Welcome Mat

Last Monday was the celebration of Martin Luther King’s life. As I reflected on his life, I was reminded of a conversation I had over the Christmas holiday with my Aunt. My Aunt was one of the first black children to integrate the schools in her county. As we ate food and enjoyed each other’s company, she vividly shared with us her personal story of segregation and integration. Being the age that I am, I marveled that the reality of her experiences with white only and colored signs was not that long ago. The famous evangelical preacher, John Piper has recently released a book and documentary Bloodline where he confessed his sins of participating in the sin of racism as an evangelical Bible believing Christian. He’s been on a journey of learning redemptive living in the area of racial and cultural sins in the light of the Gospel. A lot of time has passed from 1968-2012, the conversation and challenges of integration are still alive today because when we took down the Jim Crow segregating signs, we didn’t learn how to lay down the welcome mat with Christ-like hospitality for people of every nation, tribe, and tongue.  The Arrabon Book was written to be a resource to this problem. Music is often the primary expression of culture in many Christian Communities. I wrote the book to help Christian communities not say, “White Only”, “Black Only”, “Young Only”, “Senior Saints Only” with their music. I produced the Arrabon CD, to provide communities with songs to sing that say, “Welcome” to a variety of people. We have 7 days before the IndieGoGo campaign ends next Friday on Jan. 29th.  To pre-order books and cds, click here. If you want to make a tax deductable donation, choose one of the two options: Write a check addressed to "Making a Melody/A.C.T. Intl" and send it to the following address:   Making a Melody/A.C.T. Intl PO Box 1649 Brentwood, TN 37024-1649   or   If you want to make a credit card donation, you can do so by logging on to:   1) www.actinternational.org 2) Click Donate 3) Fill out the amount 4) Click on "Donation Category" and Scroll to "Making a Melody/Bailey".   And I’ll see YOU March 9th!

Questions You May Have

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you had a great Christmas celebration. Joy and I had a great time with each other and our families. We feel overwhelmed with blessings! Since I started the IndieGoGo campaign, I’ve been running into many people who have learned about the campaign and have asked some really great questions. Hopefully you can benefit from some of my answers: FAQ’s 1. How’s the Campaign going? We’re 29 days away from the campaign ending and we’ve had over 400 people view the campaign video and have had 22 people contribute to the campaign. I think people must have been waiting until after Christmas, so they can get the cd & book for New Years! If you or anyone would like to get the mp3s, cd, or book, you can order a copy by clicking here. You will get the mp3s immediately and you will be one of the first people to get the book and cd as soon as they are manufactured. 2. Why are you doing a campaign during Christmas? Because my strength is producing music, leading worship, and not strategic planning. 3. Can I get a tax deduction? You can’t get a tax donation by contributing to the IndieGoGo campaign... but... I have good news! Tuesday this week, Making a Melody has become a non-profit organization through Artist in Christian Testimony International. If you would like to make a tax deductible charitable donation, you may do so through the following two ways: Write a check addressed to "Making a Melody/A.C.T. Intl" and send it to the following address: Making a Melody/A.C.T. Intl PO Box 1649 Brentwood, TN 37024-1649 or If you want to make a credit card donation, you can do so by logging on to: 1) www.actinternational.org 2) Click Donate 3) Fill out the amount 4) Click on "Donation Category" and Scroll to "Making a Melody/Bailey". Thank you for support and encouragement,

Arrabon Campaign

Friends,

Many of you all know that I have written a Book & produced a CD. The name of the Book and CD is Arrabon. I made a vdeo that shares more about the project and if you click on the IndieGoGo widget, you may contribute to the project or click here. 

Thanks,

- David

Bless Richmond, CD Releases, & Tours

I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.

I’m thankful for a lot. I’ve been a part of a lot of great activity of the last few months. Most recently I had the honor of leading worship for an event called Bless Richmond. It was the first event of its kind in our city. In essence, Bless Richmond was an event where 30+ pastors brought their congregations together for worship, prayer, and giving food to the Central Virginia Food Bank. About 1800+ people came to this event and the communion with the Lord was rich!

Below are a few videos to give you an idea of what Bless Richmond was about. I want to encourage you to start forming relationships and prayerfully do something similar in your city. A friend of mine in Charlotte was the catalyst for a similar event called, Unite Charlotte. There's only one church and we need to be reminded of this!

I also want to let you all know about 3 CDs that I’ve contributed to that are out on the market:

Lori Michelle has released her project Keep. It’s an R&B singer/songwriter EP that I produced. You can sample the Keep CD here.

Logan Jones who is another artist that I have produced has released his CD Ruminations. Logan has a more rock sounding singer/songwriter feel. You can check out Ruminations here.

And last but not least, Jewell Booker has released her project Love Letters, which is a compilation of songs Jewell has written, sharing about her relationship with God. Some of the songs are live from a concert I produced and music directed for called A Tale of Two Women and the other tracks are studio recordings.  You can listen to Love Letters here. 

For those that are in Philadelphia (Dec. 9) & Baltimore (Dec. 10) area next week, I’ll be playing two dates on Alex Mejias’ Christmas tour for his new project that was recently released. The Philly show is in collaborations with the guys from Lamp Mode Records, so Timothy Brindle and Quarry Street Hymnal will be performing that night. For more information about the tour, cick here.

In Indy @ CCDA 2011

It’s been a great week this week being in Indianapolis at the CCDA Conference. It’s been a really busy week. I’ve been playing sax on the worship team lead by Louis Carlo (who is an awesome worship leader!) and a few members the CCDA Leadership Cohort. 

I’m presenting a workshop at 1pm today with my colleague Reynolds Chapman called Melody & Memory. A few months ago, Reynolds published an article in Christianity Today based off of the material he presents in our workshop. You can check out the link below:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/march/worshipinblackwhite.html

If you’re here at the conference, I want to encourage you to attend this workshop and at 3pm, I’ll be on a panel with other artist having a conversation about the Arts in Community Development.

Please come by if you get a chance!