I know that I’ve said this before, as a matter of fact, I said it last night to some people in a meeting. We were brainstorming about where we are in the church and what might be our next step. We had a few different ideas come out of that meeting, but the one thing that stuck out the most to me was ways for us to use our Sunday morning time to change the culture of our people to refocus them on the gospel. It struck a chord with me because I have been feeling like that’s where I need to be. I know for certain that I can get so focused on the task of being a pastor that I overlook the joy of being a pastor. The joy comes in being able to share the gospel with people through song, and even more directly, through daily life. The gospel has to take center stage at all times.

There is a lot of responsibility that we accepted as Christians when we took this job and that was to continue to spread the gospel to others, giving them a chance to hear something that they may have never heard before. Something that is so life changing that you gave yourself over to it. Everyone needs that chance.

In this world of knowledge and people searching for answers, I continue to hold on to a verse I learned when I was like 12 years old. Paul says this to the church at Corinth.

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,t did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

The whole passage is really cool in context, but the verse I remembered was 2. I strive to nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is a lot of stuff to know here in this world. But there is so much wrapped up in knowing Jesus Christ that you could spend a lifetime getting to know him and never know everything. So my goal is to get back to what I need to know. It was written that “I spend my life to know, that I’m far from close to all you are, the greatness of our God”. That’s what I’m going for. Who is with me? You? How about you over there?

Lastly, this is November. I know it’s crazy to be thinking that, especially since yesterday was 74 and today is going to be close to the same. Nevertheless, we are here and this is the time to be thankful. So I have 2 goals this month. 1, to try and blog every day this month. 2, I want to share something that I’m thankful for on each of those days. Since I didn’t write yesterday, here’s 2 for the day. I am thankful for my wife. She has been amazing woman to me for 9 plus years. She continues to stand by me as we go through this life and I lead us down some crazy, winding roads with no side rails. She’s right there 100%.

The second thing is a 3 in 1 type deal. They come in the forms of Kahmylia Isabelle, Brisa Noelle and Harry Ernest Walls, V. My kids are so amazing and I can’t believe that they are mine. I’m always harder on them than anyone else, but that’s because I want so bad for them to be God honoring, respectful and responsible children. I have 3 little blessings and I am continuously amazed at the rate in which they grow. Who knows how long it will be before they actually read this, if they EVER do, but know that I am thankful for them. What are you thankful for today?

Harold B. Lee said, “The most important work you and I will ever do will be inside the walls of our own homes”. I read that statement and it immediately hits home for me. I will usually work 40-45 hours in a week. Maybe more sometimes doing various things to get our church ready for the week and to help people in need and write music and all this other stuff. Because of the nature of my job, I get to spend a fair amount of time at home as well. I carve out time to spend with my wife and 3 children and do my best to make sure that they know that they are first in my heart. I am by no means sitting here typing this and wanting you to believe that I achieve perfect balance everyday and that I can easily pull that off in three easy steps. I’d be rich right now from writing that book and doing all the seminars, with TOTAL balance still being reached at the same time of course.

Being in the pastoral spotlight for most of my life, I’ve learned a few things. One, that spotlight is really hot! Two, it doesn’t just shine on you. It shines on everyone in your family. When I was younger I simply hated that. I was blessed to grow up in a family that was stable and where I was raised and nurtured to love and fear God. We weren’t a drama filled family where there was always something to point to. So as a result, that light was moved in closer. In the culture I grew up in, there was ALWAYS something going on behind the scenes and so if you looked hard enough, there was something bound to show up. I think it may have frustrated some people that there wasn’t much to uncover. One of the things that people could say (which was a plus), was that my father taught his family how to love and serve God. It showed at church and wherever else we ended up. Of course, it wasn’t long before my dad started Christian Fellowship and I started to lead the worship. I was 10 when I started doing that and although those were some tough years in the beginning, it was clear that I had a heart to worship because that’s the way I was trained.

I always wonder what would happen if I spent all this time leading people and even teaching some younger than me what it means to be a lead worshiper and then realize that my family doesn’t even know. I sometimes think, “What if I’m not being that leader in my own home?” “What if my kids don’t know how to worship or who they’re worshiping?” Then I have moments like this past Sunday morning during our sound check and run through when the band was singing ‘All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises’ by Paul Baloche and my oldest daughter, Kahmylia, is standing right in front of the stage all by herself singing at the top of her lungs, dancing with her hands raised in the midst of her own little praise session. At that point I saw firsthand that they are catching something that I’m telling them. 

Again, I’m not writing this today as some sort of expert. Any of you that know me know that is about as far from the truth as you can get. But I know when God is speaking to me and when He takes me through things in my life I want to share them with others so that maybe I can help someone else see. So I leave you with a popular scripture to go with this post today. It sometimes seems cliche because it gets used so much. But parents, leaders and those teachers who are just starting back to school, don’t take it lightly because it’s true. I’m a living example of it. I’m hoping to continue the trend with my own.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

So, I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can start to put some of this stuff down. As some of you know, I’ve been dealing with this idea for a little while, and God won’t let me put it down. So now I’m working through the details of what it all means. I want to share with you my thoughts about this concept, and then use this space to share other ideas, praises, prayers and anything that God is sharing with me.

So what is redefine, anyway? Well, it started in my mind as a way to lead people to the cross. I’m a worship leader, so by design my goal is always to find a way to lead people in worshiping Christ. But as I thought about it, worship leaders should be leading that charge all the time. We always say things like “Worship is a Lifestyle” and “Worship should be in our hearts all the time.”, but how can we lead in that? We have to start working on people’s hearts and minds to help them realize that worship is more than just what happens during that hour or so on Sunday morning. Worship is something that happens all the time, whether we realize it or not. We were created to worship, and no matter who we are, we all worship something. So the question is, what are we worshiping when we are not at church?

The concept of redefine is a two-fold concept. The first ‘fold’ deals with those of us already involved in the church. Like I said before, worship has to be more than just something that happens on Sunday morning. Well, how do we do that? And more importantly, how do we get others to realize that? The gospel. The gospel is the only thing that never changes, and it continues to show us our inadequacies. At the same time, it continues to show us that our Savior is there to fill in the void. In order to see that, we have to have a daily ‘redefinition’ of the severity of the gospel in our lives. That will lead us to a deeper, more intimate worship with Him everyday.

The second ‘fold’ deals with those outside the church. If I’ve learned nothing in my life, I know that there are 2 things that bond people like no other; sports and music. We want to use music to engage those outside of our walls, and then help us to create relationships with them that are real. Our goal is for everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but we aren’t seeking that to the detriment of the relationship that could be built. So we do things that help them see that Christians aren’t all about just saving them to pad stats and numbers. We want to know people and touch hearts. And you can learn a lot about a person by knowing what they listen to and why…

The purpose for this is to be a ministry to ministers. As I worship leader, I know how hard it is to make this concept make sense within the church. However, this is more than just a ‘consultant’ job. I want to help spark real conversation about worship that is real, relevant and God-glorifying. I can also sing a little and I can help in reaching out to your community with music.

This is all still coming together and I would love some ideas and thoughts about how to hone this idea in and make it more laser beamy. I know I just made that up, but oh well…this is my blog! I don’t plan for the others to be THIS long, but thanks for reading.