With plenty of creative, youthful energy from one of Seattle's most hipsteriffic neighborhoods, the University District, Mars Hill Church worship band Citizens both has reinvigorated timeless hymns and crafted artful praise tunes of their own.

Even as their first single from their self-titled debut on Mars Hill Music / BEC Recordings continues to chart well on Christian radio, the band continues to produce catchy, vertical, theologically rich music for the church with the Nov. 26 release of their brand new Christmas EP, Repeat the Sounding Joy.

As is their custom, the band has taken several well-known songs and injected it with their four-on-the-floor, indie sound and uptempo rejoicing. On top of that, they even contributed an original tune to the pantheon of Christmas songs, with the reverent "Come and Stand Amazed."

Mars Hill's U-District worship leader, Zach Bolen, talked about the origin of Citizens, the creative process at his church, and the importance of theology and the local church in worship music. 

You guys are from Mars Hill, and you're totally from the local church, that world. How did you guys get from serving the local church to now this larger audience and how's that shift been?

For us it all started in the upstairs of this [Kids Ministry] room. We got together and started writing songs, and actually, Nate—who plays keys in the band—rewrote the hymn "In Tenderness." He had this really folky version that was kind of medium-paced. I was like, "We need to shout this song! This is the Gospel."

We started arranging songs in that way: very, very upbeat, participatory songs. The church that we're at is in the U-District, right by the University of Washington. So we have a couple hundred college students that come to our evening service and we're in this old 100 year old church building, and it forms this amazing sound when people sing.

We just saw the response that came and we thought we should make a record that really just clearly portrays what is happening in the local church. I think that's been probably the reason why God has blessed us a lot, because of the fact that it started where He would want it to be birthed out of.

It's really humbling. Our focus is still the local church. Doing Creation or other music festivals is a huge opportunity, but our priority is the local church. We're still trying to figure it out, how you do both, but we definitely feel really strong to putting that church family first.

It's a new thing that you guys are wrestling with. So how do worship bands work at Mars Hill? Are you guys put together and you are a band? How does it work?

There are 14 locations—14 churches—and there are about 35 bands across all those churches. At the U-District where we're at, I'm the worship director. We have Citizens and then I lead another band. Citizens leads about twice a month. This other band leads once. Then there's another band where we raise up band leaders actually.

Guys go through this, almost like deacon process, if you will, where they get raised up theologically and just able to not just lead musically, but actually lead with the heart that understands what the Word of God is actually proclaiming. We raise up guys. That's probably what the other 28 bands are, is guys who are just volunteering in the church, going through the band leader development process, and that's how they do their thing.

What's the environment like there as far as developing your own songs? Explain the creative atmosphere at Mars Hill that allows this to happen.

First and foremost, we start with theology—our understanding of the Word, and that moves into doxology, worship of God, and that leads into missiology, which is the mission. We want to evangelize with music.

We've always wanted to contextualize what we do. We could take a song like "Amazing Grace" or "Nothing But the Blood," that's an old hymn, but actually write music that we love. We don't use other church music as our standard, but just use music that we listen to as what kind of guides us, like any musician outside of the church would do. 

I think there's a lot of creative liberty. We definitely are encouraged to write songs for the church, but it's not the priority. I think it's just birthed out of a love for Jesus' people and a love for Him and I think that's been probably the majority of the songs that have lasted have been the ones that just kind of came. There was no pressure to write them and the Holy Spirit led that person in writing that—just like so many other songs, hymns, and other things sung in the church.

"Made Alive" is one of those original ones. I didn't know "In Tenderness" was an old hymn. That's cool because that clearly shows the coat of paint you've put on it. Why do you think it's important for churches, or do you think, to have their own songs?

I think it really just depends on your context, honestly, because I think that some people look at it like they have to write, and it becomes this identity thing or it's like a job to do this creative thing. I think that people shouldn't get lost in that identity or feel that that's some sort of responsibility to have. 

There's the other side, too, that I think we can't forget. What's the most loving thing for your church? Is the most loving thing just to sing songs that have already been written, that you can just play really well and lead your congregation in? Or, do you feel called? I think our responsibility s to love the Church, the Church that Jesus has built.

Obviously the song that's got the most attention from you guys is "Made Alive." Are there any other songs you're focusing on as far as getting out there individually?

I think the song "Jesus" is a big one for us. You read through the Bible and you see the Old Testament and the New Testament and you think Jesus is in the New Testament. But really if you look deep enough, you see Jesus throughout the pages of the Bible.

You look at Colossians 1 or John 1. The Word was God. The Word was with God. All things are through Him, through Jesus. We see this beautiful portrayal of Jesus as King, as King of creation, Author of salvation, and the God of resurrection. He created us. He redeemed us. And now He's resurrected us with Him for eternity. That's a song that we're really excited about.

Another one is "Hail the King," because we really love the idea, especially it comes from Romans 5 where in the midst of suffering and trial there's perseverance and there's hope and that hope is found in the glory of God. It's found in Jesus, and the glory of God is essentially with God. God's mission on Earth is a glory mission. He wanted us to bring glory to Himself.

We rejoice in the hope of Jesus and that there's hope beyond what we see in front of us.

You mentioned there are seven main bands and 28 others. Do those other bands, on a weekend, will they be singing Citizens' songs?

Absolutely, and we sing theirs. We sing Ghost Ship songs and Sing Team songs. King's Kaleidoscope… we sing a ton of theirs. That's really the community that's existed and it's not even something that we've had to try and be intentional about. It's just happened and there's a great community there.

With that community, too, comes [accountability]. If I write a song, it doesn't mean I just get to start playing it. I've got a bunch of other guys that can come in and say, "That song is not very good, or, "It's too hard to sing." Or, they ask, "Theologically, what are you trying to communicate?" That's another part of the community.

We've all worked on these songs together so it's kind of our songs as opposed to just Citizens.

From your viewpoint, what are you seeing, sensing, watching happen in the church with regards to worship? Is there a shift taking place? 

I've gone from the Northeast to the South to the Midwest and then to the Northwest throughout my life. I think the biggest thing I've noticed over the years is maybe just that it's getting back to everything is about Jesus. 

And I think for so long things were rooted so much in this emotional response and experiential thing, that I think people have felt the bad effects of that and how exhausting that is to just constantly recreate something that is not actually rooted in the Spirit. God created emotion, but He also created theology. We need the right thinking in order to have right practice.

I think there's a big call. It sounds so silly, but I think there's a big call back to the Bible. Every generation has it and you sort of have this reformation or this regeneration. It's about Jesus and it's about His Word and that's what guides us and directs us.