Hello, I’m singer/songwriter Mark Adams. By day, I am a high-school English teacher; by night, folk singer. I compose and peform original acoustic music (though sometimes I play with a band). My themes are religious and non-religious. View my upcoming shows here (you can also view my past shows here). I am available for shows, outreaches and festivals (see here).

Quick Details:

Type of music: Acoustic folk/rock, relgious and non-religious; original songs

Set-up: Acoustic guitar and electric violin. Roland and Fender amps (90 and 30 watts respectively), microphones, etc.

Location: San Jose Bay Area

Short Resume: Youth pastor; public speaker (sermons and seminars on church history/theology); camp director (Camp Victory and Mt. Hope Bible Camp — both are AMF camps); concert promotor, e.g. Rock on the Mount.

Biography:

I was born into a Catholic home and raised to believe in God. My earliest religious memory is when my mother taught my brother and me to pray. It was not the traditional Catholic prayer, but a simple one: “Dear God, bless Mom, Dad, Mike (my brother) and me. Today I had a nice day, and I hope to have another. Amen.” I was four or five then, maybe younger. That marked the beginning of an intimate prayer life, one that continued through my “troubled” teen years.

My first two years in high school were carefree. I was an adequate student, a modest athlete, and a member of the school orchestra. At the age of 15, I was confirmed at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church in Dana Point, California. We were told that confirmation was a voluntary sacrament, that we needn’t be pressured to be confirmed. I remember praying, “God, I believe in you, but I don’t know what it all means.” I reasoned that if confirmation meant belief in God, I was ready, but if it meant something more, I was not. Unable to resolve the situation, I chose to be confirmed. I do not now regret that decision, but something “more” was missing.

By my senior year in high school, I was thoroughly depressed. I never amounted to the type of student I had hoped to be, neither academically, athletically or artistically. Though I continued to believe in God, and prayed all the more fervently, I was spiritually despondent. Toward the end of my senior year, friends began to notice I was angry. In my journal I questioned whether this anger arose from a deep sense of failure or whether something else was at stake. “Perhaps it is lack of accomplishment,” I mused, “lack of a steady girlfriend, or… perhaps it is God. It’s just that there is this void.”

It was a girl who invited me to a Christian youth group. They met just down the street from where I lived, and eagerly accepted the offer, not because it was convenient, but because I had this incredible need to belong. The message that night was simple: “Jesus died for your sins.” The youth pastor held his Bible in front of his hand. “My hand is my sin, but the Bible is Jesus. When you believe in Jesus, your sins are covered.” He held his Bible in front of his hand.

I was deeply impressed by this group. They were mostly Chinese and Korean, and apparently attended a Baptist church. They had a vibrancy in their expression that moved me. What was it? What did they have? I contemplated telling my priest, perhaps inviting him to the meeting. What was this that they had?

I did not invite the priest, though I continued to attend these meetings. I also began to read the gospel tracks my grandmother had given me in my youth. At mass I prayed fervently. What was it? Toward the middle of the summer, most of my friends went off to various colleges. I was left to my private thoughts. I prayed to God, “Lord, don’t let me die until I figure this out.”

What was lacking was a clear confession of Jesus as my savior. I now suspect this is what was missing at my confirmation, a true and sincere belief in the blood of Jesus. Though I confessed the forgiveness of sins weekly at mass, I did not believe in my heart.

… to be continued …

© 2009 – 2010, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.