Today I am working through a couple new ideas. For a while now I’ve been wanting to really branch out and do some things with other people. I have been a musical loner for quite a while and I’m thinking that doesn’t have to be. I know so many people that are so talented and I’ve been working on ways to get connected with them. One of the things that I’ve realized is that you just have to ask.  That is hard sometimes, though. I have such a fear of being rejected by people who do what I do that I never want to ask people to work with me. The last thing I want to hear is “You’re okay, but you’re not good enough to work with us.” I hear that statement in my dreams. But at the same time, I know that I’m not growing because I’m not interacting with other good musicians. Who knows what cool things I could have accomplished by now if I had just decided to ask?

So whether it’s personal music or stuff you do for you churches, do you ever stop to run through ideas with other people? Or do you just keep them to yourself all the time? I am totally guilty of keeping to myself and not spending time outside of myself. Lately, I’ve been writing a song with my friend, Brittany Howard, and I’ve greatly enjoyed that and wondered why I haven’t done it more often. The other thing that I realize is that I’m not doing my part to further the kingdom. I am supposed to be in relationship with other Christians and that’s not happening either. I have this idea in my head of the way I think things should happen and if it doesn’t look like that will be the case then I’m quick to run away from the idea. That’s me trying to control a situation that God could be wanting to really work through.

So my pracical goal is to start reaching out and trying to work with some of my musical friends a little more. I’d love to see what we could come up with. I’m anticipating some fun things, kinda like a V7 chord right before it resolves so beautifully to the I in the next measure.

I had the distinct opportunity to be a part of something really special in St. Louis a few weeks ago. I was asked by a good friend of mine to make time to be a part of this event and I said I would. I went to the meeting and found out that I was going to be a part of a worship team of St. Louis area worship leaders. I immediately felt overwhelmed by the talent and status in the room. But it didn’t stop there. They told us that JoyFM was going to purchase 99.1 and that we were going to be a part of the fundraising event that would take place soon. As if that wasn’t enough cool new for me, then big topper came. They told us that the event was going to be hosted by Andy Benes and his wife, along with Albert Pujols and his wife. Now if you don’t know already, I LOVE baseball and almost jumped out of my seat from the chance to be in the same room as such amazing people.

It would be one thing to tell you that this was a great event. But I have to go a little bit into how it all worked out. I was in New Mexico at the beginning of that week. I had to fly back home Thursday morning, get my parent’s car (we drove to NM), load up my keyboard, book it out to O’Fallon for rehearsal. At the rehearsal some things were revealed. Like…one of the singers and guitarists got H1N1 and wouldn’t be able to be with us. Another one of the singers couldn’t make it as well. So I ended up being the one who led the worship for our group. Caught me off guard, but I went with it. Friday night ended up being pretty good, even though I had to buy a new shirt and almost broke the trunk of my dad’s car. The event was great and there were tons of people there. I wish I could find the transfer cord to my camera and I might throw some pictures up. Anyway, as it turned out, Andy Benes and his wife were sitting right by my keyboard and so when we sang there were RIGHT in my face. Kinda cool…

I am so amazingly thankful for God giving me such a chance to worship with other believers. I also want to share with you a link to give you an opportunity to help JoyFM reach their goal. The purchase of the radio station 99.1 is approximately 18 million dollars. They need a 2 million dollar down payment. If you would like to give to this cause, I have been given the okay from my insider at JoyFM and will post the link here. Please consider giving to this great cause. You can read more on the site about their plans to bring God to the city of St. Louis through music.

This is just one of many updates coming from the past couple weeks. See ya!

So, I told you earlier that I was going to start writing everyday, but I haven’t done that since Thursday. However, I’m starting tonight and my plan is to get going with my daily blogs. I’ll go ahead and give you a weekend update because this was a great weekend!

Friday night- I was given a surprise birthday by my G2G friends. Thanks to Lil for putting together an amazing night for me. For a woman who doesn’t eat meat, you sure can cook a mean brisket!! Thanks friend! I was able to spend some good time with some great friends. Unfortunately, we saw a HORRIBLE baseball game by the Cardinals. Other than that, great night.

Saturday- Took my girls to see the Toy Story double feature in 3D. GREAT fun. That’s a whole lot of movie though. I was tired after that was over with. After that, I spent the evening at Concord Church singing outside at their Fall Festival. That was a really fun time hanging out with Daniel and Tim and Matt and Christy and the new baby. I got to see Patti Endejan and Chloe. Sorry to Chloe for not bringing the girls. Either way, I had a GREAT time and got to have some amazing grilled corn dipped in butter. BEAUTIFUL!!! The saddest part of the night was when OU lost to stinkin’ Miami. That did NOT make me happy. That kinda brought me down. Oh well…

Sunday- Today was my dad’s 56th birthday. I love him dearly and was amazingly glad to spend the day with him at his church. Then my mom made a delicious dinner for dad’s birthday. That was really fun. This evening I spent at Sherwood Baptist Church listening to my kids in Shelter and Closer sing. They amazed me so much this evening. They all did such a great job! I felt like a proud father listening to them. They have all worked so hard and it showed tonight. But the night wasn’t over…

I got home and my wife had thrown me a dessert party with good friends, the Barnards, Mark (Kristy was out of town), Steph the Yarn Wizard (Jeremiah is in Minnesota GO TWINS!!!), Rob and Holly came as well. What a great time we had. We also came away with an amazingly clean house now. Good stuff. You should go check out Jim’s blog later because he’ll have pictures and stuff from tonight. Good times…good times…

I will wrap this one up by saying thanks to my wife. My wife knows how I have felt about my birthdays over the past few years. She did a great job of making me feel important on my day. Thanks, Eva! I love you so much. Thanks for everything you did to make me feel good about myself. Have a good night and let’s give God our best this week. That’s my plan anyway…

Yesterday I confessed that I haven’t done the best job of spending time with the Father. I also vowed to do a better job starting today. Well, my wife did her job in holding me accountable first thing this morning. I thank her for that, too. I made a decent start this morning and hope to do better over the course of the rest of this week.

Today, I’m a sharing about enriching the community around me. This has been a bittersweet topic for me lately. The basis of community for me is being somewhere consistently where people can pour into your life and you theirs. As many of you know, I’ve been all over the place this summer, many times playing in a different church every Sunday of the month. This has taken a toll of my “community building”. Even with all that, I have been completely blessed to be living in community with some great people. God truly knew what he was doing when he sent me to First Free Church earlier this summer. I thought I was just going to help a friend out. I ended up gaining friends for life. Had it not been for my amazing friends across the alley, I don’t know where I’d be right now.

I can only hope that I am able to enrich their lives as much as they have enriched mine. Are there any people in your lives recently that have totally enriched your life? Tell me about it…

So…August…happened…I’m not sure if I believe it yet. I’m totally amazed at how God has sustained my family. Here are a couple things I learned in the month of August…

1. I am not called to work at Wal-mart. I have applied there and haven’t been called back yet. In extension, I’m also not called to work at Sam’s, a place that I worked for previously.

2. McDonald’s doesn’t think enough of me to hire me either. I’m not sure what it is about me that they don’t like. I’m thinking I don’t have enough tattoos…

3. My mom is not the only person that likes the music that I write. I’m pretty sure that musicians fear that no one will like what they write, and we all know that moms are supposed to like everything that their children do. I took my music to a St. Louis area studio and the producer there liked what he heard. He actually offered to produce a CD for free. I’d say that he likes it.

4. People love my family. God has truly blessed us and some kinda way we had more money come in this past month than we have had in quite a while. God’s definitely working.

5. I love working with music groups. I’ve had so much fun this month working with the ministry groups at MoBap. I hope they have enjoyed working with me because I’m here for awhile.

As for this month, God is already starting to do some MAJOR things in our family. The first day of Chili Dinner ticket sales went rather well. I have people offering to help out with gathering money for the CD project. Actually, our new friends at Waypoint Church helped us greatly yesterday. I feel so loved.

I also want to say a special thanks to our friends at Redeemer Church. They have done so much to help out my family this month. We wouldn’t be where we are right now if it weren’t for them. Thanks SO much, Redeemer!!!

We are still trying to find ways to get funds and musicians together for the CD project. I have a place to go, I just have to put everything together to get there. Again, I’m totally amazed at what God has done during this month of August. No one in the world could have orchestrated what God has done this month. Keep praying for us. Even more than financially (although that is still an issue obviously), pray for direction. God has a plan for this family (Jeremiah 29:11), and my prayer is that we start to figure out some of what that is. Be blessed friends. OH YEAH! Come to the Chili Dinner and Concert on September 18th. If you want more information shoot me an email. Tickets are $9 for adults and $2 for kids 6-12. I have some. Come find me. The end.

I can’t believe how amazing this weekend has been!!! I haven’t felt THIS encouraged about life in a really long time. God is so good and I’m so thankful for everything that has happened this weekend. Quick recap…

Friday- I got to visit my buddy Alisha. She wasn’t doing too well that day. I got to pray for her. I love Alisha. Busch Stadium with the Quest people. What a BLAST!!! Had a great time with my friends Jeremiah and Stephanie. We stinkin’ love them. Or at least I do stinkin’ love them I hope they love us, too. If not that would be COMPLETELY awkward…

Saturday- Went to a workshop to help us keep our house and didn’t really learn anything. Next the family went to visit Alisha. She was doing TONS better than she was on Friday. I’m still praying for her and Jim. Then I was supposed to play for a church in the area, and let’s just say I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore. If you wanna know just ask me about it and I’ll tell you… After that we spent the evening with the Misseys. It was great to reconnect with them.

Sunday- I spent the morning at Waypoint Church in St. Peters, MO. Great time with Lance and the crew there. I can’t wait to go back next week. It’s great to see what God is doing with that church. Then I got to spend some time at Cross Keys Baptist Church and make some new friends. We had some great connections with the pastor and his wife, who are MoBap alums! We had a great service and then hung out at Sonic. It has been a great weekend and I’m glad that God has brought us through this weekend.

I’m sure that I’m missing something, but I can’t remember. I also got to spend good time with my family which is always good. God is really teaching me some really cool things lately. I’m learning that I have to step out and let God be God. More and more I am learning to trust God with my life and my family. I almost forgot that I got to hang out with to AMAZING people, Kim and Gina on Tuesday. I will try to be a lot better at blogging this week. Someone hold me to it!!!

I don’t know about you, but I am amazed at how much I need people in my life. I am so tired right now, but it’s because we’ve had such a good weekend so far. Last night, we got to hang out with some great people from our church as we took a field trip to Busch Stadium. We spent the evening with Jeremiah and Steph the Yarn Wizard (I can explain if you need me to…). Let me say this…this couple is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I love these two and having them in our lives is just flat out great!

We got to go see Alisha this afternoon. I was glad to see that she was looking better. I’m so praying for you, sweetie. I just finished before I started writing this. For more on The Wee Couple, AKA the Amazing Barnards, check out my blogroll and click on Jim Barnard.

After that, I had an interesting meeting with a church in South County. I still don’t know what to think about it yet, so I don’t know exactly how to write about it. Check in tomorrow for that one…

We spent the evening with Matt (Cheetah) and Shannon Missey (blogroll Shannon Missey). This is the PERFECT way to end a late summer evening. This couple is straight up amazing. They are that beautiful couple that we should all be jealous of. If Eva and I weren’t so amazing already, we’d be jealous of them, too. HAHAHA Anyway, they had us down to their house in Crystal City and it was a great time with friends.

We are so blessed by the friends that God has placed in our lives during this extremely tough time. God knows what we need even when we don’t know what we need. Never ever forget that friends. God knows you so much better than you know yourself. Even though this was quite a long day that started really early for us, I wouldn’t trade it for anything because we spent this day and this weekend up until now with people that we confidently know love us and we love them as well.

Now I’m going to sleep because I will be leading worship with my friends at Waypoint Church in St. Peters, MO. If you don’t get this before tomorrow morning, come check me out next week as I will be leading out there next Sunday as well. Actually, check out the Upcoming Dates section as I will be updating it with some new things, including a Chili Dinner and Concert September 18th. I’ll have more information about that in the near future. Be blessed and hopefully I can keep up with the plan of a full weekend update tomorrow evening.

I have been doing music stuff for most of my life, but lately things have really been going in a new direction. I must say, I’m liking the direction things are heading in. I just hope that I can keep up with them and do what I need to do to keep the ball rolling. Case in point…

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning at Shock City Studios in South City getting a chance to meet a producer and having them listen to my music. I was greatly surprised to hear that they really enjoyed what they were listening to and are ready to work with me. I need to find a band to play with me. As we were sitting in the control room (which is beautiful enough to make a grown man drool), the producer says to one of the other guys sitting there that we need to find a drummer who can really play one of my songs. The guy says that he knows a guy and it turns out to be the drummer from the Fundamental Elements. Now, if you read my blog about their concert, you know that I’m a huge fan and would love to have that whole band in my pocket so I can keep them with me at all times. So this was a dream that was coming true. We will see how that works out. In the mean time, I need to find some money so I can get this ball rolling. I think that we may be on the brink of some very cool things happening.

Later that day, I got to go to a rehearsal for one of the ministry groups that I will be working with during the year at Missouri Baptist University. It was great to be doing that and it was great to be working with this group. I think we are going to have a good time. I started working on a plan to help them succeed throughout the year. I am going to be sitting down with the kid who is leading this group one on one to help him develop as a leader. He’s got some raw skills that can really get refined and brought out if someone comes alongside him and draw them out. That’s going to be my goal.

I’m also announcing that there will be some dates coming up where you can come worship with me. I will be posting them in the Upcoming Dates section of the website soon. One of them I will mention right from here though. Because we are struggling so much financially right now, my wife got some people together to create a chili dinner with a concert. It’s going to be fun. You can come for all you can eat chili and hear some music from me and a couple of friends (if I can get them to play some stuff). I don’t know how much it will cost because my wife hasn’t told me yet. I do know that the date is Friday, September 18th at Redeemer Evangelical Church. There will be more details, and when I get them I’ll pass them on to you. Until then, keep praying for us that God will keep sustaining us and putting people around us that can help us keep going. I am now off to the living room to set up the Motif and get to sequencing…

This Sunday was week 2 since the decision to choose a church home that had nothing to do with where I was leading worship. I will say this…there are definitely pluses and minuses. Plus, I didn’t have to get up early to get to church for sound checks and stuff like that. I even got to church a little “after” the service started. Haven’t done that in about 15 years! Anyway, being able to sit back and listen to others lead and see that others have a heart for the same thing was good. Great job, Gina. You rocked this morning!

Minus, I REALLY love doing what I do. There’s a part of me that likes to sit back and listen. There’s an even larger part of me that loves to lead and be on stage. It is not because I need to be in front of people, but I know that’s what God has called me to do and I love being able to use that gift. Minus, I haven’t practiced or listened to any music in the past couple weeks. So there is a little bit of both on either side. But I am learning to enjoy where God has placed me right now. I’m still praying that God would lead us to a place to serve Him, but in the mean time we are serving God the best way we know how where we are. Where are we, you ask? Well currently  we are a part of the Quest Service at E-Free.

Something else that has happened this past week that was really cool. I have been given the opportunity to do something really special this year. I was asked to help out at my Alma Mater (which I just got a couple months ago), Missouri Baptist University. Since I started, the number of ministry groups have grown from 3 to 6. The number of ministry group leaders has grown from 2 to 2. Which means they need some help leading these other groups. That’s where I come in. I get to help a couple groups with their instrumental stuff as well as some vocals. I also get the chance to help develop some worship leaders. I am so pumped. For those of you that have been praying, this is not a paying thing right now, but it’s a great opportunity and I’m so excited about it. I will keep you posted on how things work our over the course of the year.

Lastly, I’m going to stop punking out and get back at working on my own music this week. This is my plan for myself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes as well. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. and to my friends that start school tomorrow, good luck and let God bless you as you start this year off right!

This past weekend I celebrated 7 years of marriage with my wife. We were completely blessed to have been given the whole weekend to ourselves. We were able to reconnect and spend time just being us. Once you have kids, you lose a lot of that and it’s harder to make time for it. Anyway, I learned quite a few things about myself this weekend. Some of them were things I actually rediscovered. Here they are…

1. I love reading mystery novels. I love mysteries and thrillers and didn’t remember. We went to Borders a couple times this weekend (see #2) and I starting reading a book that I couldn’t put down so I ordered it at Amazon.com. I’m so excited to get this book and read. I’ll probably write about it when I’m done.

2. I love Borders. I don’t know if there’s a difference between all the bookstores in the world, but Borders has a more inviting feel to me. I love the colors on the inside and I felt compelled to stay and read. Eva and I love reading books and we love spending time together in that way.

3. There is a lot of good music in St. Louis, MO. I love this town. It’s home for me, but as I grow older I’m finding out things that I didn’t know when I was little. There is good music here that isn’t always on the radio. We went to a GREAT concert Friday night (see Concert Review) and I’m sure that I’m missing so much good music here.

4. I have amazing friends. The more time we get to spend with them the more I realize that God has really blessed us with some great people. I can’t wait to see what God does over the next few months as we get to know them better.

5. I must really be growing up. Eva and I went to a couple movies this weekend and one of the movies we saw was profanity laced. It did nothing for me and sort of took away from the story of the movie. There was a time in my life where I didn’t care and would watch anything. That’s not the case anymore.

6. Jim and Jeremiah may quite possibly be the perfect storm of public embarrassment. They may also be the perfect storm of straight fun in many forms as well. There’s not much else to say about that.

7. I will, always have, always will, love ice cream. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

8. I don’t write new music because I’m lazy and can find many things to do besides sitting and writing.
8a. I really want to start a music group. That has been my dream and it won’t go away. I’ve done all I can to turn away from this idea, but it keeps putting itself in my line of vision.

9. I adore my children. I loved having the time away where I could connect with Eva, but I was quite happy when my kids came home last night.

10. I cannot live without my wife. Period.

11. God is amazing! He continues to bless me in ways that I KNOW I don’t deserve. I’m not sure why He keeps it up, but I’m so glad He does. Thanks be to God for everything I learned this weekend. I also pray that I keep learning things. If I stop learning, I’m dead.