andrew dodson

Tomorrow night should be a pretty cool night.  The Georgetown College symphonic band is performing their annual spring concert.  A couple of things will make the night unique.

The band will premier a piece written specifically for them.  David Holsinger has composed “Legacy Music” for the band, which will feature parts of the Georgetown College Alma Mater.  I’ve never had the opportunity to hear a premier, let alone record it.  It’ll be a special experience.

As part of the concert, Dr. LaRue has invited all of the “gem alumni” back to campus - nineteen in all.  The gem alumni are former members of the band that played significant enough roles to be designated a “gem” by Dr. Pete.  I’m fortunate to be a part of this group, one way or another.  It’s exciting that all nineteen - literally coming from all over the globe - will be in attendance.  I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends.

If you want to hear some good music tomorrow evening, drop by the John L. Hill Chapel on the campus of Georgetown College at 8 p.m. for a special evening.

I’m happy to recommend a new blog by a somewhat new friend - John Martin (not to be confused with Josh, and no relation).  John and I go back to February of 2006 when I was considering buying an electronic drum set.  My boss recommended I speak with a guy who used to rent a house from him.  So, I called and met up with John at Memorial Baptist Church and he sold me on the Yamaha DTXpress III Special.  Since then, I’ve had occasional contact with him through CLS and church activities.  Recently, he joined us (some guys from The Point and me) on a trip to Seattle, so I’ve gotten to know him better in the last few months.  I learned about his blog earlier this week, but I’m just getting around to linking to it.

John is a great guy in this order - He loves the Lord, he loves his family, is a great husband and father, he faithfully serves his church as a pastor, and he is a great drummer & musician.  Go read his blog.

I normally like to get the bad news first, but in this case, I’ll give you the good news.  Here’s a wrap up of the latest from the Josh Martin Band.

Good News

Josh and Christy Martin are going to have a baby!  Josh had told me a few months ago that they were trying, and it has finally happened.  So, congrats to them.  Keep them in your prayers that Christy’s pregnancy will go well, and that they’ll be blessed with a healthy, happy baby.  She is due in December, which is also the month of Josh’s birthday.  And my mom.  And Jesus.  So, some pretty cool people were born in December.

The JMB is also working on new material.  Still no plans to record anytime soon, as we’re still working on making the songs sound like songs.  So far, we’ve just sort of hammered through chord progressions on a few new songs.  The next step is coming up with interesting parts to make them sound unique.  It’s a cool process, because it’s the first time we’ve actually written the music to the songs as a band.  They definitely have a different feel than our previous songs.

Bad News

We have, like, zero gigs lined up for this year.  If anyone out there would like us to come and play, let us know!

The really bad news is that we’re losing a member.  Bert Lace has decided to leave the band.  We’re going to miss him!  His family has decided to adopt from a foreign country, and that is one of the reasons for him leaving the band.  He also stays very busy with Cedarmore and Crossings.  Considering his reasons for leaving the band are to glorify God through his family and occupation, I can only be happy for him and wish him the best

The Conversion Story

Somewhere in the middle of playing drums at Evergreen, visiting Crestwood and starting to play drums at Crestwood, God saved me.  I had been having weekly conversations with my friend Jeremy.  He lured me in by making great mochas.  He started sharing the gospel with me.  I had heard it a thousand times, but this time, the irresistible grace offered by God grabbed a hold of my heart.  One evening, while driving to his house, I had the urge to pull over.  It was at that moment that I accepted Christ.  I showed up at Jeremy’s house and the first thing I said was, “I did it.”

How funny is that?  The first thing out of my mouth as a Christian was completely heretical!  See, all I did was stop resisting God.  He did everything else.  He sent Christ to the cross for my sin.  Christ endured the cross for my sin.  All of this so that I could be justified by having faith in Christ’s work on the cross.  For the work He did, I am now saved.

Post Conversion

The past five years have been the most fulfilling years of my life.  I’m a part of a wonderful church.  I have great Christian friends and mentors.  I’m a part of two extremely talented bands.  I’ve been able to use the gifts and abilities God has given me to glorify Him.  It’s become a relief to no longer live for myself, but live for someone else.

Conclusion

This Friday is Good Friday.  The day Christ endured the cross for our sin.  This Sunday is Easter.  The day of Christ’s resurrection - the day He defeated death and sin for eternity.  If you’re a Christian, I hope that you will be a part of services remembering and celebrating the glory of these two events.  If you’re not a Christian, I pray that you will think about attending a service at a local church.  I pray that you will give the story of Christ’s death and resurrection a chance to become real in your life.  Is it time for you to stop resisting God too?

It dawned on me last week that I had never posted the story of how I became a Christian.  I’ve decided to break it up into a two-part series.  Today, you get the first part, and you’ll have to check back next week for the conclusion.

Romans 10:9-17 (Listen)

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Part One: Pre-Conversion

I was born into a Christian home.  In a sense, my conversion came easy.  I don’t have the testimony of a former drug addict or prostitute that came to know Christ.  Brace yourselves.  I have a boring testimony, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My parents are both Christians.  Nearly every Sunday for the first 18 years of my life, I was in church.  Mostly, Nazarene churches.  I’ve always been a fan of music, and some of my earliest memories of music are Kids Praise and Carmen.  I was a big fan of both.  I wore out the song “Radically Saved!”  My other musical memories are of suffering through car rides listening to southern gospel!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  My parents were big fans of Gold City, The Cathedrals and more.

I knew of God and believe He was real, but I never placed my faith in him.  My mom was the strongest example of Christianity during my childhood.  I would often see her with a Bible open on her lap, or praying.  She would play hymns on the piano and sing.  My dad always seemed to know a lot about Christianity and the Bible, and was a great father and provider, but he wasn’t as strong of an example as my mother.

During high school, I started to lose any desire I had to go to church.  Up to that point, I at least enjoyed it because of friends at church and occasional youth activities.  I never experienced a church with a strong youth program, though.  In high school, I was envious of other kids my age who went to churches with strong youth groups.  I lost my desire to go.  Mom would successfully drag me out of bed each week to go, however.

Once I got to college, I was free!  Not having mom to wake me up each week was quite nice.  Sleeping in on Sundays was a new and enjoyable thing.  Despite going to a fine Baptist institution (at the time), having plenty of opportunities to be involved with campus ministry groups, and churches in town that catered to the college crowd, I passed up getting some Jesus in my life.  I avoided it pretty strongly, in fact.

Not long after I graduated from college, God started to work on me.  I was asked by my high school band director to play drums occasionally at Evergreen Baptist.  Sadly, I mainly did it because it paid.  But, God knows my weaknesses!

It was during this time that I went with a group from Evergreen to see Michael W. Smith and Third Day at Rupp Arena.  We had second row seats, and I was center stage.  In fact, at one point in the concert, I was front and center on the big screen.  I was amazed that I actually enjoyed the concert.  I enjoyed Christian music!  How could this be?

After playing at Evergreen on-and-off for about a year, my friend Jeremy started telling me about Crestwood.  He told me about how it was different, and how this Rick Long guy was a really good preacher.  They had a good band that played good, upbeat music and there were a lot of young people.  I decided to go on the Sundays I didn’t play at Evergreen.  I liked it!  After about a month of visiting, their drummer announced he was leaving the church.  God had opened a door for me.

(Tune in next week for Part Two!) 

Greetings from Seattle!

As I type this, I’m sitting in the auditorium of Mars Hill Church’s Ballard campus. Currently, there is a speaker from Acts 29 on stage. Should I be listening? Eh. I’m a part of a church plant, but I’m not a church planter.

Anyway, the trip so far has been great! Seattle is a beautiful city with a wealth of culture. I suppose everywhere has a wealth of culture, but I guess the diversity here is what’s interesting. The architecture is extremely interesting. The terrain here is interesting. The landscape is interesting. The food is interesting. The people are interesting. We did some sight-seeing this morning, which mainly consisted of going to the Pike Place Market. I have seen the space needle, but I won’t be able to go up in it before we leave. Fortunately, that just gives me a reason to come back here someday.

The MHC Ballard campus is great. It’s a remodeled warehouse, that actually isn’t very big (or, at least smaller than I thought it would be). The main auditorium seats 1,000 and is a fairly simple, rectangular room. But, the lighting, paint, and technology makes it ultra-modern. The auditorium takes up much of the building’s footprint. Aside from it, there is a good-sized, open lobby. There is a small theater that is used for youth events and overflow. There is a small cafe area for drinks & refreshments. Lastly, there is a small lobby in the back of the building that also serves as their bookstore.

My head is hurting from all of the information I’ve taken in this week. Mostly, thanks to John Piper. CJ Mahaney brought a great message, and I enjoyed seeing him “live” for the first time. I was fortunate enough to meet him one evening, as well. He’s been fairly visible around the conference, as he originally intended on just attending the conference (until he was also asked to speak). From seeing him interact with conference attendees, I can safely say his humility is as true as the book he wrote on the subject.

It might be a “conference high,” but I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head right now. Being here and experiencing Mars Hill in person has been inspiring. I’ve been brainstorming on what I can do additionally to serve The Point.

A surprise of the trip has definitely been the food. Seattle takes their restaurants very seriously. Fast food restaurants are actually rare in the areas we’ve visited. We’ve eaten good this week.

As usual, I will be posting pictures from the trip after we return. We fly out late tonight and will land in Louisville tomorrow morning. Please pray for our safety in traveling.

I’m still excited about the snow. A lot of people around here don’t like snow or cold, but I do. Actually, I don’t like cold without snow. But, cold with snow I’ll take. Anyhow, here’s some random blogging:

• I’m going to see Christian comedian Tim Hawkins tonight with a group from The Point. It should be fun, and I’m looking forward to it.
• I don’t think my PCG is meeting this week, due to Valentine’s Day. As much as I’ll try to get them to postpone their celebrations until Friday, I think I’ll be out-voted. Regardless, I’ll still be posting PCG notes for this week’s text on Thursday.
• The Josh Martin Band settles back into gigging with a performance this Friday. It’s a small gig for a church Valentine’s Day dinner, but a gig nonetheless. We’ve been working on a few new songs as of late, but I’m not sure we’ll play any of them just yet.
• I writing this post using ecto - a desktop blogging software. I’ve tried desktop blogging before, but ultimately went back to using Wordpress directly via the web, or ScribeFire (a Firefox plugin). It seems software like ecto has become more powerful since I last tried it (probably back in 2006 sometime). With the rising popularity of blogs, it seems desktop software has grown in features. We’ll try it for a few days to see if I like it. I’ve also tried MarsEdit, but ecto has more features that suit my tastes.
• Don’t miss the Extreme Makeover Home Edition this Sunday! It is a two-hour special, and it is the Louisville episode. If you remember, CLS was a part of this construction, as we assisted with some printed curtains and pillow cases.
• I can’t believe my parents are registered Democrats. Poor folks will have to choose between Hilary or Obama if they vote in the Primary. I would vote don’t vote in that case. Or, vote for the most beatable of the two, hope that one wins the Primary and then gets beat in November. I think they’re switching parties before the Election, finally.
• I haven’t publicly (on this blog) endorsed a candidate, yet. Maybe in the next week or so, I’ll post my choice and why I support that candidate. Not that it matters to you much - you can make up your own mind. But, it might drum up some support for my choice, or cause you to consider them for your vote.
• Thanks to everyone who, through the blog, Facebook, MySpace, phone calls, text messages and emails, wished me a happy birthday. I really appreciate it!

My good buddy, band mate and brother in Christ, Bert Lace, is posting a series of articles on the Young Earth vs. Old Earth debate.  While I haven’t done much in-depth study on this topic, I tend to lean more toward a young earth position.  If you’ve never read much on the subject, I encourage you to keep checking Bert’s blog as he posts these articles.  Of anyone I know personally, he is the most studied and learned person on the subject.  I’m looking forward to what he has to say!

> Bert’s blog

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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