Andy Melvin
Anna and Andy
Married to Anna
Who is your hero?
"There’s a guy named Larry Walters that once tied 45 weather balloons to a Sears lawn chair. He then strapped himself in along with some supplies including a BB gun for the purpose of shooting out balloons in order make his final decent. He was spotted by an airplane pilot in his lawn chair at 16,000 feet. That guy has a special place in my heart. But as cool as that guy MUST be, I’m gonna have to go with… I dunno, Jesus."
What do you do in your spare time?
Andy lets off steam on the weekends by participating in full-contact origami.
If Andy could spend an evening with anyone who lived within the last 1000 years, Although Larry Walters would get a nod here (see above), he'd choose Vincent Van Gogh. Andy would love to have a conversation with him (that's Van Gogh not Larry Walters) about art and the eternal.
Favorite Bible verse:
"Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed and were created."
-Revelation 4:11
Life Story
I was creatively rebellious as a young teenager. Most of my destruction was self directed. God made me painfully aware of my empty existence, yet I was completely unable to do anything about it on my own. My sister Laurie had become a Christian and invited me to attend a church service promising that there would be only singing at this particular service, no one preaching at me. I decided to go assuming that I was safe since this was only a worship service.
At this service I had an experience that transcended far beyond any musical experience I had known. I know now that it was simply God inhabiting the praise of His people. God used this encounter with His Spirit to begin drawing me to Himself. Within the year I had received the provision for my empty existence that I had so longed for through the person of Jesus Christ. My conversion was radical. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that God loved me in spite of my terrible past and had exchanged my unrighteousness for the righteousness of Christ. May I never get over that beautiful truth.
I then began walking with Christ and was blessed to be in a church that valued discipleship. I was challenged to live out my faith here and now even as a high school student. My senior year in high school I responded to God’s calling on my heart to serve Him in ministry. Although I had a love for music, I assumed He was going to use me to minister as a preacher simply because the traditional choir-director/music minister role was something I was neither interested in, nor gifted for. I went to college to study music at The University of North Texas and found a great bible teaching church in Denton Bible Church. God used this church immensely in my life to instill in me the riches of God’s Word.
While at UNT, God began to provide opportunities for me to lead worship at youth and college events. I remember leading at a particular youth camp as a sophomore in college when God seemed to lean in and speak to me. We were singing a melody set to Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” At that moment I sensed God impressing on me that He has called me and gifted and that this was how He was going to use me, to lead His people in worship. And He has been faithful. After years of touring, God began to place a desire in my heart to pour into a body of believers on a consistent basis within the local church and eventually led me here to Austin Stone. His faithfulness is impossible for me to express in words. He has been a constant shepherd in my life, leading me beside still waters and restoring my soul.”