August 15, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, August 15.
On this day in 1969, half a million young people gathered on a dairy farm in upstate New York, for a music festival. It was called Woodstock, even though the town by that name was 40 miles away. Max Yasgur's farm was actually in the little hamlet of Bethel. That's a Hebrew name that means "House of God". And so, in retrospect, Woodstock was a better name for an event that saw rampant drug abuse, three deaths, monsoon rains, and acres and acres of mud.
Three summers later, 200,000 young people gathered in Dallas for a music festival nicknamed "The Christian Woodstock". It was called Explo '72, and the crowd, from across America and 75 foreign countries, heard artists like Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, Love Song, and Andrea Crouch. The new sound was dubbed "Jesus Music", and was the genesis of Contemporary Christian Music that has revolutionized the way most churches worship today.
A young man from Poland was there in Dallas that summer, and, when he returned home, he shared his experience with a friend who was a priest. That friend became Pope John Paul, and, it is said, that Explo '72 had a powerful effect on his spiritual journey.
I have a friend who was at "The Christian Woodstock", and he describes it as a life changing experience. That summer I was 15 years old and living in Houston, just a four hour drive from Dallas. But I hadn't gotten my driver's license yet. And even if I had, I didn't have a car. So, I missed Explo'72. Wish I'd been there. A life changing experience.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.orG
