September 25, 2006

Mobile-based Christian Band gets
National Airplay

Pictured left to right are Seraph members Aaron Turner, bass guitar; Tommy Hinton, drums; Brad Hill,
lead vocals and acoustic guitar; Anthony Kidd, keyboard, loops and saxophone; Steven Kelley,
electric guitar; and Joe Langley, background vocals, harmonica, mandolin and more.

When the Mobile-based band Seraph takes the stage, prepare for the unexpected.

“Basically, you don’t ever know what you’re going to get,” said lead singer and acoustic guitarist Brad Hill of the group’s diverse musical collaborations. “You just have to come.”

The group, composed of University of Mobile alumni, employees and a current student, has an impressive instrumental repertoire. In addition to the standard guitars, keyboard and drums, a Seraph performance may feature harmonica, mandolin, banjo or saxophone, as well as the occasional Irish pennywhistle or bouzouki.

And although Seraph’s sound evades stringent definition, the group’s primary intent is crystal clear.

“Our passion is to worship Jesus in Spirit and in Truth and in that process bring people into an encounter with the Savior,” Hill writes on Seraph’s website.

Now, listeners across the United States are getting the opportunity to be encouraged by Seraph’s eclectic sound. This August, two original songs from their debut album, “Remember When”--“More Than Conquerors” and “Near You”--were picked up by American Family Radio (AFR). AFR is committed to bringing Christian radio to communities across the nation and has over 200 stations across 42 states.

“It’s really neat to think about your music going out and touching people’s lives all over the country,” said Langley.

Joan Hill, local music director and DJ for 89.1, The Passage--AFR’s Mobile/Pascagoula station--said that with some groups’ music, “you just know the United States and the world need to hear it,” and for AFR, Seraph was one of those groups.

Bob Sullender, general manager of The Passage, and Joan Hill heard Seraph perform at Hank Aaron Stadium, picked up their CD and passed on the songs to AFR’s music director, who then had the singles played on all AFR stations.

Joan Hill said Seraph’s sound “is down-to-earth and goes straight to the heart. The talent is immeasurable: Seraph is a very talented group. They’re so enthusiastic and seem so full of the Lord.”

She added, “They seem to be able to live what they sing, and when they sing, it comes over from their hearts.”

Song samples from “Remember When” can be heard on the group’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/seraph6.

Along with Brad Hill, Seraph’s members are Tommy Hinton, drums; Aaron Turner, bass guitar; Anthony Kidd, keyboard, loops and sometimes saxophone; Joe Langley, harmonica, mandolin, background vocals and more; and Steven “Scoots” Kelley, electric guitar.

Seraph is a band that shies away from rigid categorization, and for good reason: citing influences as varied as Blues Traveler, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews Band, Michael W. Smith and Sister Hazel, each member of the six-person band brings something unique to its sound.

Turner said he and his bandmates want to continually live “a life completely focused on presenting the gospel, and a life pleasing to Christ.”

According to the band members, bringing people to that encounter with Christ is the most important thing: more important than prosperity or fame. Seraph’s main goal is ministry, especially to students, and that ministry encompasses being examples in worship, in a godly lifestyle and in glorifying Christ in everything they do.

From the band’s beginning, said Hill, “We all wanted to lead worship in some form.”
Seraph got its start gradually--its members’ lives have been interwoven throughout the years--but the University of Mobile played a vital role in connecting them.

Hill, Hinton, Kidd and Langley all graduated from the Baptist-affiliated university with degrees in religion, while Kelley is currently a senior majoring in business administration.

Though Turner never attended UM, he was a childhood friend of both Hinton and Kelley and works full time at the school as resident coordinator of Avery Woods Cottages and intramural director. Langley is also a full-time UM employee as director of campus activities.

The band is even performing during UM’s Homecoming weekend, Oct. 27-28.

While the university provided lots of opportunities for the band to gain performance experience, it also cultivated a love for ministry in Hill.

At UM, said Hill, “Every time I turned around, Dr. Cecil Taylor [dean of the School of Christian Studies] is announcing some mission trip.”

“That really ingrained in me a desire to help missions, to promote missions, to go do missions,” he continued.

Also, before he graduated Hill took Biblical Foundations of Worship in UM’s Worship Leadership program, which combines theological study with practical worship ministry seminars taught by internationally recognized worship leaders from Integrity Worship Institute, including current UM assistant professor Pete Sanchez Jr. and Dove Award recipients Don Moen and Ron Kenoly.

“That was a treat,” said Hill. “It really gave me some good foundation to build what I do off of. And I promote that wherever I go, because that’s a great program.”

After playing lots of local venues, including churches, cafés and coffee shops, Seraph started traveling, opening for artists like Shaun Groves, and leading worship across the nation at camps; churches; World Changers, a North American Mission Board-sponsored program in which students gain missions experience by helping eliminate substandard housing; and more.

Their desire to lead others in worship is so strong, it’s even reflected in the band’s name. Hill, Turner and Langley said “Seraph” was chosen based on Isaiah 6:1-8, the story of Isaiah’s call.

“You want to find a passage that has the…model for worship all in one little story: I think that’s it,” said Hill.

The seraphim in that passage spend their time praising God, as Seraph seeks to do. And just as one seraph put the coal to Isaiah’s lips to bring cleansing, giving him a better understanding of who God is, the band brings the good news of Christ to people, helping them find a right relationship with Him.

Hill said the live coal in Isaiah represents “the gospel in a sense, and we as worship leaders are as a seraph, figuratively speaking. We go somewhere and we lead worship. We do our very best to be clear in our songs, our songs to be biblical, and our songs to be filled with the gospel, and our actions off the stage to be filled with the gospel, that we would be that servant of God…that would bring the gospel to people.”

But the guys in Seraph want to do more than proclaim: they also want to show the example of Christ’s love in their actions. That’s why serving alongside and getting to know students at venues like World Changers is so important to Seraph.

According to Langley, Seraph strives to model the fact that “worship’s not just about the sing-along at 7 in the evening; it’s also about the work that we did on the roof all day, and we worship God through our actions as well as our speech and our songs.”

Turner added, “It’s about being in a leadership position, actually making a stand…for what we believe in, that worship is not being the big shot. There’s no reason for students to see us on a platform that’s untouchable.”

It’s with the goal of helping these students and all their audiences develop spiritually that the band incorporates so much Scripture into its lyrics. Whether they’re performing theology-rich hymns, widely-recognized praise songs or original music, they recognize that “lyrical content is huge: it does not need to be watered down,” said Turner.

Hill wrote all but one of the songs on Seraph’s debut album, “Remember When.” He said that though Scripture can be difficult to memorize, “I can sit and play you, off the top of my head, hundreds of songs from praise and worship to secular songs that I’ve memorized somehow. So I was like, ‘Why can’t I merge these two?’”

That’s just what he did.

“Some of these songs that I write,” he continued, “purposefully I try to make it so it’s almost literal Scripture, so when a student memorizes this song…he’s memorized, or she’s memorized, some of God’s Word.”

According to Langley, “You get this crazy little hook in your head and you’re singing about the greatness of God and really hiding those things in your heart and trying to memorize Scripture and know it. So when those times come when you need it, it’s there.”

The songs on “Remember When,” show how earnestly the band takes this idea to heart. “When These Times Come” exhorts believers to hide God’s Word in their hearts so they can be ready in difficulty or prosperity. The title track, “Remember When,” recalls the miracles of Jesus, enjoining the audience to stay mindful of Him.

“More Than Conquerors” sings the truth of Romans 8:37-39, reminding listeners that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And “Near You” pulls from the Psalms, extolling how good it is “to be in the shadow of Your wing” while encouraging listeners to draw near to God.

As successful as they’ve been musically, the guys’ goals extend beyond the band. The group operates under the umbrella of Burningcoal Ministries, which also takes its name from Isaiah 6. Founded by Hinton and Hill, Burningcoal is working to expand its ministry beyond the band.

One project on the horizon is promoting and funding short-term mission trips for students. Although, said Hill, God made it clear that he personally wasn’t called as a full-time missionary, “I still have a passion for short-term missions and the mission field,” as do his bandmates.

He and the others want to provide students the opportunity to grow spiritually through serving on mission trips.

Ambition to stretch themselves and do more for God’s kingdom keeps the guys extremely busy. They’re currently in the songwriting process for a new CD. Five of the band members have full- or part-time jobs outside the band, one is a full-time student, three of them are married and one is engaged. And even though the band started as a side project, it’s become much more, with performances scheduled throughout the year and seven weeks already booked for next summer in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Illinois. Langley said they’ll be “ping-ponging all over the place.”

“It’s a really great, fun hobby that’s turned into a full-time job,” he added.

In addition to the hectic schedule, jobs and relationships, the band also faces the challenge of being indie, or independent, since they haven’t yet signed with any record label.

Though in some ways it’s an advantage, since the guys have the opportunity to make all major decisions, it’s a struggle, too.

“You have to do all the work,” said Turner. “You have to be the one calling people; you have to be the one making the booking; you have to be the one advertising, promoting; you have to be the one finding the producer, coming up with the money to pay the producer, getting the artwork done…you get to make those big-time decisions, but it comes with a price.”

But Langley and Turner said the band has never minded hard work: despite all the struggles they’ve faced, God has been faithful to the group and provided them the means and motivation to keep doing what they do. Langley said the “fingerprints of God along the way,” including donations of equipment and services, have encouraged them as they’ve sought to fulfill His will, and that the challenges have meant “amazing, amazing spiritual growth for me.”

Hill added that all the toil is worthwhile when compared to “seeing a student connect with God.”

Seraph keeps its focus on that goal.

“It’s about getting the message out,” said Turner, about “the freedom we’ve been given in salvation.”

And most importantly, added Langley, is that “the freedom we have all begins with the cross.”

For more information about Seraph, or to see touring schedules or purchase a CD for $12, visit the website at www.burningcoalministries.com or the band’s MySpace at www.myspace.com/seraph6. Copies of “Remember When” will also be available during UM’s Homecoming.