“God really blessed us at that small beautiful campus in Mobile with the people He put there, and we shouldn’t take that for granted,” said Seth Brasher, associate worship pastor at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Brasher graduated from the University of Mobile in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in worship leadership and recently released his first single, “Friends from College,” recounting the good times he had at the Christian university in Mobile, Alabama.
In the song, Brasher looks back on his time at UM and the great friends that he was able to make.
“Living on campus made making friends easy. In college your friends are all around you and they become your family,” he said.
Brasher found his family quickly at UM through older students who mentored him.
“Will Dorminy is who I looked up to the most. He was fun, loved Jesus, and loved other people. I got coffee with him one day, and he sort of took me under his wing. He told me that college is meant to be a fun time, but you also have to get your work done. Will really showed me how to take full advantage of UM by building relationships with professors who want you to succeed and building relationships with friends who want to be there for you,” Brasher said,.
“Mentoring is done as we go through everyday life,” said Will Dorminy, corporate manager for Goldfingers restaurant and a 2013 UM graduate. “Seth and I are cut from the same cloth. We both have similar personalities and similar passions that brought us together. We were both in the university’s Center for Performing Arts and our girlfriends, now wives, both played soccer for UM, so we just had great chemistry as friends.”
Dorminy said he also was mentored by students and faculty/staff.
“I was blessed to be put with such great roommates that challenged me to promote excellence in my life. I also had faculty that were such great leaders for me and that I learned so much from. So many people at UM were really transformational in my life, and I hope I was able to be the same for Seth,” Dorminy said.
Brasher also spoke about the opportunities for students to grow closer together such as Ram Rush, a welcome week packed with events to help students meet each other.
“Ram Rush is like my favorite thing behind Jesus and getting married,” Brasher said. “It forces you into these situations that you build such great relationships out of. The school is so amazing, and the events are tailored to building a community that it’s so easy if you just open up to it.”
Brasher said he wrote “Friends from College” as an apology to friends he hadn’t kept up with enough and as a reminder of the great times they had.
“After college, everyone goes their separate ways. We used to all say, ‘I hope I’m your neighbor in heaven,’ but as you start a career and build a family, you can lose track of the great friends you made in college.
“We still have a group text of guys from college where we talk about everything from ministry to memes, but even with that, it doesn’t feel like enough because I can’t physically be there with them,” he said.
Brasher said that the impact from his new song has been an outpouring of love from old friends.
“It’s been nice to take the leap and get over the fear to start a conversation between friends again. Guys have been saying they accept my apology for not staying in touch and they wish that they would have stayed in touch also. The day it released was non-stop tears and consoling from my wife because of the people I got to reconnect with. It opened up a lot of conversation about the great time we had at UM,” Brasher said.
“You’re looking at the culmination of a lifelong dream here,” said Katie Compton Brasher, wife of Seth Brasher and a 2016 UM graduate. “I love this song because I think it’s so personal and unique to him. He managed to find a way to work in the names and voices of a bunch of his college buddies on this track, and the time and creativity he has spent with it blows me away. I’m just really proud of him and happy that he gets to do what he loves and enjoys so much.”
“Friends from College” is available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify. Brasher also has other music that he has released with the groups Sherwood Worship and Elevate Students.
Zac Douglas is the marketing communications specialist for the University of Mobile. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in integrated marketing and communications. As marketing communications specialist, Zac is responsible for writing and strategizing content about the university, assisting with media relations, and handling other marketing and communications projects. He is an active member at Cottage Hill Baptist Church and enjoys spending his time surfing, skating and climbing.