Author: Calvin R. Evans
Published: November 14, 2005
Tool: [ email ]
Manhunt: Sara, thank you for interviewing with us today. I won't take up too much of your time; I just have a few questions to ask you today.
Groves: OK.
Manhunt: The first thing I want to ask you is to please share with us some of your personal thoughts about your CD, Add to the Beauty.
Groves: Well, the album is something that I've been trying to get at for a long time. Each album I've been trying to get at how the Kingdom of God intersects our real life. Because I believe that God's made some claims about Himself and His ideas of the world work that are so vastly different from the way we work. It's so opposite like to love our enemies, and that love never fails and that there is peace when we shouldn't have peace. So I find that in my own heart there is a disconnect. I say that I am believing but I think there is a breakdown sometimes between our time in church and the actual Kingdom of God in our lives and so I am always trying to put my finger on how those things intersect. I think it is best summed up with something Mother Theresa said that you can do no great things, just small things with great love. I think that kind of sums up how the Kingdom of God intersects our life.
Manhunt: Great. Now you have been referred to as a critically acclaimed singer. What does critical acclaim mean to you?
Groves: Well, I don't know. My life goes on, but I think my work is in the album or in the studio work. When I feel good at the end of that process then I fell finished. Whatever happens after that...I think in my first album I put a lot of stock in people's responses and then it's sort of a roller coaster ride as an artist if you open yourself up to what everybody thinks of your music. So I think it's great if people are taking hold of your music, but I also feel like it can paralyze you if you think about it too much because when I start on a new project I want to be able to start over fresh.
Manhunt: Certainly that's understandable. Do you ever feel pressure from your level of success?
Groves: Well, I guess I would say that I'm famous like the cable access weather girl is famous. (Manhunt laughs) I feel like God has made a space for me to do what I do so I don't get caught up in myself.
Manhunt: I got you. I know that you mother is a high school principal. Growing up were you ever suspended from the dinner table?
(Both laugh)
Groves: No I never have.
Manhunt: I understand that you are a former high school teacher as well. I spoke with Yolanda Adams and I know that she is a former teacher as well. What is it about teaching that prepares you for ministry?
Groves: Well I feel like one of my favorite things about teaching is getting the light to come on. I was a history teacher and I loved taking difficult ideas or stories and getting the light to come on. That's my favorite moment, when students find some connection with history or feel like it applies to them; when they feel like this isn't just something that happened a long time ago it actually still affects us today. I think I get the same joy out of writing a song, taking complex ideas or theology or whatever and trying to present it in a way so that the light goes on; where it isn't just talk, this is the real stuff of life and of relationships and family and just working it out. I think there is a disconnect for a lot of people between what they say they believe and what actually happens in there day-to-day life. And so for me in my own life I am always trying to make that more congruent, more one-way.
Manhunt: Ok. It's funny; we have a lot in common. I taught social studies as well.
Groves: Oh really? What grade did you teach?
Manhunt: I taught 9th and 11th grade for two years and 7th grade for one year.
Groves: Oh wow! That's a challenge.
Manhunt: It is a challenge! (Both laugh). I praise anybody who can stay in there for the long haul because it is not easy.
Groves: No it's not.
Manhunt: Well my final question is, if you could give advice to someone who wants to be in music ministry full time, recording and touring, what would it be?
Groves: If I have learned anything it's that there are a million opportunities. We say no now to many things that five years ago we would've never said no to. You think just as your life changes and you are trying to be a good steward with your energy and your time and everything, there are so many opportunities I think if you are willing to work hard, there are plenty of places for musicians to have a voice. I think that if I saw one principle at work in my own life it was that if you are faithful with a little, He will trust will trust you with more. And I've felt like that all through my life. I just think you give your best no matter where you are. People look at fans and look at artists and they see a distorted view of what that is like. It's actually very humbling. There are many times you come in like a dog and you work hard and at this point we are being invited in by people who want us to come. (Both laugh) I think in the early days it's a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of endurance, but I think if you are faithful with a little bit then I think God will trust you with more. I think that is a principle that I have seen work in ministry.
Manhunt: Amen. All right. Well Sara thank you so much. I appreciate you very much.
Groves: Thank you Calvin. It's been great.
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