Shannon – Then Armond came to hear Ian sing and he said, “Man, you could listen to a thousand singers and you wouldn’t hear a better one so don’t waste your time looking any further.” So we hired him pretty much on the spot. But still, there was this sense of how do we re-introduce this group. It’s now four young guys. People don’t look at our picture and immediately say, “That’s the Imperials” because there’s not a face that they recognize. So we’re trying to build that back. The Imperials have been ministering in the local churches for about 10 or 12 years almost exclusively. One of the things that we’ve found out as we’ve tried to re-introduce the group is that people are saying, “Well, the last thing I remember about the Imperials is that they were filling up Civic Centers and Auditoriums, not churches. Why are they in churches? What is their ministry?” I’m really glad to get that question because we have a ministry. All four of us are ordained or licensed ministers. The ministry is very close to our heart. Do we want to be back in Auditoriums or Civic Centers? Absolutely. But it’s because we want the ministry of this group to be heard by a lot more than a few people. We want it to be heard by the world. I think our ministry really is two or three things. Number one – God has given us a message to bring courage and strength to Christians. I think if you look over the history of the Imperials for 40 years and 42 albums, my life would be so much poorer spiritually without the history of the Imperials music. It’s been a daily encouragement and we want to continue that trend of just providing daily strength and encouragement for Christians with great Christian music. Of course, in a live concert, that happens as well. The other thing that we’re trying to do (and I think that we really stumbled into this because God made this each of our personal mission statements), is to let people know that Christianity is not about religion. It’s not about legalistic kind of traditions and things that people do just because they think that is what Christians do. We want to let people know that it is a relationship with a real and living God through His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s really all it is. That’s our passion. That’s our heartbeat. That works whether you’re in a church of 50 – 80 year olds who have been going there all of their life and might have been lulled into thinking this is just what I do and they need a refreshing in their relationship or with people who never even really had a relationship. We want to minister to them all the way to the young person who’s turned off with the “church thing”. We want to say to them, “It’s not about the “church thing”. It’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ.” That relationship will only develop and grow in the context of a healthy church family, but that’s probably our biggest single message now. That relationship with Jesus Christ is the only thing that really matters.
Kim – Didn’t I read that ya’ll are actually in different denominations?
Shannon – Yeah. Ian is Southern Baptist. I’m from an independent background that was very legalistic.
Jason – I basically grew up Assembly of God, nondenominational, Word of Faith. Jeremy grew up Church of God. We don’t even look at denominations anymore. The waters can get so muddied up. There isn’t one good one or bad one. It’s all kind of …..(shakes his head).
Ian – One of the things that I think makes our ministry more real to people and more identifiable is that unlike a lot of other groups out there, we have a real camaraderie. When we’re away from the road, we’re not going, “Let’s take a break. It’s the weekend and we’ve spent our time together.” We’re all great friends. That makes us more identifiable to people because they see that relationship. It’s a pretty cool thing that a lot of people don’t have. We consider ourselves fortunate in that.
Shannon – We have a lot of different hats that we’re wearing. We’re business partners, ministry partners and best friends. Honestly I can’t think of three other guys that I love and appreciate more than the three guys that I sing with.
Jason – Our wives say that we talk more than women do because we’re on the phone with each other three or four times a day.
Shannon – That’s not to say that we agree on everything.
Ian – We’re more like brothers. We get frustrated with each other. We’re real and we don’t care if people see that.
Jason – We’re not so high and mighty amongst ourselves that we don’t accept other people’s opinions either.
Shannon – We might not agree on a lot of things, but we’re open to each other. Whether it be right or wrong….
Ian – (laughs) Yeah, if they’re right and I’m wrong, I’m still right.
Shannon – Ian’s our resident comedian. He’s a funny guy. He’s great on the road.
