In the music business, singers are known for having the greatest egos. But that's not so with a tent-making singer in the Florida Panhandle. Join Charles Morris with a talented singer/songwriter for a different kind of HAVEN Today called "Nothing Special With Sean Dietrich".

November 17, 2006

Nothing Special w/Sean Dietrich

Welcome to Haven Today. I’m Charles Morris telling the great story that’s all about Jesus. Have I got something special for you in the next few minutes. I want you to meet a very gifted song writer, singer, guitarist, keyboardist who does it with passion and talent for his Lord and Savior. This is a program called, “Nothing Special with Sean Dietrich”. But after you meet Sean and hear his music I think you’ll know that while he says he’s nothing special, in Jesus Christ he is something special. Later I want to make an unheard of offer. I’d like you to have a special CD of Sean’s music for a gift of any amount to Haven Today, so let’s begin. May I introduce from Miramar Beach, Florida Sean Dietrich.

Song: All I Need is Jesus
Performed by: Sean Dietrich

Haven Today and from Miramar, Florida in the Florida pan handle Sean Dietrich with his song “All I Need is Jesus” and later on I want to share a CD of his music with you for your gift of any amount to Haven Today. Stay tuned for those details. Sean Dietrich, welcome to the broadcast.
SD: Well thank you it’s great being here Charles.
CM: Sean I wanted to have you on the broadcast for a number of reasons, you’re a brother in the Lord and you’re passionate about Christ but you’re also a musician, and a very talented one at that. Around our office we’ve been comparing your music to Randy Stonehill or the late Rich Mullins, but most people haven’t had the chance to hear your music because you’re what some people might call today an “indie” artist, that is somebody who’s an independent. Your music isn’t carried by a major label so you just produce and record your own music. But there’s a story behind what you’re doing and you didn’t always walk with Jesus, in fact your life had a pretty rough start. Would you just mind sharing with us about your family and what it was like earlier in your life?
SD: Well I was born in Kansas and I grew up there and we attended a large charismatic church. It was, I guess it was a mega church by standards of today. It was a place where my parents, you know, got real involved and there was always stuff for them to do and stuff for me to do.
CM: So that meant the kids and the family would be involved to then?
SD: Exactly, there was always something going on, especially in the arts. And that’s where I kind of got involved with music and with, I did, you know, I did some acting there and stuff like that. Every year we had this enormous passion play that was just an elaborate production. And my father, he played the part of Jesus every year. People loved his performance but when we would go back home he wasn’t the same guy. He was sometimes abusive at times and he was very much – and I say this with much respect towards him – a hypocrite. He’s not alive anymore.
CM: You saw that, of course we always can see that especially in a parent, can’t we?
SD: Oh yeah absolutely. And that’s why a lot of the things I deal with on my site are probably slanted towards not wanting to be a hypocrite. I mean I know firsthand what it’s like and I grew up with it and I, that’s really kind of a fear of mine. I’d rather be anything else than a hypocrite sometimes.
CM: And the sad thing is, we’re all hypocrites
SD: That’s right.
CM: In one way or another.
SD: That’s exactly right.
CM: But your father was not Jesus
SD: No
CM: And perhaps wasn’t the greatest father and in fact, just share with me things happened. He was abusive, you said that, but then it got even worse, didn’t it?
SD: yeah, he struggled with depression a lot. And he was very displeased with his work, with his job. And we had a picture perfect life on the outside. We had a great house on a lot of land on a farm in Kansas and everything looked really, really good on the outside, but at home things were terrible. We walked on eggshells around him. He had a rage-ful temper. And so life at home was, was horrible, I mean to the point where I developed an ulcer, as a child from just worrying all the time. And so eventually things got so bad, when I was 12 years old he committed suicide. And that was the, that was the worst thing that happened to our life but it was also the best thing that happened to us because there was so much grief that went along with it but at the same time it kind of was a new direction that God was giving us in our life.
CM: That’s when you were 12 years old.
SD: That’s when I was 12
CM: And then you started your teen years.
SD: That’s right.
CM: But I assume you didn’t walk with the Lord.
SD: No, no. I knew about Jesus and I would have told you that I believed in him, but all I knew how to do was follow rules and I didn’t want to follow rules anymore because that’s what my dad did. And so I decided to rebel and I did. And I rebelled hard. And I just went through a lot of, you know typical teenage junk and lasted in that until I was 17.
CM: Wow. What was it? What was the moment? Where were you when the Lord broke through to you?
SD: I was on the beach one summer working as a lifeguard/beach attendant
CM: That’s what you do in Destin, Florida as a teenager!
SD: That’s right, that’s right! Basically I just slept on the beach all day long
CM: And got paid to do that!
SD: That’s right. And it was a dream job. But I remember sitting on the beach and I was, you know, I was doing all the typical stuff that people my age were doing. And I was 17, and I just remember seeing it all so clearly. I remember God poured all this clarity into my mind. I could see that I was totally living for myself. I was totally fixed on me and my whole life had been focused on serving me and I knew that was wrong all in a moment. And I could see what, you know, that I was a sinner who was totally needing to repent and to let Jesus totally come inside me and work himself out through me. It was amazing, I mean that moment in time which probably only lasted 10 minutes changed my life. I mean it wasn’t, you know, I hear a lot of wonderful testimonies about people who get saved, you know because their friend shared the Gospel with them or someone told them about Jesus and my story is very different. Jesus himself talked to me. So I was on the beach that day and I waded out into the water there and I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know any pastors or anything like that so I just baptized myself. It was an emotional moment with me and God and from that moment it’s been a rollercoaster ride. My life has never been the same and Jesus –
CM: Anybody ever call you a Jesus Freak?
SD: Yeah, I get that, I get that all the time.
CM: Oh, still do? All right, OK
SD: That’s a title I bear with honor.
CM: I see. You know you’ve got a song on this album that you’ve done. And we’re going to give people at the end of the program, a remarkable offer that they can’t refuse, so stay with us about that, but you’ve got a song well I’d like you to share it with us and it’s called, “Lord Send Me”. What’s that song about?
SD: Well that song is about this intense cry that I had in my heart it was just, it was, I just wanted God to send me. I wanted him to do something with me. I knew that there was, there’s so much, there’s so much to be done in this world that he, that, for the furtherment of the Gospel and for, you know, getting people to know about Jesus and telling people about how great he is that I knew there was something I could do. I didn’t know what it was and I still don’t quite know fully what it’s always going to be because it changes, but I wrote this song because I was tired of just kind of sitting on my hands, so to speak. The words came out pretty easily actually and I think it articulated pretty well what was inside of me, what’s still inside of me.

Song: Lord Send Me
Performed by: Sean Dietrich

Another blessing, another original song here on a Haven Today called, “Nothing Special with Sean Dietrich” and the song was, “Lord Send Me”. Sean you’ve done quite a few things since meeting Jesus Christ as your Savior. You told me that you met the Lord when you were 17 on a white sandy beach in the Florida panhandle and you’ve been a worship pastor and the Lord led you to meet and marry your wife Jayne and eventually you took a step back from music. You started working with a home church and you had a landscaping business and as with all of us, the Lord had plans for you. Would you just mind sharing with us what happened in your life a couple of years ago?
SD: Well, my wife and I decided I was going to buy a brand new mower up in Birmingham. So I, my wife and I took a road trip up to Birmingham to purchase the mower-
CM: That’s what landscapers do, don’t they?
SD: That’s right. So we purchased the mower and we camped out up there in Birmingham at a park, and we had a great time. And on the way back home, I had my truck and my trailer and my mower, and a guy behind us on the interstate fell asleep at the wheel and wrecked into our car. He totaled my car and my trailer and my new mower and we barely made it out alive. He hit us so hard we were thrown into the lane of oncoming traffic.
CM: wow
SD: So we climbed out of my wife’s passenger door and praise God we didn’t have anything but a little whiplash because the truck was completely mutilated. And on the car ride home after dealing with all the, you know, emergency crews and getting the wreckage towed away, my wife and I immediately were in communication with God totally feeling that he was telling us that I need to get back into music, that I needed to share my music. And I had no clue what that meant, I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know what medium to present my music on because it’s not like I can write a song and lots of people hear it. So I didn’t know what that meant, and on the car ride home, in the rental car, we just kind of came to the conclusion that I think God wants us to put my music on the web and offer it for free for people, and so that’s what we did.
CM: Wow.
SD: And since then I mean, it just, we got an, I couldn’t believe the response and how it, how it happened, I mean how many people were interested in it. So God was clearly in it and I’m just glad that he, that he could use me.
CM: You’ve got a lot of talent, Sean Dietrich, our guest on this Haven Today. Now the album you have is called, “Nothing Special” and you have a song you’ve written by that same name.
SD: Yeah
Cm: What’s the message in that song?
SD: Well the message is, just that I’m really nothing incredible, I’m nothing special or as my mom used to say, “Nothing to write home about” but the message, the real message in that is that I don’t want fame or popularity and I don’t even desire to be somebody who by the world’s standards would be called special. I see, you know, where some of the Christian music is going today and I see that you know, there are a few out there who are in it for glorification, or you know, only the Lord knows their heart and I don’t, I don’t know that for sure, but to some appearances it looks that way. And I desire to not take the center stage, I really would, would prefer to stay in the background because it’s not really me who’s special compared to the incredible awesomeness of Jesus. And I really want that to come through. I really want people to see on the sight, you know, that I’m just a random guy, just like everybody else who can sing songs and play piano and guitar, but it’s really Jesus who is special.
CM: Sean Dietrich, you are special because Jesus says you’re special. He called you to follow him. And you feel loved by your Savior, don’t you?
SD: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I’ve never, and I say this to people, and this sounds so cliché as well, but I don’t mean it in a cliché way, but I didn’t know real love, I didn’t know what love was until I met Jesus. I mean there, the moment that he came inside of me, and I know it’s this way with most people, but he deposited inside of me this big ball of love that I feel like is the most powerful tool on the face of this planet. I feel like I’ve got, inside my chest a tool that can see people converted, that can change lives and it’s amazing, the love that I feel and that I’ve always felt since I’ve known Jesus. And I know that again that sounds so cliché but it’s a real thing and it excites me when I talk about it.
CM: I can tell. Sean Dietrich, my brother in Jesus, thank you for joining me here on Haven Today.
SD: Well, I appreciate you having me. It’s been a pleasure.
CM: Sean Dietrich, thank you so much. We have time for one more blessing from Sean Dietrich. And this song has great meaning to him and now it’s going to have great meaning to you and me.

Song: Nothing Special
Performed by: Sean Dietrich

“Nothing Special” and that’s the music of Sean Dietrich here on Haven Today. We’ve put together a special CD called, “The Best of Sean Dietrich” and if you were ministered to by his music in the last few minutes, you can have this special CD. Again it’s “The Best of Sean Dietrich” and we’ll send it out to you right away for a gift of any amount to Haven Today. Before I give you our toll free number in North America just a reminder that we are listener supported and your gift of any amount today helps us to keep telling the great story that’s all about Jesus. So to receive the CD, “The Best of Sean Dietrich” just call us here at Haven at 1-800-654-2836, that’s 1-800-654-2836. Or if it’s a little easier for you to remember it’s 1-800-65-HAVEN, H-A-V-E-N. If you’d like to know more about Sean like just about every other musician, independent or other, he’s got a website and we’ve posted a link to that at haventoday.org. When you go to our website, haventoday.org you’ll also see resources we have for Christmas like the just introduced “Archeological Study Bible” in both hard back and leather bound editions and you can also send us a prayer request under that little button at the top of our home page that just says, “Prayer”. We’d like to pray for you. If you’d like to write to us, here’s our mailing address:
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That’s:
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In Canada we’re:
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That’s:
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I’m Charles Morris and thanks for being with me and thank you to Sean Dietrich one more time. Would you come back again next time when again we will be telling one more time, the great story that’s all about Jesus and we’ll do it together here on Haven Today.