Our journey to becoming a non-profit
The Heavens Declare
“The heavens declare your glory…they declare your grace, they declare you’re righteous, they declare you’re good.”
— “The Heavens Declare” by the Mount Carmell Worship Collective
Our Goal:
We believe the next chapter of our story is to become a non-profit to enable us to do everything we've been doing on a larger scale, with the support of grant-funding. Our work and mission remains the same. Will you help us write this next chapter? Thank you!
Our work has been featured on or supported by organizations including:
About Us
The Mount Carmell Worship Collective is a Faith, Science, and the Arts Collective (the first of its kind!). We are a collaborative of creatives, artists, scholars, and scientists.
MISSION: Exploring the intersection of faith, science, and the arts for the flourishing of the Church and our world.
CORE VALUES:
Christ-Centered Worship: We are a faith-based worship collaborative with Christ at the center. We set our heart on worship as the reason behind what and why we create. We want our work to draw others into deeper relationship with Christ, as well as present a compelling witness of the Gospel to the World. We want to encourage others to love and worship God more fully, not just with our heart, but with our mind/brain.
Life-Giving Community: We desire to model an interdisciplinary community of creative collaboration that is rooted in a spirit of generosity, creating from a place of abundance, freely giving what we have so freely received from our Creator.
Transformation: We desire to see people and communities transformed and revitalized by the work we do and create.
Our Story
OUR STORY: In 2024, shortly after returning to work from maternity leave, Dr. Ciara Reyes-Ton was sensing a call to pursue worship more fully, at the time she was mostly thinking worship music, but she didn't have the platform, resources and/or time especially as a mom of two, a toddler and new baby. But she followed her heart, and through an act of faith started the Mount Carmell Worship Collective.
Later that year, she realized that the worship collective needed to be about more than just music. In her own personal journey, she had discovered that worship was so much more than just music - her work as a scientist and writer were acts of worship too.
In the Fall of 2024, the Mount Carmell Worship Collective became a faith, science, and the arts worship collective.
We believe that scientific knowledge can help us live safer and longer lives and secure a better future for our ourselves, others, and future generations. If that isn’t compelling enough, we also believe it can lead to deeper worship of God and more awareness of opportunities we can partner with him to heal our broken and wounded world.
Accomplishments
Our song "Jesus Came to Save" was a runner-up for The Gospel Coalition’s “What is the Gospel?” contest. Out of 172 submissions, we were in the top 25.
We received funding from Science for the Church through a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to release two faith and science songs: "Taste and See" and "For God so Loved the World."
We participated in the NPR Tiny Desk Contest, recording and submitting our song "Delight."
We received a grant from Skype A Scientist to sing environmental faith songs around Nashville.
We led worship at Goshen College for the Midwest Religion and Science Society's annual conference.
We pioneered and led our first VISICO DIVINA science and art prayer exhibit at Lipscomb University's McClure Faith and Science Center.
We officially joined Renew the Arts Porchlight network of artists.
We designed an advent faith and science-themed devotional book for the ASA's Science Communicator's of Faith group.
We are leading worship for the ASA's 2025 conference this July!
Support Us
The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) is a faith-based scholarly and professional society, an international community and fellowship of Christians engaged in faith and science questions. They have generously agreed to be our fiscal sponsor, accepting donations on our behalf, this means that all donations will be tax-deductible, and 10% of all donations will go to the ASA. There are a few ways to donate:
CREDIT CARD/PAYPAL/CHECKS/E-CHECKS: You can donate directly on the ASA website here; they accept credit card and Paypal. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your donation will be made to the ASA annual fund, but in order to ensure that it is directed to our fundraiser, you will need to put "Mount Carmell" in the donor comments/memo.
VENMO: You can also donate via Venmo to the handle @americanscientificaffiliation ; put "Mount Carmell" in the memo.
I CANNOT DONATE AT THIS TIME. ARE THERE OTHER WAYS I CAN SUPPORT? Absolutely! We completely understand if you are unable to donate. Here are a couple of FREE ways you can support us! Follow us on Instagram or subscribe to our Youtube Channel.
Attend our Benefit Concert
You are cordially invited to "The Heavens Declare" benefit concert hosted by the Mount Carmell Worship Collective. We are a faith, science, and the arts worship collective. We believe scientific knowledge and the natural world can lead us to deeper wonder and worship of God. This event will be a special time of worship and celebration, and all funds will help support the worship collective officially becoming a non-profit!
Four time Grammy-award winning artist Mr. Talkbox will kick-off our event, and our concert will feature a talented group of artists including Josh Wright, Elisheeva, Abby Lane, Gabby Hartl, Kendale LB, and Byron Harvey II. All of the artists will cover songs from our Worship Collective. You can RSVP here.