Enter Zach Dodd.

Zach and I became friends a little less than a year ago. We are fellow worship leaders, we both attended the same seminary and a mutual friend connected us together. Though we’ve not spent an immense amount of time together, we share many of the same passions – Christ, theology, music, missions.

I called Zach a few weeks ago and asked him if he could come lead our church in worship in August. He agreed, and we then decided to meet for lunch last week. In our lunch meeting, I was amazed at the similarities of our lives. We both married really cool wives. We both love leading others to the throne of God in worship. And we both have a passion for orphanages and missions projects overseas.

He and his wife started an organization called “Beggartown” – and it was founded to help an orphanage in Africa. All the proceeds of Zach’s album sales and t-shirt sales go towards the orphanage. Here is a summary of Beggartown’s mission:

Beggartown’s mission is to encourage, equip, challenge, and partner with all people to live God-purposed lives and to serve and engage with people in need through different forms of creative media.

In 2008, Zach finished his newest CD entitled “Children Without Names.” When we met for lunch, he gave me a few copies. And I can’t stop listening to it. I implore you to buy it – and here’s five reasons why:

1) The music. Zach and his band are extremely creative in their songwriting. The tunes are catchy and the instrumentation is fantastic (great guitar and piano work, tasty vocals).

2) The message throughout the music. This album points to Christ like very few others in the Christian pop scene. The Gospel is woven throughout the songs.

3) The theological underpinnings of the music. Zach doesn’t water down the lyrics in his songs. He has a distinct faithfulness to rich, God-honoring theology. He sings about many attributes of God – justice, sovereignty, immutability, etc. He has a song about Hosea and Gomer and the comparison of God and His unfaithful Wife. He also sings about man’s utter dependance on God. The best part about it: it’s understandable. You don’t feel like you’re sitting in theology class when you listen to this album.

4) The mission of the music. Zach and Carlie are changing the world – at least in the eyes of a child in Africa. They are doing what God commands us to do in the book of Isaiah: “defend the orphan.” This is something I hold dearly to my heart just as Zach does.

5) The man who wrote the music. Not to toot anyone’s horn beyond what is appropriate, but Zach is a pretty neat guy. He used to have a really cool dreadlock-style haircut. Now he just looks like a member of the hair club for men. More than any of that, He loves Jesus Christ.
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Get the album from IndieHeaven here.

Get the album from iTunes here.

Visit Beggartown’s website here.