The Last 15 years/Writing

Today is September 6, 2011, Labor Day, and I just celebrated my 35th birthday on the first. Someone asked me a few days ago if turning 35 was bothering me, and honestly it hasn’t really affected me. I’ve been joking that I am now in a new age bracket on applications and surveys, but other than that I think I’ve been okay. Turning 35 has, however, made me look back and assess my last 15 years of adult life.

My 20’s were wonderful. I can think of so many exciting things that happened during my first adult decade. When I was 20 I began playing the role of Christ in the Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, AR. It was a dream come true; I had been dreaming of that since I was little. When I was 21 I moved to Saint Louis, MO to start my career and ministry as a worship leader. It was at my first church, Gateway Tabernacle, that I met my beautiful, wonderful wife and was married two years later. God also gave me my three amazing children in my 20’s.

My 20’s gave me some wonderful ministry experiences as well. I spent a short, but eventful time as the worship pastor at one of the largest churches in Saint Louis. We also spent four fabulous years in Panama City, FL as the worship pastors at St. Andrews Assembly of God. During that time I was privileged to build an awesome worship team. Our section of the A/G district held a community service once a year, and one year I was asked to form a community choir. I was highly involved in leading worship for district functions. And one of my biggest joys was writing, recording, and directing a full-blown Christmas musical.

When I turned 30 I was so excited. My 20’s were so eventful that I could not wait to see what more would happen in the next ten years. We left Panama City and moved back to Saint Louis about a month after my birthday. We were joining the staff at St. Peters Assembly of God (which later became Restoration Church).

We have had some wonderful experiences during our five years on staff at Restoration Church. We have made some of the best friends that we have ever had. I have been able to build the worship department and hopefully take it to a greater place physically and spiritually.

Another achievement has been the start of my music charting business, IGNITECharts.com. I started IGNITECharts.com four years ago to write sheet music and chord charts for songwriters that might not have the knowledge, time, or equipment to do it for themselves. Over the past four years I have been privileged to write charts for many songwriters, even some award winning artists including Martha Munizzi, Ricardo Sanchez, and John Mark McMillan. God has truly blessed this business.

As I look back, however, there is one key piece that is missing. I have never had much success in my own personal songwriting endeavor. I’ve always wanted to record a CD with my original music, and I’ve always wanted my music to be known in the music and worship community. I went through a couple of years where I just wanted to give up, and I basically stopped writing. I didn’t see my music go anywhere, and just wanted to call it quits. I’ve since started writing again and will occasionally turn out a new song to sing in our worship services.

I still don’t know how to get my music heard, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to record a CD, but I am now resolving to do more with my music. I’ve decided that I have to be intentional about writing. Even if I’m not feeling “inspired” I’ve got to just write.

So, my hope is that over the coming weeks and months I will have some blogs and links to some new songs and recordings for you to check out. I don’t ever want to write songs just for entertainment. I always want my songs to touch people, and hopefully lead the listener closer to Christ.

So that is my last 15 years in a nutshell. My dream is still to record a CD, but if that never happens I can’t give up on my love of writing. So if you ever call me, and I’m not answering, I might just be in a meeting with myself. So just leave a message, and if I’m really feeling inspired I might just write you back.