Hi, I’m Andy. Welcome to Defending The Lord!
This is where I tell you who I am, what this “Defending The Lord” website is all about, etc.
Who Am I?
Hi, I’m Andy.
What is My Education?
I have a Masters in Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL (USA) with a 3-year certificate degree in Youth Ministry. I have been serving in several churches of different denominations and states since 1999, working mostly with youth, and had worked with youth before then.
Since 2014, I have been consulting, editing, and co-writing sermons for a Nigerian Christian Pastor on Chicago’s South Side & NW suburbs.
I also have a Bachelor’s degree in Radio Broadcasting from Columbia College in Chicago, IL (USA), and have worked in several Chicago radio stations since 1993, including WLS (talk), WNUA (jazz), WYLL (Christian talk), and IRN (Country), mostly behind the control board. However, at my last radio gig, “Rebel Radio“ (Heavy Metal), I served as the Digital Media Manager (Website and Digital), Audio Editor, and Social Media Manager. I had also previously DJ’d there 9 years before and while attending seminary.
Me Growing up:
I believe I can say I had a good childhood. I also sort of grew up in the Church (my denominational background growing up was Presbyterian), but I never really “met” Jesus there. I was also sort of an outcast in that I never seemed to fit in with the other kids in the church. So by my Sophomore year of high school, I just stopped trying. Though I continued to attend church with my mom, I was mostly just going through the motions and catching a nice nap during the Sunday sermons.
Around the age of 17, I began seeking Jesus out again, but it wasn’t until the age of 21 that I finally (fully) turned myself over to Him. I’ll talk about this journey more throughout this website, so I won’t go into that too much here.
My Calling into Christian Ministry
My dad has worked in radio all my life, and since childhood, I would evangelize for his station to everybody I knew. So about 4 or 5 years after accepting Jesus fully, God called me to do the same, but for Him.
I started out talking with homeless people who’d hit me up for money during my walks to and from work. “Hey, could you spare some change?”
“Sure, walk with me. Could I tell you about something I read in the Bible today that just blew me away?” And they’d usually be happy to listen.
My Introduction to Full-Time and Online Ministry
Most of my call will be explained throughout my postings on here, so long story short, after graduating from seminary in 2005, I moved away from Chicago to serve full-time in a small town of Kentucky. And though it was a fertile ministry among many, it was also the beginning of my journey to enduring some really tough times in my service, all of which caused much pain and suffering. However, it always led me to a closer walk with Jesus (which I also share about throughout this website).
Over the years, however, the Lord had also continued to use me to minister online through blogs, chat rooms, Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora, and via ministry-based websites, such as this one.
My Relationship with Jesus
My relationship with Jesus is personal, but also very strong, and I like to share about it often. A sticker on the back of my previous car said, “Jesus is my best friend”, and He is – I’ve come to know Him on a personal level through my Bible studying, for such is where He first began to reveal Himself to me, through prayer, and by experiencing Him. Much of this relationship is often revealed when I talk about Him, but you may also learn about it more through my writings on here.
It needs to be understood, however, that Jesus is not only my best friend, but also (and first) my Lord. Jesus is God, first and foremost; He’s my best friend second, and I explain this is some of my writings on here, as well as my observations and frustrations concerning many today who claim His name as friend, but never “bent the knee”, so to say, to Jesus as Lord and King.
My Spiritual Gifts
I didn’t originally include this section, but people (and churches) have been asking me about them lately, so I thought it might be an important topic to mention.
Almost two decades ago, I wasn’t sure what my spiritual gifts were. I knew what some of my naturally-born talents were, but not my Spiritual gifts (I’ve written about the differences) so I decided to ask some close friends and family “What about me reminds you of Jesus?” Here is what they said:
- Friendship Evangelism
- Genuine concern (justice?)
- Prophecy, because I often have dreams that have come true
- Discernment (in the sense of the Bible, and also because I can sometimes interpret dreams).
- A Pastor-friend recently mentioned prophecy because of the style of my writing on here.
- Healing, because the Lord has healed them (and others) through me in the past (you’ll read about some on here).
- The one Spiritual Gift that everybody agreed that I definitely have is Unwavering Faith.
Now, I was thinking about this when asked, and at first, I’d thought about the miracles that God does and has done through me (many of which you’ll read on here), and some are included as “spiritual gifts”. But in my case, in order to trust that God would do them through me, I had to have faith.
Why the Name, “Defending the Lord”?
My previous website was called “The Salty Trail” — salty because we’re the salt of the earth, and trail because we’re on a rocky journey in our walks with the Lord. Now, I’d actually planned to keep it going, but the Lord had different plans. See, the company through whom I’d bought the url had gone out of business and sold their clients off to a company that wanted to charge me 4-times annually what I was paying. So I prayed about it and decided instead to close it down and open this one. My only problem was what to call it (because I couldn’t keep the url).
For a few months, I prayed and wrote down a long list of possible names, but when it came to the url, almost all were taken. The idea of “Defending the Lord” came to me while reading something, but being that this isn’t a strictly Apologetics-based website, I didn’t think it would be appropriate. However, about this time, the Lord had also communicated to me to read through Jude.
Jude (possibly short for “Judas”, and who was one of Jesus’ half-brothers) had originally intended for his letter to be about salvation and some other topics, but he was sidetracked by the need to defend the faith against false teachers and what we know today as “Liberal Christians” (those who like to pick and choose what they want to believe and follow in the Bible, and tell others they can do the same). They’d worked their way into the Church, as well as people who were preaching messages completely different from the Gospel, and were confusing the believers. Well, Jude’s ministry has basically been mine, also. And with it being questions-based, what better name than Defending the Lord (I think “defending the faith” was also taken)? So this website’s purpose is to defend the Lord (not that He needs defending), the faith, and the Truth, based on what the Bible says.
The Purpose of this Website:
As I mentioned in my reason for naming this site “Defending the Lord”, my purpose is to defend the Lord, the faith, and the Truth with God’s Word. This website is mostly Q&A-based (though I do also have a blog, Bible studies, Youth Ministry resources, media, etc.), where I answer popular and common questions from people with whom I communicate, both online and off. But the purpose is not to defend in the sense of fighting or anything, but in order to help people come to know Jesus, and for those who know a little about Him, to know Him and His Word better.
Why Q&A?
Over the years, I’ve noticed that people have lots of questions about God, and many don’t know where to go to find the answers, so they ask online among strangers, or from people they know and trust. That’s not to say that I have all the answers about God (because I don’t), but just the fact that the same questions continue to circulate throughout the generations shows that either they’re not getting answered, the answers aren’t circulating as well as the questions, or that there are so many people who are still just as lost and confused about God as the previous generations.
Ultimately though, my hopes (and purpose for this website) are that, through my answers, blogs, writings, etc., the Lord will lead people to Himself, whether by planting, preparing the soil, planting spiritual seeds, watering, pruning, harvesting, or any other stage in a person’s journey towards Him.
Where Do I Get My Content
- My Blog posts: I’ve been writing and posting to blogs since 2004, when one of my students introduced me to a website called Xanga (it’s closed down since). I’ve since been writing and posting to other websites, as well as personal Bible studies, case studies, all of which I’ve saved and will post onto here, along with some papers and reports I typed up while in seminary. So most everything has been compiled over the years, along with new material, also.
- Q&A: Many (not all) questions in this section are ones I’ve answered over the years either on Quora, Yahoo Answers, people in live, face-to-face conversations, online conversations, or asked of me personally online (for instance, in email or facebook messenger), and have given me permission to post them on my website.
- Quora‘s Terms of Service, which were updated on December 18, 2017, give me full permission to repost this content (however, I may have altered some of the questions for the sake of grammar, spelling, or added information given throughout comment strings). A majority of the questions posted from Quora are also such where the people personally requested that I answer their questions.
- Yahoo Answers: I couldn’t find anything in their terms or legal documents about using the questions, so I have altered the questions a little so as to not infringe on copyright laws. However, my answers are either the same or updated, and many (or most) were chosen as “Best Answer” by the people asking.
- One-on-one conversations: I’ve gotten into a lot of great conversations over the years, and continue to do so. I love to learn, hear people’s thoughts, opinions, and views on things, teach, direct, disciple, etc. So some questions in this section may come from those conversations (though some may also go into the blog section).
- Relationship Advice: This falls in line with the Q&A – lately they’ve been mostly from Quora, but also many other sources over the years. I never previously had such a section, but I’m continuously amazed at how many people continue to ask for relationship advice. So I thought it might be a good idea to include them here, while also including a Biblical perspective in some.
- Youth Ministry: For those of you who don’t know me personally, I’d served in Youth Ministry, as well as other youth leader positions, since about 1995 or 1996. Over the years, I’ve tried several styles of teaching (every place and group is different), but always brought it back to activity, hands-on based teaching – getting your hands dirty, keeping kids’ attention by keeping them interested, and keeping it fun (because believe it or not, God really is a fun God!). So over the years, I’ve accumulated a lot of great material that I’ve been wanting to share. On that note, these are free for other youth leaders (or anybody wanting to teach the Bible to youth) to use.
- Events: When I hear of a Christian artist, regardless of genre, coming to the Chicagoland area (because I live in the Chicagoland area), I’ll try to get it onto the calendar. On that note, if you know of any Christian concerts coming up in the area, please feel free to email me the link — just know that I have a standard for what I consider “Christian” in the music industry, and that can be read HERE.
With that in mind, if you are in a Christian band, and are bold in your musical ministry, please feel free to email me the link to your show, and/or the what/where/cost/time/etc. and a picture for your show, and I’ll check into it. (I’ve got a great spot in the header for show banners, and am currently not charging anything to post them there. So feel free to email me if you fit the criteria). - Audio: I used to host a Christian metal radio show, and on it, I’d often have a little 5-minute devotional-spiel about Jesus, the Bible, etc. I’ve also rambled off some 5-10 minute spiels about topics related to what the Bible has to say, or hot topics against Christianity, which I’d eventually like to put onto here. So in short, 5-10 minute podcasts I suppose – for now. I’d also interviewed Ted Kirkpatrick from the Christian metal band Tourniquet once on Rebel Radio, which I may try to transfer over onto here, and any future interviews with Christian artists. But that’s more down the line.
- Book Reviews: This was a recent addition to the site. I don’t finish a lot of books, and often just read articles online. But there are some books that I have finished over the years, and just the fact that they kept me interested long enough to finish should show that they’re worth sharing about. So most are not a full “review”, but just information about what I liked about it, got out of it, and occasionally a link to a Christian bookstore or Amazon (not an affiliate link, though — I don’t get anything for the reference) where you may purchase it if you’d like.
How To Contact Me
If you have a question, request, notice something’s not working on the website, or you just want to say “hi”, you may email me at “DefendingTheLord@gmail.com“.
You may also contact me through the “Defending the Lord” Facebook page, or IM me on there (or if you know me personally, feel free to just call).
I also have an Instagram page for the site, so please follow me on there, too.