Jon Micah will be main speaker at 2018 Man Alive

It’s not everyday a rock legend makes their way to Porterville. So, it’s no surprise that organizers of the 2018 Man Alive were overjoyed when Jon Micah Sumrall, frontman of the highly acclaimed Christian band Kutless, said he’d be their main speaker on Saturday, March 17 at Porterville Church of the Nazarene.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are to have Jon Micah coming here,” said Eric Recendez, one of Man Alive’s many men behind the scenes promoting the Christian men’s conference.

Kutless was formed in 2001 and is considered a legend in the Christian rock scene. Over the past 16 years, Kutless have played around the world and sold nearly 3 million albums, have two Recording Industry Association of American certified gold records, and 12 number 1 radio singles.

Sumrall, who is a native of Ashland, Ore., grew up in a Christian family and was into athletics, “soccer was my main sport,” he said and he was recruited to play soccer for a Christian college in Portland.

While in college, “I really felt like God was kind of leading, directing and calling me into music and doing ministry through music,” he said. “I had a real passion for that.”

Sumrall has been playing music since he was a youngster, starting out playing piano when he was 5-years-old, and moving on to cello and guitar. His father was one of the pastors at Applegate Christian Fellowship and Sumrall had led worship on youth group trips.

He wrote his first song when he was 13, but admits “that was just a hobby for me — it was just something that I enjoyed. Athletics was more of my focus, honestly.”

In college, he and

some friends started a worship band, Call Box, and started playing at worship night at the college. The continued to play locally for the next couple of years and during his junior year, the band caught the eye of a record producer.

“We recorded three songs at their studio up in Seattle,” Sumrall said. “They loved it, we signed a full record deal and have kind of been on the go ever since.”

Being a rock band in the Pacific Northwest during the early 2000s, turns out was the perfect place to be, Sumrall said, and influenced their sound.

“The Northwest grunge rock, Portland, Seattle,

that whole thing was definitely big with bands like Pearl Jam, who were really popular back then,” Sumrall said. “It was very natural for us to do rock and roll music. It was what we listened to, what we liked and enjoyed. If you listen to our first few records especially you can hear real heavy influences from those types of bands.”

But obviously what separated Kutless from most of the other bands was their Christian message. The band quickly learned they’d struck a cord with people.

“We had so many comments after our first record came out, people were like ‘finally, been

waiting for something like this to come out forever,’” Sumrall said. “It was really cool.”

Sumrall was thankful for the early success and subsequent notoriety from peers outside of the Christian rock scene.

“I think we were the right band at the right time, doing what we were supposed to in that era,” Sumrall said.

Sixteen years later, Kutless is considered the old guys of the genre, but continue to play and look for ways to do more.

The band started a nonprofit evangelist ministry called EOTA Ministries that allows them to use the platform from Kutless to do largescale events and share

the gospel.

“We are real passionate about those kinds of things and continue to look for opportunities to do more of that,” Sumrall said.

Which brings Sumrall to Porterville and the Man Alive event where he will be going solo.

“I’ll be speaking and sharing about my life, just things that God has taught me and I hope can be valuable to the men that are attending,” Sumrall said. “Give them a little insight to what I have learned while on the road and traveling —

trying to balance family responsibilities while being away for big chunks of my year.”

The one-day Man Alive event begins at 6:30 a.m. Saturday with registration and breakfast. The main session begins at 8 a.m. and the event will conclude at 1:30 p.m. This year’s event is entitled “A Time to Engage.”

For more information, visit Manaliveevents. org or call 853-9900 or 791-1833, or learn more on Facebook.com/ Man alive christian mens conference.