SONICFLOOd Lead Singer Joins Regent

Rick Heil, lead singer for the Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning contemporary Christian band SONICFLOOd, has joined Regent University's International Center for Worship as an artist-in-residence. In this role, Heil will lead worship activities on campus, as well as represent Regent at university Advancement and Enrollment Management events around the country.

"Who better to lead our campus worship experiences than one of the 'fathers of modern worship music?'" said Dr. Paul Bonicelli, Regent's executive vice president. "Rick has such a heart and passion for worship, and we look forward to his igniting even more passion for the Lord among our students, faculty and staff."

Heil has been ministering through praise and worship for 30 years, since he began leading worship in church at age 15. He was a member of the Grammy-nominated band Big Tent Revival from 1995-1999 and was a founding member of SONICFLOOd in 1999. He has traveled the world performing for millions of people, and has earned four Grammy nominations, four ASCAP Awards and two Dove Awards.

Although Rick loves sharing the gospel around the world, he is committed to sharing at home as well. "Every other Friday, my wife and I have been hosting something we call 'Sonicpraise' at our home, where we invite others to worship with us. We've had students come from Regent, and they have a desire and hunger to experience more of God," Heil said. "They have an insatiable appetite for more of the Lord and His love and revelation and saving power to alter our reality. That excites me, being surrounded by that kind of passion."

Under Heil's leadership, SONICFLOOd is widely recognized as the band that paved the way for the modern praise and worship movement, both in America and abroad. One of their greatest honors was to perform the first Christian concert in a secular venue in modern Turkey's history—nothing short of a miracle in a country that is 99.9 percent Muslim.

The band has an extensive international outreach, from performing at the King of Thailand's birthday party, as well as touching the lives of orphans in Thailand, to the shanty towns of South Africa, the prisoners in the Bahamas, and the brave men and women serving in our military around the world.

Heil and SONICFLOOd have led worship with Promise Keepers, Franklin Graham, Josh McDowell, Morris Cerullo, Robert Schuller, Luis Pulau, Rod Parsley and Acquire the Fire, just to name a few. In their 15 years of ministry, they have also facilitated more than 10,000 child sponsorships and counting.

As a music producer, Heil has produced six albums, owns his own record label named Resonate Records and operates his own publishing company. He was co-creator and producer of a groundbreaking multimedia 56-city tour with the International Mission Board. Regent's International Center for Worship exists to equip people with a better understanding of worship and train worship leaders, with seminars and workshops taught by some of the Christian music industry's most notable professionals.

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PR/NEWS CONTACT:
Mindy Hughes, Public Relations
Phone: 757.352.4095 Fax: 757.352.4888
E-mail: mhughes@regent.edu