andrew dodson

I’ve redesigned The Point’s media site.  Just a slight change from the old design.  I’d been wanting to clean some things up and finally got around to it.  Go check it out!

Happy Reformation Day!  Yes, today is also considered another holiday here in America, but for Christians, this date was extremely important in 1517.  On this day, a “monk and a mallet” nailed his 95 Thesis to a church door in Germany.  I’ll spare the details here – there are plenty of sites with information on the Reformation (ex: wikipedia link).  When I think about this day, I think about one question – what would Christianity be like without the Reformation?

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The Josh Martin Band will be leading worship at Boone’s Creek Baptist Church this weekend. The event is a conference titled Singleness and the Glory of God: Singleness and the American Idol: What the Culture Says About Singleness. Here is a complete run-down:

Singleness and the Glory of God

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Have you been deceived to think that God’s purpose for you is to be married or at least not alone? Are you spending your time trying to find “the One” and finding yourself frustrated and wondering what God is up to? Are you a Christian, but are wondering how to plug this in to your dating life? Know this: God’s purpose for you is to be holy and satisfied in Him — everything else is just details!

With special speakers:

Matthew Perry – Pastor, Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY

Matthew has served as Pastor of Boone’s Creek since 2003. He has a passion for helping singles navigate through the lies of the culture to find their true north in the Gospel of Christ. He is married (didn’t get married until 27!) for nine years to Cindy and has four incredible children. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Ministry at Southern Seminary in Louisville.. Check out Matthew’s blog at http://bromattsblog.wordpress.com .

Mark Allan Combs – Pastor, Salem Baptist Church, Salem, KY

Mark has served as Pastor of Salem since January 2007. Prior to that, he served as Associate Pastor/Minister of Youth at Pleasureville Baptist Church here in Kentucky. Mark defied conventional wisdom and showed that youth are hungry for and can absorb deep truths about the Scriptures and helped prepare them for college life and all its challenges. Mark is married to Alana and has two beautiful children, Cassidy and Seth. He is currently pursing a Doctor of Ministry at Southern Seminary in Louisville.. Check out Mark’s blog, “Intersect” at http://markcombs1978.wordpress.com .

Josh Martin (worship leader) – Youth Pastor, Harvest Community Church, Eminence, KY

Josh not only serves as Youth Pastor, but leads a God-centered Christian band known as “The Josh Martin Band.” His teachings and songs challenge all who hear to move away from being too easily pleased with what the world offers and to mine out the treasures of the Gospel of Christ. Josh’s band will be leading our time of praise and worship. Josh is married to Christy. Check out Josh’ blog at http://joshuamartin.wordpress.com .

Kevin Whitt – Lead Pastor, Harvest Community Church, Eminence, KY

In 2000, God led Kevin to plant a church in Henry County which sought to be God-centered, biblically-based, and make an impact for the Kingdom in the community. Kevin knows about how to be strategic with the time given him to the glory of God. Kevin is married to Sharla and they have two boys, Will and Zach.

The conference will be held at the historic Boone’s Creek Baptist Church

185 N. Cleveland Rd., Lexington, KY 40509

Here is the schedule of the conference and our special speakers!

• 9:00 – Singleness and the American Idol: What the Culture Tells Us About Singleness (Matthew Perry)
• 9:45 – Q&A
• 10:30 – Singleness and the Sovereignty of God: Do We Trust God’s Timing in Bringing Us “The One”? (Mark Combs)
• 11:00 – Q&A
• 11:45 – Lunch on your own
• 1:00 – Don’t Waste Your Singleness: Consumed By Your Singleness or Using Your Time Wisely for the Kingdom? (Kevin Whitt)
• 1:45 – Q&A
• 2:30 – Singleness and the Gospel (Josh Martin)
• 3:30 – Q&A with Matt, Mark, Kevin, and Josh!

Interested? Then go ahead and register in one of four ways:

1. Call Boone’s Creek Baptist Church at (859) 263-5466.

2. Drop us a line at Boone’s Creek Baptist Church (ATTN: S&GG), 185 N. Cleveland Rd., Lexington, KY 40509.

3. E-mail us at boonescreekchurch@gmail.com and just put in the subject line: S&GG.

4. Go to http://www.matt-perry.com — in the sidebar you’ll see “Upcoming Boone’s Creek Conferences.” If you have a Facebook account, you can sign up here.

I had a great time seeing Derek Webb for the first time tonight.  A special treat was seeing him with his wife, Sandra McCracken.  She opened the show (with Derek playing along) and I enjoyed hearing her music for the first time.  After a short break, Derek came up for his portion of the show.  He played several Mockingbird and The Ringing Bell songs, mixed in with a few older tunes.

After the show, Josh got a chance to talk with Derek.  He was in the process of tearing down his equipment, so we kept it short.  I shook his hand and told him thanks.  He seemed to be extremely personable and gracious.

Check out my Flickr badge to the right to see pictures from the evening…

Tonight, I’ll be heading to Lexington with Josh to see Derek Webb.  Josh is pretty excited because it’s one of his favorite artists.  I don’t want to get our hopes up, but The Dame is a fairly small club, and the few times I’ve seen a bigger act there, I’ve also been able to meet them.  So far, that includes Charlie Hunter and Evan & Jaron.  Might as well say I’ve met the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but there were several of them, so I didn’t bother meeting each one of them.  Basically, there’s no “backstage” area of the club, so the artist(s) are usually mingling with the crowd before and after the show.

It’s going to be interesting seeing a Christian artist in a bar.  I’m very interested to see how the crowd reacts.

Pictures and a review of the concert will come in the next day or two.  Stay tuned!

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New Andy McKee Album

I just picked up guitarist extraordinaire  Andy McKee’s latest album, The Gates of Gnomeria.  It’s his third album, and is just as good as its previous counterparts.  If you’ve never heard him, I strongly suggest checking him out.  He also has several videos available through YouTube.

New JMB Website

I’ve redesigned the JMB website.  I was able to use the same picture that is on the back of our DVD cover.  The photo was taken by the awesome Kari McGrath.  I’m working to add the DVD to our online store, as well as more audio clips to the media page.

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Now playing: Andy McKee – I’ll Be Over You
via FoxyTunes

Here’s a few drumming bits:

• This month’s issue of Modern Drummer has several great articles.  Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is the cover artist, and has a very good interview discussing his work on their latest album, Zeitgeist.  There’s another good interview with jazz drummer Carl Allen.  Other helpful articles focus on the importance of good ergonomics in your setup and helpful tips for quicker setups and tear downs.
• I’ve put to use the article on quicker setups and tear downs – I bought a multi-color pack of Sharpies to mark all of my cymbal stands and other hardware for height adjustments, tilts, and marking which pieces of equipment go on which pieces of hardware.  I’m also going to mark off my drum rug with tape, showing where each piece sits on the drum rug.  This all falls into the category of “Common Sense That I’ve Never Put To Use Before Now.”
• The article on ergonomics was good, as well.  Lately, I’ve noticed that when I’m playing a faster, louder type of song, anytime I go from the ride cymbal to the crash cymbal on the right side of my kit, I get an occasional pain that shoots from my wrist down my forearm (not good!).  So, I’ve lowered my crash cymbal on the right side so that I don’t have to reach as far to hit it.
• On the note of the wrist pain, it’s freaked me out enough to get back into doing serious warm-ups and stretching before I play.  I’ve developed the bad habit of not warming up well over the last couple of years.  The pain isn’t severe at all, and only happens occasionally.  But, wrist pain is a drummer’s worst nightmare.  Hopefully the stretching and warming up will prevent it from happening anymore.
• I’m switching back to a lighter stick as well.  Lately, I’ve been using the Zildjian Travis Barker signature model, but I’m going back to the Pro-Mark 747’s that I used to play.  I think another part of the wrist pain comes from hand fatigue of playing the heavier stick.
• Coupled with the lighter stick, I’m also trying out Gorilla Snot.  Yes, I said Gorilla Snot.  It’s a rosin meant to be used by guitarists (picks) and drummers (sticks).  I used it last night for the first time and was surprised that it actually helped my playing.  Since it gives me a better grip on the stick, I don’t have to grip it as tight.  I noticed I was able to play faster sixteenth note patterns and rolls than usual.

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  Now playing: Smashing Pumpkins – Stellar
  via FoxyTunes

Challies has linked to another post on Joel Osteen’s new book on the Colossians Three Sixteen blog.  It’s another opponent to Osteen’s teaching.

I do feel the need to put a disclaimer here.  I don’t want to attack Osteen, personally.  I do not know him.  I’m sure he is a great human being.  The fact of the matter is the Bible instructs Christians to not add to or subtract from its message and teaching.  Osteen does both.  He adds to verses by taking them out of context.  He subtracts from verses by openly admitting he doesn’t feel called to preach the entire Bible.  He is not far removed from self-help experts Dr. Phil and Oprah.

Once again, I encourage everyone to read this review of Osteen’s new book to get more insight into the matter.

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My take on Joel Osteen is not my own. Sometimes, others can state their opinion a lot better than me. Undoubtedly, a lot of you saw the Joel Osteen interview on TV last night. I missed it. But, I know there are a lot of Christians that disagree with Osteen’s teaching. Challies has reviewed his latest book, and I encourage everyone to follow the link to read the review. However, this paragraph sticks out as one that sums up my take on Osteen:

This is not to say that Osteen has no understanding of Christianity. Become a Better You contains some teaching that seems consistent with the Bible, and certainly there is lots of Christian terminology woven in. But Osteen teaches what is clearly a woefully inadequate theology of sin, repentance, sanctification and life. Osteen seems unable or unwilling to bring the power of the gospel to bear on life–real life. Life, he teaches, is not a meant to bring glory to God, but is meant to bring blessing and ease to the individual. He occasionally shares words that approximate the gospel, but ones that always stop short of providing the complete gospel as we find it in the Bible. “We’ve all sinned, failed, and made mistakes,” he says, “But many people don’t know they can receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.” That sounds fair, but he goes on to say, “As long as you’re doing your best and desire to do what’s right according to God’s Word, you can be assured God is pleased with you.” Is it enough to desire to do what’s right? Is God pleased with those who do their best? “That accusing voice will come to you and tell you, ‘You lost your temper last week in traffic.’ Your attitude should be, ‘That’s okay. I’m growing.’” But sin is never okay, whether we are growing or not. We can never excuse sin and can never minimize it.

As Challies points out, Osteen says, “(Life)…is not a meant to bring glory to God, but is meant to bring blessing and ease to the individual.” I think this is the key of where my disagreement with Osteen lies. This is the prosperity gospel through and through. God doesn’t promise blessings in this life. This life is about honoring God, not for what we can get in return, but out of our love for Him and the grace that He offers through salvation. We don’t do good works to be rewarded in life. We do good works out of a love for God and obedience to His Word. God doesn’t owe us – or promise – our next breath, no matter how good of a person we think we have been. To expect God to reward us for doing good is awfully self-centered, in my opinion. I’d be interested to hear Osteen’s take on this:

We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags.

This post is a little late, but I can’t describe how proud I am for Kentucky’s football team.  Who knew that the weekend after Midnight Madness, we’d still be excited about the football team?!  I went into the game thinking there would be no way UK could knock off the #1 team in the land, and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.  Earlier this year, I predicted an 8-4 season for the Cats.  They still have a tough slate ahead of them, but at this point, I’m thinking 10-2 or 9-3 are both very realistic.

I can only think of what might be going through Rich Brooks’ head.  A couple of years ago, UK fans – myself included – wanted him gone.  Someone on a message board said hiring Brooks set UK football back fifty years.  Well, it turns out they were right!  Fifty years ago, Bear Bryant wandered the sidelines of UK, and it was the last time we had a consistently good football team.

The AP poll awarded the Cats with a #8 ranking this week.  Earlier this year, I felt our first trip into the Top 10 wasn’t deserved.  Now, it is most definitely deserved.  Especially considering our only loss was to the team that now sits at #6 in the poll.  The bad news?  Three of our last five games are against other ranked teams.

Good luck Cats!