People filtered into the chapel at Living Hope Church for a Friday night of live worship music. Among the crowd was young adults, retirees and a baby wearing headphones for ear protection.
Volunteer Susan McNees joked that the weekly gathering called Unfiltered is like the Christian version of a bar, except everyone is “getting filled up with the Holy Spirit” instead of booze.
It’s dark, save for the makeshift stage in the center where twinkling lights dangled from an arch and hung from a piano. The band set up, and videographers prepared as well, ready to record the whole thing in high definition before uploading it online.
Soon, thumping music filled the cavernous space.
“I’ve got hope in my veins, hope in my veins, hope in my veins. The thunder is rolling,” Maria Martins and Jonathan Tutt belted out. They harmonized with the audience.
They were singing “Land of the Living” by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based singer-songwriter and worship leader Andrew Ehrenzeller, who’s been one of Unfiltered’s guest artists.
Tutt, who also plays acoustic guitar, is the brain behind Unfiltered, which he describes as an immersive worship experience. The group recently began meeting more regularly and has ambitious plans for the future.
“There’s something about Jon that draws you to his music,” said McNees, who followed Tutt from Elevate Church in Salmon Creek, where he was a worship pastor. “You just want to sing out. You just want to glorify God.”
Worship has long been a major part of Tutt’s faith. Tutt, 38, said he remembers being a teenager and watching Tommy Bates, a popular Texas-based pastor, pound on the piano like it was a drum set — so full of emotion.
“It was very clear that he believed fully in who he was singing about and felt loved completely by who he was singing about,” Tutt said.
Another impressionable moment from his younger years: Watching Kurt Cobain of Nirvana on “MTV Unplugged,” where artists performed acoustic or unplugged versions of their big hits. There was something about the raw, unpolished performance that caught his attention, he said. For Unfiltered, Tutt wanted to marry raw worship with high-quality audio recording equipment and the wide audience reach of the internet.
“We plan maybe 30 percent, put some parameters around it and press go,” Tutt said. “What it is, that’s what you’ll hear. We don’t Auto-Tune our vocals. If we make a mistake, you’ll hear it loud and clear. If we go off tune, you’ll hear it loud and clear.”
TV screens display lyrics so people can sing along, but sometimes they go black because the musicians are just riffing.
“I think Unfiltered really does give people permission to explore again,” said Tiffany Tutt, Jonathan Tutt’s wife.
The way Unfiltered sets up each week is intentional, too. There’s no stage (so the band is not elevated above everyone else), and everyone gathers around in a circle. That way, it’s less like watching a performance and more like hanging out with your “family” worshipping God together, the Tutts said.
‘A place where God is’
There’s no message, no preaching, and actually, no church. Although it uses Living Hope’s building, Unfiltered isn’t tied to any church and draws about 100 to 200 attendees every Friday from a variety of churched and non-churched backgrounds. Music, the Tutts said, has a way of accentuating things, making emotions higher and encouraging people to open up.
Liz Turner commutes all the way from The Dalles, Ore., to take part.
“It’s a place where God is. It’s like God is really in the room with you,” she said. “You can’t find this in many places.”
As the worship music played, Turner sat in a chair near the musicians and closed her eyes — taking it all in.
“It’s an incredible way to grow what you have,” she said.
Tiffany Tutt said Unfiltered doesn’t follow the traditional way church is done, which she says is a good thing, because it’s good to have other options besides doing church and worship the same way they’ve always been done. Many people don’t attend church but identify as Christian, so Unfiltered is an easy entry point for them.
“Our focus isn’t us fulfilling everyone’s needs. Our focus is on connecting people with God and seeing what happens,” Jonathan Tutt said.
There are five lead worshippers, and guest artists, such as Ehrenzeller, are occasionally brought in from out of town. Following every Friday night gathering, the recordings are edited and put online for streaming. Someday, Tutt hopes to turn a months’ worth of performances into an album, he said. And he wants to pull talent from Pacific Northwest churches, train them and build them up as artists, whether they’re singers, songwriters or both.
“There’s a unique sound in this area,” he said.
Unfiltered Worship Ministries is the nonprofit driving the Friday night gathering, which Tutt would like to see expand to other cities. Unfiltered Inc. is the for-profit Christian music company that will ideally support the nonprofit side. The aim is for a monthly subscription model, different from traditional tithing; people would pay $8 or $12 per month to watch all the performances online, as well as interviews with artists.
“The goal is to cover the world in people connecting with God,” Tutt said.
Helping Tutt is Vancouver-based RMA, or Rogue Music Alliance, and Maranatha! Music, a Christian record label moving its offices from Newport Beach, Calif., to Officers Row in Vancouver. Unfiltered is setting up shop there as well, trying to create a hub for Christian recording artists.
“There’s something happening around the music industry right here in Vancouver, Wash.,” Tutt said.
