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The members of latest modern rock outfit, Sixteen Cities, may only range in age from 21 to 23, but each is well on their way to veteran status. Besides making inroads throughout the Portland indie music scene over the last few years, the fivesome actually started performing on a regular basis at the beginning of high school. But the group was far from typical in its genesis, forsaking dreams of record deals and national recognition in favor of ministering to classmates in an unchurched (and potentially uncomfortable) public school setting. “We started out by leading our peers in worship on Wednesday mornings and we fell in love with it,” recalls Josiah, citing the group’s moniker inspired by the tribe of Issachâr in Joshua 19 that also understood the current needs of its generation. “As soon as we graduated, we all prayed and sought God’s true heart and will. We felt called to full time music ministry, but knew nothing about the music industry. We started playing in the Portland area and four years later we got a phone call from a guy with a ministry called Common Ground. It’s basically a huge production with concerts, games and a gospel presentation in a public school. So here we were thinking we’d have no chance to continue singing to students after having just graduated, and we wound up in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of teenagers in gymnasiums singing about Jesus.” Considering the guys possess an ultra-current yet equally timeless combination of The Fray,