It’s a Start!

I’d like to announce to you all that the beginnings of the new website are up! Yes, it’s true. Worship180.org is officially up and working! Thanks to my buddy, Charlie, who has been helping me get things up and running, there is a website to go to now. As of right now, you can find there what you see here, but the format is different and you can see the new logo/banner. There has been a lot of work put into this and even more to come, but I am excited about what has happened already. Things to look forward to: Once we start to put some things in place, there will be a page for tour dates and opportunities to worship together. I’m also doing what I can to get some more video and hopefully some audio up in the near future. I’m working on getting some recorded so maybe we can have some sneak peeks posted. Keep checking in.

There’s a lot of great things happening right now. I’m currently sitting in Kaldi’s Coffee in Chesterfield Valley getting myself prepared for rehearsal at Rockwood Baptist in a couple hours. I’m also putting some music together for tomorrow night’s rehearsal. That’s gonna be fun as well. OH! Something else I almost forgot. Me and a couple of my favorite guys, Daniel Meyer, Evan Pitchers and Tim Schafer are going to be playing at the Gateway House of Prayer Friday night from 10pm-12am. If you want to come and worship with us for a couple hours during the Watch for the Lord, come join us. While I’m sitting here, I think I’m going to put a quick page together with upcoming dates and stuff like that. I’m singing in a few different place over the next month.

Before I go, I want to just say that God can truly bless you even in an intense storm. I am totally speaking from current experience. Even when things seem so out of whack and we don’t know where money is coming from or what utilities we will be able to keep, God is still working in ways that continue to surprise me. As I sit here right now, I don’t know what you might be going through, but I do know that God can handle whatever that is. He has that kinda power. He is GOD! Just in case you were wondering…

Songwriter’s Block…

Let me start by saying I do NOT like this… It seems like once I started getting into writing new music and putting together this whole concert idea there was a quick burst of creativity, and it has all left. By the way, this has happened within like 3 days!!! Oh well, I’m praying for God to give me the strength that I need to write and be creative. I hope that I can get things going soon. This is something that I love, and I have all kinds of stuff to write about with the life that I’ve lived these past few months. Maybe God has a story that he wants me to tell. I’ll be asking him. In the mean time, could I get my you, my friends and family to pray for and with me? I so want this to be good and glorifying to God. Let’s hope I don’t pressure myself too much…

Until next time…

Starting Off Fresh…

So I thought I’d report on what’s going on since my last post. Once I decided to stop making excuses, I realized why I had been making excuses LOL! Once you start making plans for things and people get excited with you, then you have to keep moving and going forward because people are ready to go. I started talking to people about helping me make this whole CD project happen and I have gotten great response.  I’m excited. First rehearsal is this week.

Anyway, that’s not what this one is about. Yesterday, I got to spend some time with some dear friends at Timberridge Community Church yesterday. What an amazing time! We were going to have lunch together, and we did. However, the fellowship was so amazing that we ended up having dinner together as well. God really gave us all some rest. We kept talking about how cool it was to actually get some rest because we move so much and never really stop. I am so glad for friends and family and glad that we were able to have that time.

July is starting off fresh and I can’t wait to see what else God is going to do this month. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading…

Spoiler Alert!!! Spoiler Alert!!!

So, let me just start out by saying this is HUGE for me! I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about what I’m getting ready to tell you. This is something that has been on my heart for a REALLY long time, and it’s still hard for me to believe that I’m making the necessary moves to get this going. There’s no better time for me to get this going than right now, so we’re going for it! So with no further delays, here’s the news…

I, Harry Walls, IV, is making the preparations for my first real, live, professional CD project! I am in the very beginning stages of pulling this all together, but I have some people in mind and some things already moving and ideas flowing. I’m currently working getting all the ideas in my head down on paper so I can share it with other people. If you are out there and feel like you want to help me, I’m open for suggestions and ideas. If you want to be a part of this project, let me know and we can sit down and talk.

Obviously for me, this is a BIG deal and I’m looking for serious help. God is moving my heart and I’m following His lead in my life. I have prayed much about this and feel like this is the time. I’m asking for prayer and support from all my friends. Keep checking in, for I’m sure to give more details. Be blessed and have a great 4th of July weekend!

What’s Your Excuse? (Square Peg Alliance Review)

Well, it seems like I’m starting off July with a bang! June was the my best blogging month ever and I have all of you my friends and family to thank. I thought I’d keep it going with something that happened last night. My wife and I and my good friend Brittany Howard and Smitty went to see Square Peg Alliance at Grace Community Chapel last night. Most of the gang was there. Ben Shive, Andrew Peterson, Andy Gullahorn, Jill Phillips, Andrew Osenga, Randall Goodgame, Jeremy Casella and Eric Peters. If you don’t know who these people are, and you like great songwriting, click on the name of the group. That was the best 2 hours I had spent in a while. I even got to meet Ben Shive and Andrew Peterson after the concert was over.

If you’re not familiar with SPA, they are singer/songwriters from the Nashville area that have created a community to write and they travel together and do these concerts. If any of you came to the Story:Song:Life concert back in February, that’s where we got the idea from. They shared stories and amazing music throughout the night. At the end of the night, they all stood on the stage and we sang ‘It Is Well’ together sort of in memory of Rich Mullins. Peterson shared a story of a concert that he had gone to and he said that Rich Mullins would frequently end his concerts with that song and at the end would say “Now THAT’S Christian music!” So that’s what we did. What an awesome time!

So the second part of this dual blog came on the way home from the concert. My wife asked me what was my excuse for not following my dreams. We currently don’t have a job and can do whatever it is that we want. Also, Britt and I had worked to make SSL come together and our goal was to start a similar community and we just kinda left it at “Man, that was a fun concert!” But she hit me in the face with that question on the way home. What’s stopping you from following your dream? What’s stopping you from making a CD? What’s stopping you from creating a community of singers and songwriters? I realized that I make excuses for not doing the things that I want to do. We weren’t originally talking about our dreams, which was really funny. She had read an article about “What story is your fat telling you?” Some sort of way that’s where we ended up. Anyway, at the end of the conversation, I decided that I can’t continue to make excuses for not doing the things that know I’m supposed to do and want to do. So the first thing I am doing is writing this so all of you can keep me accountable for doing what I say I’m going to do. I will appreciate your prayers and even emails asking me am I doing what I say I’m going to do (you know, like accountability or something ). So that was my night and it took me a while to get to sleep, and now I’m up ready to get going. So I guess this means that I’m launching the writing recording process as well as currently (even as I write this) talking to Britt about getting Story:Song:Life rolling forward. Keep your eyes and ears open. This could start moving fast…thanks again, to my wife.

…in the way only GOD can… The First Month

I can’t even begin to explain how good God is! When God is working, there’s nothing else that you can do but sit back and watch the show. This first month without a permanent job has been so much more than I thought it would be. I was just hoping to get by and do what I had to do. Instead, we met our neighbors and have started a great friendship with them. I met a radio celebrity (she’s probably gonna kill me for that one!), got to sing and lead worship with 2 amazing bands, and build connections that would have never happened otherwise…and that was all at one church! That doesn’t even include my trip to Godfrey at the beginning of the month which was totally awesome. I had such a great time riding with and leading worship with my friend, Erica DeVilbiss. I’ve also met people from a couple of churches who have shown interest in me. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have met any of these people had it not been for God’s working. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for next month.

If you are interested in where we’re going next, the month of July looks sort of like this…

July 5th I’ll be at TimberRidge Community Church. Still not sure if I’m leading there yet, but we’re going for a visit. Love the people down there.

July 12th I’ll be leading worship at Rockwood Baptist Church in Wildwood, MO. This is becoming one of my favorite places to go. There are some really nice people there and they love God. I love leading for churches that love God…

July 19th I will be leading worship with family at West Hills Community Church. There’s not much else to say about this one except for this is family. Pastor Gary and his wife Jenny are lovely people and it’s always good to go home.

So as I was saying, sometimes you have to look back and realize that things are happening in ways that only God can make them happen. OH! Before I forget, my expectations were really blown away this month. I set a goal for myself to have 200 visits to my blogsite here. I thought it would be a stretch, especially since last month netted about 50. Either way, I set my sights and went for it. That meant a lot of writing for me, and also a lot of praying. The last time I checked we were sitting at about 320 visits for this month alone! Thanks friends for continuing to check in a read what I have to say. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading. Have a blessed week. You’ll probably hear from me again.

R.I.P. MJ

When It Gets Tough…

So, I’m sitting in the office area in my house and this feels old. My wife and I have been trying for the past few weeks to find something substancial for employment and nothing seems to be working. Or at least that’s how it feels…

I think that right now it seems really hard to wait and it seems really hard to know what to do next. Being stuck in the middle is not fun, but evidently this is where God wants me to be. What am I supposed to learn from this? Have I learned it? What’s next out there for me? Only God knows…

I think I’m just writing this so I can say how I’m feeling. If no one reads this one I’m totally fine with that. However, I had to share my heart with my friends. I could really use some encouragement right now because as I sit here today, I’m feeling a little scattered and alone. Please pray for us…

Strength Will Rise…

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

So I was reading this passage a couple days ago as I was preparing for Sunday. Worship leaders always try to find a scripture that will work with a particular song or theme that they are trying to follow for the service. As I was searching and reading I came across Isaiah 40. We all know this passage for the famous 31st verse. I decided that I would take a trip back a little and see what words led up to that verse.  As always, I loved what I found. It seemed to fit so perfectly with my life at this time.

My wife and I have been dealing with the loss of our job and the difficulty in finding a new one. Of course, we are hoping that something works out soon because we have a house to pay for and 2 little girls to feed. Even though we know full well that God is taking care of us and knows our every step, sometimes we feel like the Israelites in verse 27. We feel like our cause is being disregarded by God.

However, we are gaining strength as we wait on the Lord. This is such an interesting concept. As we wait on the Lord…wait…not moving forward…not making plans…not staying on top of the bills…not having food…strength is rising. I am constantly amazed at how that continues to work. We have sent resumes all over the country over the past week or so and we have heard back from a couple. They have all said the same thing. But we still have hope. Things are starting to take shape in a few places, and we are just waiting to see what God’s gonna do. If you wait on the Lord, strength will rise…

God Doing Yard Work

So today was an amazing day. That’s how I start this post. I can’t believe how it all came together. So without any more delay, let me break this down.

So as I’ve said before, I was slated to lead worship this week and next for the Quest service (younger, contemporary) at First Evangelical Free Church is West County. I had been in talks with the director of this service all week making plans and getting things lined up. I got to the church this morning and ran into some of the band members and we were getting ready and talking through things and I finally met Alisha (the director) face to face. We begin talking through details and all that stuff and she asked was my wife there. I explained that she wasn’t because we only had one car and all these things. Well, she asked where I lived and I said south St. Louis. Then she said, “So do I.” As we continue to break down where we live we figure out that we share an alley and have been living across the alley from each other for over a year! We realized that we’ve crossed passed before and didn’t really know it. Her husband Jim, tried to run my wife over in the car last night (not really, but I’m messing with him). That was such an amazing connection and it set the tone for what ended being a simply marvelous day.

We ended up sharing with the congregation that it’s amazing what you find out once you step outside your door. We found a new set of friends. It was something that only God could have done. Now, I have no idea what God is doing or will do with today, but I do know that He’s working. And when God is working it’s best to stay out of the way and let Him do His thing. I’m glad that I met Jim and Alisha this morning. Only God knows what this relationship will lead to. I do know that we share an alley and we’ll be eating dinner together soon. Promise…