Click Here To Read More Interviews

Sara Groves made her first album, Past The Wishing, as a gift for family and friends to share the Gospel. It ended up selling over 20,000 copies, quite a feat for an independent artist. Featuring an acoustic sound reminiscent of Rich Mullins, Sarah MacLachlan and Shawn Colvin, Sara's heartfelt lyrics reflect life, relationships and the love and grace of God. Now with a new baby (son Kirby was born in August), record deal and album called Conversations, Sara has a lot to talk about.

FamilyChristian.com: Who is Sara Groves?

Sara: I'm a mom and a wife first. I grew up in the church so that is my background. I'm a musician, but that is my hobby. It's my heart's love and I'll be doing it when I'm 90 if people are listening or not. The Lord has opened up this window for me to share my music with people and I know that it might not be forever.

FamilyChristian.com: How did you get into the music business?

Sara: I did not have a goal that I wanted to be a Christian music artist. I taught high school and I played in a worship band for youth group at our church. When I was teaching I was part of a FCA Huddle group. We had a fundraiser and they asked if our worship band would come and do music. I had a bunch of students who came who aren't a part of FCA, but they were interested in seeing their history teacher in a band. One girl in particular professed to be a witch. I came to her during school and I said, "I know you're into spiritual things. Tonight's going to be really spiritual [and] you should come." She came and was in the front row. After the concert she came up and asked if we had a tape. So my husband [Troy] and I originally started out making a record for people in our lives so they would hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and take it home with them.

Some friends at church found out what we were going to do and said, "Why don't you give us an opportunity to be a part of it?" Troy's dad encouraged me to send out a letter much like you do for a missions trip. By the end I'd sent out about 50-75 letters just saying, "This is what has been laid on our hearts to do." The Lord had another budget in mind, because we got $10,000 from friends and family. It was a complete confirmation that we were supposed to do this so I started making the first album, Past The Wishing, to give to friends and family.

FamilyChristian.com: You turned down a record deal toward the beginning, didn't you?

Sara: When Past The Wishing came out, my kick-off concert was really my first big concert. I'd never done this before. It ended up being an amazing night. A representative from [a record company] was there. We started talking to [that company] and I thought, "Wow. This is how it's going to happen and we're going to sign this deal." And the Lord just said, "No. You're not going to do that." We negotiated for 10 months and at the end we just said no. I felt like the Lord was telling me, "I just gave this to you, why are you going to give it away?" He wanted me to build it. We really pursued it as a meaningful ministry. And then in March my husband left his job and we've been full-time ever since. That was three years ago.

FamilyChristian.com: What made you decide to sign with a label?

Sara: I think the reason that we signed with a label is because I had a baby. We've worked very hard as independent artists. Everything we've done, we've done from the trunk of our car and it's gone very well. We've made a living and we've really enjoyed it. But when I got pregnant, I started thinking, "Troy and I can get in the car and we can do whatever we want, but now I've got a family and I need to treat this more like a job." Not that it's now just a job, because I definitely feel the call of ministry behind it, but I need to protect my family and I need to put boundaries around the things we're doing. We had drawn up a perfect contract over the last three years, what would be a really good deal for both the artist and the record label. Jeff called us and outlined exactly that. It was really an amazing opportunity.

FamilyChristian.com: Tell me about Conversations.

Sara: It's conversations with God, conversations with people, conversations with myself. The title song, "Conversations," is me talking to a friend of mine who is not a believer and just saying, "I don't know how to say this, but I love Jesus, that's my whole. It's all that I have; it's all that I am. And I just want to share that with you." The greatest thing that has been happening is that people are using the music to do that with people in their lives. I've had e-mails from people who say, "I've never talked to my mom about Christ, and I used this song to open up the conversation and say 'I love you.'"

FamilyChristian.com: What do you hope that listeners will come away with when they listen to Conversations?

Sara: Our mission statement is that we believe that every person in the world has a next step with God. God has a purpose for every person. He's using me to do this music and he's going to use other people wherever they are. It's not that He wants us to do more stuff; He wants us to do what we're doing to the glory of God. If you have breath in your body, God wants to use you. God offers us a reason to be.

FamilyChristian.com: How that you're a mother, has the song "Generations" taken on new meaning?

Sara: When I wrote it I had just gotten a family tree-type thing from my aunt. It's a wheel that starts with my great-grandmother and goes out from there. I thought that if one person in that circle had made different decisions, I might not be here today. I might not be serving the Lord today. I might not know Jesus Christ personally. The image is amazing, so many people are affected directly or indirectly by the decisions that we make.

FamilyChristian.com: What inspires you to write?

Sara: Everything. I love to read. I am a human being having human experiences. I like to base a song on a theme. I like to write world-view, but I like to write the question. If you have a question about why bad things happen to good people, I like to tackle a topic like that in song.

FamilyChristian.com: What kinds of things have you been reading lately?

Sara: I'm reading Goodnight Moon [with Kirby]. I'm trying to read The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard right now. The last book I read was John Ortberg's The Life I've Always Wanted.

The song "The Word" is about how people tend to buy and read every other book but the Bible. When I'm get a few minutes a day to read, I'm trying to read the Word instead of reading other books, because I don't get a lot of time. Devotion time is a lifelong struggle for me. I go hot and cold and it's so frustrating to me because I feel like I should get it by now. The more time I have, the less I'm in the Word. I can fill up my time with other stuff—running errands and hanging out with friends or dumb stuff like cleaning the house. I just put everything above that time, always with the plan of getting to it later. I need to just grab it when I can and just do it.

FamilyChristian.com: Our generation seems to want honesty and independent artists seem to leading the charge in this area.

Sara: I think it's really important to have a few good independent years. You really learn a lot about yourself. Troy and I were talking last night about a [concert I performed] at a handicapped facility. I was sitting at the piano with a straight-stand mic between my legs and the tape player ate the background tape. We laughed, but I think everyone needs experiences like that so that when you do get to sing to 500 or 5000, you say, "Lord, You are faithful."

I read an article by John Fischer in CCM on idol worship and how if Moses had come down the mountain and seen an idol of himself, he would have thrown that out just as quickly as the calf. A lot of Christians trade in their worldly idols for Christian idols. They still are involved in idol worship in the Christian community, lifting people up to a pedestal. But they're human, they're not supposed to be there in the first place. To set someone up like that is not really fair to them and it's not really biblical either.

FamilyChristian.com: Does that frighten you a little bit?

Sara: It is hard. I have to protect myself in this way a little bit. I love to hear good things. I feel really good when somebody comes up to me and says, "The Lord really used your music to minister to me in this way." Then I can say, "Amen. That's awesome." I know that this is a gift from the Lord. But when someone comes up and is like "you did this and you did that", I have a hard time responding to that.

FamilyChristian.com: What is God teaching you now?

Order Coversations today!

Sara: Two things. I write for therapy so the one song I'm working on now is, "Just One More Thing," about how we say, "I'll be there in a minute, just one more thing to do." But a hundred just one more things add up to a lot of space between you and God, you and your family, you and your kids. The chorus says, "Love to me is when you put down that one more thing and say, I've got something better to do. Love to me is when you put down that one more thing and say nothing will come between me and you, not even one thing." I do that a lot. I say to Troy, "I just have to do one more and then we'll have time to spend together." With Kirby I don't want to do that.

I'd say the other lesson is in a song on Conversations called, "This Journey is My Own." That's my banner song. I want to live and breathe for the audience of One. That song is still the lesson that I'm learning, Every time I get my eyes off the center, stuff starts falling apart. Then I kind of get my eyes back on the center and then it starts working again. I just need to keep there and let everyone else do what they're going to do and say what they're going to say, good or bad. I need to understand that this is just for a time and when it's over I want to be able to live with myself and I want to feel proud of what I've done.

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

Back To Top

Click Here To Read More Interviews

Corporate Informations:
About Family Christian Stores® |  Jobs
Information / Official Logos For Business Partners / Suppliers

© 2010 Family Christian Stores®, Inc.