An Act of Faith for Soultry : Pop music: TV ad leads to a Motown deal for singers who had been based at a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Santa Ana.

Even after teen-ager Jayson Hibbert finished filming the ad last April, in which he and three gospel-singing friends sang in praise of Coke, the idea that he’d be seen and heard by millions didn’t hit home. Not until he saw himself on TV a few weeks later.

Now, in another turn that many kids only dream of, the 19-year-old singer’s group has been signed by Motown Records, the company synonymous with such ‘60s stars as the Supremes and Stevie Wonder and that has rebounded recently with Boyz II Men.

As before, Hibbert, who has done most of his singing at his Santa Ana church, can’t fathom it yet.

“It probably won’t hit me,” Hibbert said Wednesday in a phone interview, “until I go to the record store and see our album on the shelf.”

Motown vice president of A&R; Vida Sparks said this week that the parties have yet to finalize the deal, which was initiated after Hibbert’s manager sent Motown a video of the Coke ad.

But Sparks said that barring any complications, Motown plans to begin recording Soultry, the R & B quartet Hibbert sings with, by early February. An album is not expected to be ready before the end of 1994.

Signed along with Hibbert were Soultry members Kelly Jackson, Melvin C. Brett III and Xavier L. Preston.

Jackson, 22, also appeared in the Coke ad, which came as a career boost to the aspiring singers when they were still part of a now-defunct quintet, New Horizon. The group was based at Santa Ana’s Good Samaritan Seventh-day Adventist Church, where their weekly audience typically numbered 250.

Two other former New Horizon members sing in the 30-second spot. They, along with the group’s fifth member, said they likewise had the opportunity to sign, but declined.

As departed member James Cephas put it, they chose the church in a “conflict between beliefs and desires.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Cephas said. “I was actually looking for someone to tell me to do otherwise. But I knew within myself I couldn’t do that.”

Seventh-day Adventists observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, during which time Soultry may well have to rehearse, record or perform.

But working during those hours wasn’t the only problem that Cephas, Robert Brown Jr. and Jamal Gosin said they envisioned.

They also knew that Soultry--the new band’s manager, Alexander Avant, said he created the name by combining the words soul and sultry , to convey an image of “hot” and “sexy”--wouldn’t be singing gospel tunes.

Soultry’s songs wouldn’t have to be sexually explicit to be objectionable, Gosin said, but if they even had sexual overtones, “I just wouldn’t feel right singing them,” particularly on a Saturday.

“We’re all still friends,” Gosin added, echoing the sentiments of New Horizon’s other former members, most of whom recently sang Christmas songs at the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa.

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The Coca-Cola ad featuring New Horizon, which has been broadcast during prime-time network programming, was made in Los Angeles and produced by Chicago-based Burrell Communications Group. Burrell is a large marketing and communications firm that has been creating and producing Coke ads targeting African Americans for two decades.

“Mouthful,” as the spot is called, shows the group, which had been together for about six years, singing the soft-drink company’s motto, “Always,” a cappella. The camera settles on Jackson, who was drafted at the last minute when Cephas couldn’t make it to the shoot, gulping Coke from a can.

Shortly after the ad premiered, Hollywood talent agent McKinley Alexander, who had been representing New Horizon, contacted his friend Avant, son of Motown chairman Clarence Avant.

Alexander Avant said that about six months ago, Alexander the agent “came to me and said, ‘Do me a favor and listen to these guys.’ ”

Avant, who is not a Motown employee but an independent music manager, said he hesitated, having encountered countless allegedly promising new acts. But he relented, and immediately liked what he heard and saw.

“They were nice guys for one thing,” he said, “and that helps, because there are a lot of egotistical people in this business who think they are almighty.”

At about the same time, three New Horizon members opted to go their own way. They said they weren’t pressured into that decision by anyone or anything but their own consciences.

All concerned “really wanted me to be in the group,” Brown said, “and for a while even gave me the opportunity to change my mind and come back in.”

Hibbert does not find his decision to join ranks with Avant inconsistent with his continued membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Jackson was never a member.)

“My religion is between myself and God,” Hibbert said, “and I have not turned my back on God. My way to express myself is through writing and singing and producing music. That’s my life dream, so I decided to pursue that as my first priority.”

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After finding two new young Los Angeles singers, Brett and Preston, Avant began to shop Soultry--not a demo tape, but the group itself, by way of live auditions. After approaching three other major record companies (which Avant would not name), he sent “Mouthful” to Motown.

“Everybody loved the guys on the commercial,” said Motown’s Sparks. “Then Alex set up a couple meetings for the group to sing live.”

Avant said he lobbied on behalf of the group because “I’ve seen my dad go out of his way to help people. The feeling you get working with individuals and seeing the talent and seeing how much they like what they do, makes my day a lot happier.”

Burrell executives, who produced eight Coke ads early this year featuring unknowns including New Horizon, are not aware of any other performers in the spots who have won recording contracts.

Hibbert, a former Marine who was stationed with Jackson at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station (both recently moved out of Orange County to live closer to Hollywood), attributes his good fortune only in part to the TV commercial.

“What really made it possible,” he said, “was the fact that we started singing in the church.”

Hibbert is aware that the music business is capable of capricious changes. But, he said, “it’s a good feeling to know I’m headed in the direction I want to go.”