andrew dodson

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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After a weekend break, I have some catching up to do….

• My apologies to Rich Brooks.  A couple of years ago, I was wondering why UK would ever hire a retired coach and expect to build a program.  Seems he’s done quite a good job over the last two seasons.  Sitting at 4-0 and looking at the rest of the schedule, I think UK is capable of a 10-2 record, but that’s awfully optimistic.  The thing is, it’s hard to tell just how good they are.  We’ve beaten two ranked teams in consecutive weeks.  At this point, the sky’s the limit.  With Notre Dame sitting at 0-4 for the first time in history, it would seem the college football world is off its axis.  Why not dream about a 10-2 season for the Cats?
• The Bengals played much better against the Seahawks than I expected.  They still couldn’t pull it out, but I had expected a loss anyway.  Granted, it would’ve redeemed their loss against the Browns last week, but I still think they have a decent shot at my prediction of 11-5.  I don’t expect them to beat the Patriots next week, but after that, the schedule softens a bit.
• The Josh Martin Band DVD is finally available!  I watched bits and pieces Saturday night, and watched it in its entirety yesterday.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  I still think it’s the best mix I’ve done to date, and Bert did a great job editing the video to get the best camera angles of each shot.  Bert also did a wonderful job on the artwork.  Thanks to Kari McGrath for some great photos to work with!  The DVDs are $15 and you get a copy of the audio CD as well.  I’m planning a fairly large update and/or redesign of the JMB website, so it will be available at our online store very soon.
• The hybrid drumset has performed admirably over the last two weekends.  I think it’s fairly close to being the perfect drumset for all occasions and playing situations.
• My new Motorola Q is pretty cool.  I’m really glad I didn’t spend a lot more money on a new Treo because it seems the Q can do everything the Treo can do.  I had to purchase a special program to get the phone to sync with my Mac computer, but that has made it very easy to keep track of contacts, calendar dates, etc.  I’ve yet to drop a call since switching back to Verizon, and the reception on my calls has been very clear.

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My good buddy, band mate and brother in Christ – Josh Martin – has a neat idea going over at his blog.  He’s blogging about each of the people on his blogroll.  Having the good fortune of a first name starting with “A” and his blogroll being in alphabetical order, I get the pleasure of being blogged about first.

I sincerely appreciate Josh’s kind words – they come in the form of encouragement to me.  He’s been a tremendous influence on my life as a Christian and as a person, and I thank God for our relationship.

Thanks Josh!

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So, I’m a little late in posting this. I’m trying to get around to posting more photo albums to my Flickr & Facebook sites. Here’s some pictures from the 2007 Capital Expo fireworks.

I’m planning on posting a couple of extensive posts soon (more theological in nature), but for now, we’ll have to settle for some more random blogging:

• That bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis?  Yeah, Josh and I drove across that bridge last fall when we went to the Desiring God conference.  For some first-hand coverage of the situation, visit Desiring God.
• I’m halfway through Chasing Daylight (woo hoo!).  The posts mentioned above will deal with my reading of this book.  Look for them this weekend, or early next week.
• I’m excited about the previously mentioned internet ideas that CLS is pursuing.  I will likely share more about these this weekend, as well.  I didn’t come up with the ideas, but there is one in particular that I have done the majority of the work for so far, so I’m particularly interested in the result of that idea.
• The JMB DVD is nearing completion!  We will preview the DVD this weekend and see how it’s coming along.  Bert has been hard at work mixing the camera angles together for your viewing enjoyment.  We should have it completed in the very near future – just in time for our slate of fall concerts that are coming up soon.
• I’m buying a new ride cymbal tomorrow – a 20″ Sabian HHX Manhattan ride.  I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time and found a person getting rid of one in Lexington.  He’s going to be in Frankfort tomorrow, so I’ve made arrangements to meet up with him and do business.  You can hardly find them used on eBay, which is one reason it’s taken me a while to get one.  New, they go for $350.  Yeah – not gonna shell out that much for a cymbal that I don’t “need.”  But, I’m getting it at a great price and it will satisfy my desire for a jazz sounding drum set.  It’s designed to sound like the popular rides from back in the day when jazz ruled the music world.
• Speaking of money, I paid off my biggest interest-bearing debt today!  I’d originally planned on paying it off over the next two months, but I was itching to pay it off.  So, I took some money out of savings and paid the sucker off.

This post may break my personal record for most categories used.  Stay tuned for more this weekend…