Broken Worship Live at the Belbas Theatre
Tea resident Zach Mitchell is gearing up for the stage at the Belbas Theatre this Sunday, November 7 where he will perform live — Broken Worship from 7 to 9 p.m.
“At the Broken Worship event, I will be performing spoken word poetry from my first two books, and reading some segments from my third book. I will also be sharing my professionally done spoken word videos, performing some new poetry not yet published, and be sharing about my newly launched podcast” said Mitchell.
The Washington Pavilion event is intended for adult audiences.
“I want to state that there will be some adult language/explicit content at the performance,” he added. “Broken Worship is about being real, genuine, and raw. I don’t stray away from my real internal struggles or try to hide who I am.”
Who is Zach Mitchell exactly?
He has lived in Tea the past six years and grew up loving music and writing poetry. He was in a band with friends in High School, but once the band broke up, Mitchell said he needed an outlet to share his struggles and his faith —so he started writing.
“I am an imperfect person that has made a lot of mistakes,” Mitchell said. “I am covered in tattoos, I listen to metal music, and I’m not the smartest person you’ll ever meet. I am a broken person that is crazy about Jesus and has a heart for His creation. I will let you down but Jesus never will. We all have to go through the sanctification process. Faith is a personal journey that needs a community. Whether that be a church community or just people in your life that love you through your mistakes and will pick you up when you fall.”
His first collection of poetry is titled, “Broken Worship”, he followed that up with two other books, a second collection of poetry, “Broken Worship- No Darkness In Light” and a third book about his faith, theology, and the importance of having the greatest commandment as the core of the Christian faith, titled, “Imperfectly Spreading A Perfect Gospel.”
Sunday’s show will not be Mitchell’s first performance, he has held poetry readings before —but this will be his first headlining act. The show on Sunday will open with guests Rachelle Graham and Shaun Redfern. Details on the event can be found at www.washingtonpavilion.org. There is no charge for admission.
Mitchell will also be talking about his latest project — a new podcast that he started in August of this year.
“I have five episodes released. As of now, my goal is to release one episode a month, and hope to be able to start doing more in time. My podcast is available right now on Spotify, Podbean, and Youtube. The best way to find my works, podcast episodes, and events are on my website: broken-worship.com,” he said.
He started the podcast to build the Broken Worship community.
“I want the Broken Worship Ministry/Community to be a place where people can come and not feel judged or preached to and walk together through the hard times and be there for each other,” he said. “Our goal is to love God with everything that we are and truly love our neighbor as ourselves. The slogan I created for the Broken Worship Ministry/Community is ‘even in our brokenness, we have a reason to worship.’”
Mitchell was inspired to do the ministry of Broken Worship he said, “to show the love of Christ to people who feel like they don’t belong in a church setting. I believe the American church as a whole has become really divisive, hypocritical, judgemental, and political. I know way too many people who feel like they don’t fit in a church setting and feel like God judges them. I want the Broken Worship Ministry/Community to feel loved, never alone, and have a chance to see the love of God in a whole different way than they have never experienced before. This is a place where I am vulnerable and share my deepest thoughts and biggest mistakes.”
Mitchell added that he wanted to be clear that he isn’t speaking ill of any specific church.
“There are a lot of great ones,” he said. “I have a heart for the community of Embrace in Tea. I believe that being in the body of Christ in a church setting is a beautiful thing. I just have grown to have a heart for people who would never feel comfortable in a church setting.”
He added, “Faith is a personal journey that needs a community. Whether that be a church community or just people in your life that love you through your mistakes and will pick you up when you fall.”