So as I write this, it’s good for you all to know that I’ve been thinking about changes that I’m planning to make this upcoming year. So this isn’t an indictment on anyone. That being said, I will now bash you ALL (jk)!

Since the end of the year/beginning of the new year is such a good time to make changes, I thought I’d talk about it. Yes, I have been thinking a lot about what things I plan to do differently. I plan to stop eating like a stupid person because, well, that’s stupid. I have decided to be more intentional in my relationship building starting with the two people that I spend time with weekly and going from there. I plan to spend more time promoting the work that I have done and am doing. Namely, this blog. I have some ideas that I hope will take this site to another level, but who will see it if I don’t tell them about it? There are a couple more, but these are just starters.

What I’m more interested in are some of your thoughts and plans for the new year. At the same time I want to be able to challenge you as well as myself. How many of us in the past have treated January 1 like one big Monday? What do I mean? I mean, people always tend to start new diets or new jobs or breaking old habits on Monday. Sometimes we make it a couple weeks, maybe a month. But a lot of times we fall short of Thursday and then we say, “I’ll start again on Monday”. I know in the past I’ve done this many times. I’ve also done this with New Year’s Resolutions or, as people are starting to call it this year, ReVolutions. Whatever you call them, we don’t spend a long time holding to those generally. We end up treating the beginning of the year like one Big Monday and when our resolutions don’t make it through February, we leave them there to be picked up again at the beginning of the next year.

I personally have made plans to make smaller, easier to handle changes in my life. Also, these are things that I should be doing anyway. So I’m not trying some new thing or picking up some new hobby that I probably didn’t like in the first place. I’m working on things that I need to do or should be doing to better myself and bring me closer to the Creator. So I ask you…what are you going to do to not make the start of 2011 just another Monday? Okay, your turn. Share…

WHAT a whirlwind year this has been. I’m not really sure where to start. So I will just hit some of the highlights.

Probably the biggest news of the year was the boy. We love Harry Ernest Walls, V and we are not afraid to tell the world about that. Having a son is totally awesome and I’m glad to be able to put that on my family resume. I should make a family resume. I wonder if they would accept that at jobs? But I digress…

Probably one of the next biggies would be the fact that we finally got a job this year. After months and months of searching, God saw fit to provide us with something so amazing as a job as a worship pastor a block and a half up the street from our home. It has been so amazing to this point and  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this church. Quick plug: Come visit The Word at Shaw soon. 4265 Shaw Blvd. in St. Louis, MO.

Eva and I celebrated 8 years of marriage this year. I’m still so thankful for this woman. She is just all the way perfect and right and all that other good husbandy stuff. Couldn’t do any of this without her.

If I tried to recap the whole year I would inevitably miss so much of it. But a couple things: RIP to my friend and friend to so many, Rob Cornwell. Such a great guy and God decided that it was time for him to come home. We know that God knows what He’s doing, but I know that I can speak for a few people that we are COMPLETELY jealous that You get to spend all that time with him now and we don’t anymore. We see that as a bit unfair. But anyway…

As I look ahead to the upcoming year, I have a couple things that I want to do better than I’ve done in the past. If you are so inclined as readers of worship180.org, you can hold me to these things.

1. I am going to do a better job of promoting worship180 and everything that it was supposed to be in my head. My good friend has given me many pushes in the past to really do what I want to do with this concept and blog site. I keep almost getting there. I’m done with almost.

2. I am going to return to learning. There are so many people out there that know so much more than me. I should learn from them. So I’m going to get back to reading blogs and books that will help me expand my little brain.

3. I will clean out my computer system. I have SOOOO many old things on this silly thing that I should just get rid of. I will do that. I WILL do that.

4. I will spend more time writing music. I will spend more time writing music with my friends. And I will finish recording.

5. I’m going to do a better job building relationships. I started off well this year, now it’s time to keep moving forward.

This is my start. What are your plans for next year? Wanna share em?

Such an elusive place.

The time searching for it seems to be a waste.

But living within this space brings such truth.

I’ve been there before and I have real proof.

I can’t believe I haven’t written about this before now, but here I am. What do I mean by  ‘The Middle’? Well, I tend to believe that we spend life on a pendulum. There are many points to which we live and operate. Based on where we are we respond and react to different things in life. In my life, I’ve found that I work best when I am hanging around the middle of that pendulum. That’s when I am most focused and can make reasonable, logical decisions that don’t just benefit me. They also benefit those around me and ultimately, the Kingdom.

There are many factors that keep us out of the middle. Fatigue, lack of focus on what’s important, distractions, etc. But I truly believe it should be our goal to work toward the middle. The middle allows us to be surrounded by all things and be able to see them all which allows us to make well informed decisions about our lives. From a worship standpoint, this is really important to me because the constant discussion about contemporary versus tradition, chorus versus hymn, organ versus piano versus guitar. Whatever the argument is. I find it hard to land on either side of these discussions because there’s importance in all of it.

Outside of worship, I believe that we need to work toward this as a mindset because it will help us to think more clearly about the decisions we make as a people, Christian or not. We have such extremist mindsets in this world today and if people don’t agree with us, we shut them out or, in the case of St. Louis lately, we shoot them. Maybe living in the middle could save lives…

Your thoughts???

It is SOOOO hard to make time to spend with people just connecting and talking about life. I have always felt like I should be making time for this, especially since the second bullet point in my tagline is Enrich Your Community. Lately I have been working on ways to do that consistently. With that being said, last night was truly awesome for me.

We were supposed to be having our regular men’s Bible Study when, for a plethora of reasons, everyone sort of canceled. When it was all said and done, I ended up at Pho Grand in South St. Louis City having chicken wings with my friend Mark Patterson. We had a great time catching up, sharing prayer requests, talking life. I realized just how important it is as worshipers to spend time off the stage and face to face with people. I woke up refreshed this morning because I was able to be real and have real one on one time. So, even though you may not see this, thanks Mark for sharing life with me. I probably needed it more than you. Love you bro.