A New Season

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 

I sometimes wonder if my openness and honesty in this blog is a little too much.  I ask myself questions like "Do people really need to know this about my life?” or “Is this something I feel God is calling me to share?" 

Well I don’t know if everything I’ve offered has been filtered 100% through that process.  But what I share today I believe is necessary.  For some who perhaps follow my Facebook artist page or even know a little of what’s been going on in my personal life (family and friends), what I say today will not come as a shock.  To others I only say what I’m saying here to let you into my world.  I want to continue an honest dialogue that I started when I began this whole blog journey.   

My family and I are moving.  And we are moving from Aberdeen, South Dakota to Nashville, Tennessee

It’s been a big decision that I have wrestled with for several months and even years.  In that wrestling, I’ve spent time in prayer, studying God’s Word, and seeking out Godly counsel.  It’s a decision that as I’ve told people and even as I type this myself, still makes me pinch myself to say “Is this really happening?  Are we crazy???”   

But it’s become a burden and an urging that I haven’t been able to shake…the kind of thing that God keeps putting before me again and again.  If God has a megaphone, I’ve definitely heard Him loud and clear.   

I’ve been in my current role as a worship pastor for almost 7 years.  Before that, I served in a church while attending Bible school and led weekly worship services as part-time staff.  Even before that, I volunteered and did whatever I could to help out in churches my family and I attended; whether leading worship or just playing guitar on the praise team.  And going back even further…I helped with worship in my high school and college days; playing in my church’s youth group and later my university’s Inter-Varsity chapter worship band.   

My involvement in worship and in serving the local church has spanned my entire adult life.  I don’t say that to brag but to just state a fact:  this has been something that has been a passion and a drive since as long as I can remember.  I love worship.  I love leading people into a place where they encounter the living God.  And I love the fact that God uses humble and weak human vessels to proclaim His truth through verse and melody.   

I also love to write songs which is something I’ve mentioned from time to time here.  It’s not the type of thing where once in awhile I feel I should try or attempt to write a song.  No in reality it’s more like melodies are constantly running in and out of my head and it’s “Do I have time to stop and catch one or two right now?”  Again, spanning back most of my adult life I’ve tried my hand at songwriting.  I even had the opportunity a few years ago to take ten of my own songs and have them professionally recorded.  It’s a passion of mine and combining worship with songwriting is taking both worlds and marrying them in a way that makes my heart swell. 

So why Nashville?  Why now?  And while I’m at…who do I think I am at (almost) 40 to do something so drastic, so rash…so unexplainable?   

I cannot convince you of the “why” for me.  One thing I do know is that this move is bigger than music or songwriting. It's a step of faith that involves preaching and sharing the Gospel and music is just a tool used to do it. This blog has been a reflection of my heart...a tapestry of the Divine working His hand upon my life and the thoughts and feelings that have poured out.  Blog entries over this year like:  Taking The LandWhat Are You Afraid Of?The Opposite Of Obedience Is FearThe Weakest And The LeastWhen God Removes Your “What If’s?”Doing It All On Our Own. These posts and these titles have literally been the “soundtrack” of my life over the past year.  The Bible verses tied to each post have been the passages God has brought me to and led me to study and dig in.  And all of the things I’ve prayed have been my own wrestling with the text to follow what I believe God would lead me to do.   

Perhaps this blog has been a journey for us to say “Let’s dream about what God can accomplish.”  Maybe if God brings even one reader to step out because of my story, it will be what this was all for.  I don’t know the full answer now but I’m trusting fervently in a God who does know and is always ahead of us.  I believe God is always making a way where none was before and calling us out into deeper and deeper levels of trust with Him.   

So…a new season and a new beginning.   

Would you pray for me as I step into a journey that I’ve never walked before?  I’m asking that God would order the steps that my family and I need to take as we move and transition into something entirely new.  In taking this step, I want to know how I can pray for you as well and encourage you to move forward in trust and obedience.   

I love each and every one of you!  Thank you for reading this little blog and for sharing these messages with others.  I’ll keep at it; using the keyboard as a means to express what God has been speaking to my heart.  It’s been a complete joy for me to do it.   

Reach me at info@derekcharlesjohnson.com 

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