Hark Up! What is It?

Hark Up! What’s in a name? In 1998 when it became known that Grooters and Beal were not going to go forward with the production of the “Rock Vespers” another year, some of us who had participated in Rock Vespers decided that we would carry on the tradition of a contemporary Christmas music outreach. In 1999 “Hark Up”, or “listen Up-we have a story to tell” was born. We, the creators of the Hark Up event, had been affiliated with a local church until January 1, 2007, although the event was never funded by that church.

Upon separating from this local church, Hark Up Ministries was born. Hark Up Ministries (HUM) is a Worship and Arts Ministry currently operating as a division of Salt Ministries, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization under the direction of Bill Rigg. Hark Up Ministries is committed to using creative avenues of music and other arts in bringing the gospel message of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the community; offering opportunities for entire families to be involved because of its inter-generational approach; in involving and mentoring youth; and creating exciting God honoring artistic events. Click here for a list of board members and advisors.

“Hark Up 2007,” the Christmas outreach event, now in its eighth year is committed to attracting and involving youth, kids, and adults from the community in a multi-generational creative contemporary Christmas outreach. Between three hundred and four hundred people have participated each year from the community in the past in the Hark Up Choir, the Hark Up Kids Choir, the Hark Up Band, dancers, actors, technicians, and the various Hark Up support teams. One unique facet to this event is that it allows all members of one family to be involved together. This program also involves a mentoring program to help disciple high school aged participants and younger as well as a follow-up strategy using local churches with those who make a decision for Christ.

Our contemporary Christmas outreach program is the focal event offered to the community by Hark Up Ministries. It will be staged and produced at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Arts and Worship on the campus of Grand Rapids Christian High School this year.

Over 30,000 people from all over West Michigan have experienced the Hark Up Christmas event in its eight years of production. Corey Emerson Niemchick of Storytelling Pictures has been a key person in developing our story lines and concluding the event with a pertinent Gospel message.

In addition to our Christmas outreach event, other goals of Hark Up Ministries include providing worship leadership, resources and training to local churches and other ministries, and collaborating with them in community outreach events. Hark Up Ministries also hopes to develop a discipleship and mentoring program for high school youths and young adults, using music as the bridge. Roy Clark and “Mentor West Michigan” have offered to help us in training mentors for our youth involved in the Christmas event.

Over the last six months, HUM has presented over twenty programs in churches and the community. Many of those programs have included youth as either singers or instrumentalists. Soon we will be moving to a new location in Grand Rapids. Through the gift of a generous donor which greatly reduced our lease, we will have the use of a 2900 square-foot space to continue to develop our ministry and conduct some of our rehearsals.

As recently as Sunday night, August 5 of this year (2007), Hark Up Ministries presented a worship concert to close out the Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven. We led the audience in celebration with our “Friends Choir,” a fifty-five voice inter-generational choir which included many adult singers with their children (ages fifteen to seventy). We also used our twenty-piece Horns of Power as the live band, and we involved an additional group of fifteen support team members which included multiple family members. HUM is committed to families and helping to bridge the generational gap which seems to be rampant in our culture.

Consider being a part of Hark Up this year. You can sing, help out behind the scenes, pray or financially support the event.

Contact us at harkup@gmail.com for more info on any of the above areas.