Meet Tim

Let me introduce you to Tim. Tim is our new bass player for Coffeehouse. He's the guy on the left there in the white shirt. Note the two narrow windows underneath the lyrics.

We love Tim. We also love Dez, Brian (the acoustic guitar player in the photo) and Jim (the electric guitar player in the photo), but this blog post is about Tim. Maybe Brian and Jim will get their own blog posts one day (Dez gets enough press here already), but not today. This one's about Tim.

We did not find Tim via our normal talent search method (stalking musicians at other churches and then ambushing them in the parking lot) -- he actually came to us through a friend who attends Tim's church. I think Tim played with us for the first time about four weeks ago shortly after we lost our previous bass player. It was apparent from our first practice with him, that Tim is not only a talented musician, he also has a heart devoted to God. Tim has pastored a couple of churches in his not too distant past and also was a worship leader.

A couple of weeks ago, at the end of Coffeehouse, Pastor Mike announced that Tim would be preaching last night. Quite frankly, I wasn't even aware that the Pastor had spent any time talking to Tim and thought maybe he was just picking people out of the band to preach on random Saturday nights. Dez and I were upset that we hadn't been asked yet.

(If you're a Southern Baptist, that last bit was a very very funny joke -- if you're not, you'll just have to trust me and laugh anyway so you won't feel left out).

Last week, when we were without a worship leader, Tim stepped in and led worship in very strange circumstances -- the only people he had in his band were me on keys and Flamingo Joe on the bass. And Flamingo Joe doesn't play the bass -- not very much anyway. Dez had pneumonia. Tim also doesn't have an acoustic guitar, so Flamingo Joe went and bought an electric guitar at Sam Ash (no, that doesn't make sense to me either, but FJ assures me this happened as a result of a miscommunication regarding what kind of equipment Tim owned). So FJ was on bass, Tim was on electric, and I was on keys. Remarkably, we survived the evening and Tim did a fine job.

So last night, we were all excited about hearing Tim preach because we knew going in that it was going to be good -- Tim is one of those people that can tell you some stuff about God while swirling the grounds around in the bottom of his coffee cup, so we were ready for some great insights into God's word.

Jamie was leading us last night and did a great job as usual -- so we sang the first four or so songs, took the offering, and went to sit down while Tim put his bass guitar down and stepped up to the microphone. Dez and I were at the coffee table in the back of the room during Tim's opening prayer and were still standing there with our back to the rest of the room when the prayer ended.

When I turned around from the coffee table, half of the room had gotten up and walked out of the service. Apparently, during the prayer, someone's child had come in from outside (where the kids were playing a highly spiritual game of kickball) and notified the pastor and some other adults that a house behind the church was on fire, so the Pastor, Assistant Pastor, and three or four other adults had gotten up during the prayer and walked out of the service to see if they could help. Keep in mind that this is not a service where we have 70 to 100 people in attendance -- in this service, when 6 or 7 people get up and walk out, the room has dwindled to barely a handful of people. So poor Tim opened his eyes after his prayer and half the room was gone.

I went over and sat down and happened to pick a table with a clear view of the narrow window behind Tim (see photo above). I couldn't help but be distracted by the approaching sirens and the garage outside the window that was now engulfed in flames. Huge, huge flames. And lots of smoke. Every 3 or 4 minutes, someone would either come back in the room or get up and leave the room. Poor Tim, who had no idea there was an inferno raging outside the window behind him just kept on preaching. Those of us who stayed in the room were doing our dead level best to stay focused on Tim while we watched the firemen arrive and start climbing ladders. When I asked him later, Tim said he thought that the service was just so casual that people were in the habit of strolling in and out because they didn't think it was a big deal.

About 15 minutes into the sermon, Tim read the verse about Christ's yoke being easy and his burden being light and he asked the group if we knew what a "yoke" was -- Dez piped up and said it was the middle part of an egg -- so while we were all laughing (Dez has been on a lot of medication these past two weeks -- it's possible she will have to re-develop her inner monologue), I tried to tell Tim that there was a fire going on behind him. But he was so focused on trying to keep everyone's attention that he didn't really understand me and told me later he thought we were messing with him/encouraging him. It wasn't until the service was completely over that we convinced Tim that there really was a fire and we weren't trying to tell him that he was "on fire." I know he was relieved to know that even though half the room wasn't listening, it wasn't because half the room is never really listening during a sermon.