal point. It takes a lot of the pressure off for us because there may be a stage that's three feet taller than where everybody else in the room is standing, but we're all on the same level.

I think for us it's just a joy to get to worship and to get to respond to Him and our gifting is through music, but a lot of people do it a lot of different ways of worshiping their creator, but I think anything can get exhausting, but if you keep the main thing the main thing...

Mike: It can get really difficult. Like at those summer camps where you play at 8:30 or 8:00 in the morning, and you play late into the night. It can get rough, but there's an element of servanthood that goes into this. Obedience.

I think that we're starting to really understand that, but there's joy in serving our creator. There's joy found in that. You're serving the Creator who created all things and He wants to be a part of that. How in the world can you not get excited about that? How can you not want to do that?

It doesn't mean that it's not hard to do sometimes, because it is. Those early mornings or the tours that we've had to do like driving seven hours before lunch and then be up until 2:00 in the morning and do it all over again. There's a huge element of serving that comes with that, and we've been created to do that.