My name is J. Jackson, and I’m lead singer and lyricist for a nationally touring Christian rock band called ApologetiX. We’ve been around for over 19 years and have released 18 CDs and have played over 1300 concerts in all 50 states.
We specialize in biblical parodies of rock and pop songs from yesterday and today. It’s kind of like Billy Graham meets “Weird Al Yankovic.” In fact, I think we’re the only band that’s been featured on the radio shows of both Billy Graham and Howard Stern, not to mention The 700 Club and The Dr. Demento Show. Our mission is to “reach the lost and teach the rest.”
Back in 1982, I was a freshman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania when a guy from the Navigators named Pete Udall came to visit. Apparently, I was one of only two people on my floor (my best friend in college was the other one) who had been too polite to refuse a visit by the Navigators.
We allowed Pete to come visit a number of times, although half of the time, we avoided him. We didn’t know who the Navigators were. We grew up Catholic — for all we knew back then, the Navigators could have been a cult — and there was no way to research things on the Internet. Plus, we were in college with lots of much more fun stuff to do.
One night Pete came to visit and my friend wasn’t there. I remember talking with Pete and feeling like I had really made some sort of commitment to God that night. I didn’t fully understand it nor did I think too much about it.
But the very next day something happened that presented me with a big fork in the road. There was a very specific temptation, and it was one of the only things that could have happened that would have made me turn back. And I had to make a choice whether I was going to give in to it or follow up on what had happened the day before with Pete. And I chose to give in, and it set me back about six more years.
I pretty much never looked back on that night with Pete until years later. But I’ve been a born-again Christian now for over 23 years, and I believe that night I talked (and probably prayed) with Pete was laying the groundwork for six years down the road when I would walk into an empty church and pour my heart out to God and surrender to Christ. And from then on, there was no turning back.
If any of you know where Pete is now, please tell him I said thanks. And thank you, Navigators! You may never realize the impact you are having, even on people who may only seem semi-interested at the time.
~ J. Jackson
Navigator Connection: Collegiate Ministry, 1982; Pete Udall
Posted by The Navigators @ 3:31 pm





