What's The Story?

This project has been a long time in the making. Fifteen years ago Steve Treichler planted Hope Community Church to be a place where the obstacles and objections that many people have to Christianity (with all of its cultural baggage) could be torn down and removed. As the prophet Isaiah says:

14 “Build up, build up, prepare the road!
   Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
15 For this is what the high and exalted One says—
   he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
   but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
   and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The worship team at Hope has always tried to embrace that Isaiah 57 vision in the way that we choose and arrange songs for our weekly worship gatherings. Remove obstacles. Make much of God's holiness. Display God's tenderness toward those who are broken.

One of the vehicles for this vision that has come to define our community at Hope is the ancient hymnody. In the pages of dusty old hymnals we have found lyrics that are profound and aesthetically appealing, and also feel very appropriate to this generation. We have done our best to craft arrangements of these songs that are unique and timely. Our hope is that these songs demonstrate a connectedness with both ancient history and modern culture and that the minds and spirits of listeners would be challenged and refreshed.

We've waited fifteen years to make a recording of these songs. Would you please consider backing this project and helping us fund the recording process?

What is the timeline for funding and finishing this project?

We have until midnight on March 31st to raise all of the funds for the project. We will be doing the majority of the recording in June and July, and then work out the production elements (mixing, mastering, CD duplication, etc.) in August and September. Our goal is to send out codes for the digital downloads to our backers some time in October. If everything goes according to plan, we will have the physical copies of the CD ready for distribution at the CD release party/night of worship/art show at Hope on November 10th.

Why does this cost so much?

Believe it or not, doing an album at a professional studio for under $15,000 is actually pretty good. Many artists that you would hear on the radio pay close to 10 times that amount for their albums. Is it possible to make an album for less? Of course. But in the recording industry, as in so many other industries, I have found that you get what you pay for. I have every confidence that our targeted amount will allow us to record an album that is of excellent quality.

What if you don't raise all of the money?

I'm so glad you asked. If we don't raise all the money in 60 days, we don't raise any money. What I mean is this: If we don't raise our targeted amount in the time that we've been allotted, no one's credit card will be charged, no money will be transferred into our account, and we will not make this album. Ooh--one other consequence of not raising the money: we will all be sad.

What if you raise more money than your targeted amount?

First I want to say this: our financial goal is just to break even. If we raise more than the targeted amount on Kickstarter, the money will be used to fund some of the aspects of the project that we have not included in the total Kickstarter amount--things like: paying for the t-shirts, hymnals and posters. If we were fortunate enough to raise more money than we need for ALL of the ancillary costs of this project, it would be our desire to keep the funds and hopefully record other albums in the future. Like a Christmas album. Wouldn't that be fun?

Is my contribution tax deductible?

I realize that not everyone will be interested in this. But, it is definitely possible for a portion of your contribution to be tax deductible. Hope will need to provide you a receipt for your donation minus the total value of the incentive(s) you've chosen. If you would like to get receipt from Hope for your donation, you must email me: tim[at]hopecc.com and let me know your name, your donation amount, and the correlating incentives that you will be receiving.