Chris Driesbach, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38hnqQRepA) a former atheist turned Christian songwriter, will be leading the music during our worship services this weekend at 5 pm (Livestream) Saturday, and 8 & 10:30 am on Sunday. He will also share his life story during the Bible study hour (9:15 AM). That will also be available on Livestream. We will be taking a free-will offering to help support Chris's music ministry. Please give at the door if you're attending in person, and you can also give online and note that it's for Chris Driesbach.
Chris has been singing and playing in WELS churches all over the country for the past 12 years, but before that, he spent most of his life as “a confirmed, angry atheist.” In 1995 he was living next to a
WELS
Church in Anchorage, Alaska, and had a gig playing at a bar.
Chris
said the church’s pastor lived nearby and they would get together to talk over coffee. “I was a debater in high school, a pretty good one, I’ve always had a high opinion of my ability to reason and argue and so forth, so one morning I just thought I’d start an argument about religion with him,” he said. The pastor didn’t argue. Instead, he invited
Chris
to continue the conversation. They met in the pastor’s office over a period of weeks.
Chris
said he would bring up topics that go against scripture and the pastor would respond by reading passages from the Bible. “It took six weeks, but I was just sitting there at his desk one afternoon and I suddenly realized that all of these things were absolutely true,” he said. “It just floored me. My mind was blown. I never would have guessed in a million years that I could have possibly believed these things, and I did. And I do.”
Chris
said during his concert he uses pictures and his songs to tell his story.
“I sing songs that are related to being a believer and what life is like for us as believers,” he said. “I love to talk about how my life changed.”
Chris also shares that he is a recovering alcoholic who almost died from drinking. He said, even though he’d been sober for nine years, he was having thoughts of suicide when he met the pastor in Alaska. “I just felt like a real failure and didn’t feel like life had much meaning anymore,” he said. “I was thinking about killing myself, but that day I knew because of the blood on the cross God sees me as beloved and holy and innocent. And I am absolutely not innocent, trust me. I’m guilty of many things, but I didn’t want to kill myself anymore. I had a new reason to live.”
Chris will have free CDs of his music available, but donations are welcome. His message is one of hope and love, “If you’d like to hear how an angry atheist became a Christian in love with Jesus, I’d love for you to be there and let me tell you the story."
