Making A Difference Bio – Jimmy Dooley

Jimmy Dooley is a singer, songwriter, producer and minister. Jimmy began singing around the age of 5 at his grandfather’s church. By the age of 14, Jimmy began preaching. It wasn’t until the age of 17 that Jimmy felt called into the music ministry to sing. Jimmy became seriously ill. He was hospitalized and his condition continually grew worse until the doctors gave him only a few months to live. They could never officially diagnose him, but with his deteriorating health it was only a matter of time before his body would give in and fail. But Jimmy and his family never gave up hope and through prayers and faith, God healed him. Jimmy has been sharing this personal testimony ever since.

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I'd like to share a story that recently happened to me last week about a church that I was scheduled to sing at in Indiana.  I talked to the pastor on the phone about coming to his church because we were going to be in the area, so I called the pastor talked with him about coming to sing.  He was excited about the idea & checked with the church board.  They OK'd it & we booked the date.  We went over some of the details of the concert & at the end of the conversation he asked if I would send him some posters so I agreed & did so.  All was good & we were both looking forward to it.  About 4 days later I get a phone call from the same pastor saying, "Jimmy we've got a problem."  I immediately knew what he was going to say.  He then went on to say, "After seeing your picture I just know that our church won't like you or accept you because of your appearance."  This coming from the same church & pastor who were excited & loved my spirit & testimony only days earlier before they saw a few hairs sticking up on my head.  He then went on to say & I quote, "I'm not condemning you, you might very well be a Christian, I don't know,” & the conversation went on in the same direction of how if you don't look a certain way, or dress a certain way or sing a certain style of good old fashion Gospel music then you certainly cannot be a Christian.  I have prayed about this issue many times in sincerity that if there is anything about my appearance, music, ministry or whatever that the Lord wants me to change or lay down that I will willingly lay it down.  My only purpose in doing what I do is to see lives changed, which we are seeing more than ever before, but God has reassured me time & time again we must be who we are,. That's all God wants us to be.  We cannot all be the same musicians, or ministers, not everyone that sings the message of the Gospel has to be 4 guys in matching suits with our hair slicked over, or on the flip side we're not all a band of guys covered in tattoos jumping around the stage playing guitars.  We don't have to fit a certain mold, we have to be who God has called us to be individually & share our own story, & songs, & testimony.  I have found that being real is what gets your message through to people.  I have had God tell me many times as I have prayed about direction in my life, music & ministry, “Jimmy just be you.  That's all I'm asking for.”  It's so unfortunate as I talk to many pastors & churches who feel they can only have a person come to their church who looks this way, or sings only these kinds of songs, or is of this certain denomination. I often think of the Pharisees & Sadducees in the Bible who were at a concert battle with Jesus because they had 2 different philosophies of what ministry was, the Pharisees & Sadducees lived in what I call the "We've always done it this way” mentality.  They believed that because it was done this way 50 years ago that's the way it had to be, but Jesus believed that people were different & that each person was touched on an individual level not by traditions of yesteryear but by getting to the heart of where people really were at that moment.  Maybe he had to eat with the tax collectors, or maybe He let the sinful women wash his feet when others thought he was wrong, but He knew how to reach people. I believe as we look around at dying empty churches that are failing to reach this generation we need to wake up & realize that this "We've always done it this way" mentality is not working anymore.  It's time we rock the boat & go against the grain a little.  Just because someone or something is different, as long as it lines up with Biblical principals I believe it's like Jesus told His disciples- "Whosever is not against us is for us."  I feel we're all in this together & we must realize this if we're ever going to win the lost to Christ.  So the next time you think, "Our Church Wouldn't Like You," stop & think it might just be exactly what they need!

God Bless,
Jimmy
www.jimmydooley.com