I'd Love to Hear _____________ Sing That Song...

So the other day, Mel and I were sitting around talking about songs we love.  Conversation quickly went to "man I bet this guy would tear that song up..."  We often enter into conversations like this about people who can really sing...

Funny thing was, we had two different songs, but both wanted to hear the same guy sing them.  So it got me thinking, I wonder if I issued a little online challenge if I could get him to throw a little handicam video action our way!  

So, Mr. Chad Strader...I told her "Chad would be somebody he could do a bang up job on Piano Man" and Mel followed by saying "I was just thinking I'd love to hear him sing Easy by the Commodores."

For your preparation, I am including the videos that will help get you started.  :)

We'll be waiting...

Much love,

Tim and Mel Barosh

Easy -



Piano Man -

 

Kids and Passover

So glad my wife is teaching our kids from the Bible. I drove up from work the other day and this piece of art was on our front door glaring at me from three blocks away. I smiled immediately because I knew what my children were learning...but even deeper that the blood of Christ poured out has made me right with God. I pray the same for my children.

We eventually brought the sign indoors because Ellie kept walking around telling people we put blood on the door. Could be a bit morbid entry into a conversation with neighbors. Then again, maybe we all shy away from the blood too much...hmmm.

Full House

Ike has brought lots of frustration for everyone. Understandable.

One of the joys of times like this is seeing everyone pull together. From helping with boarding of houses to clean up after the storm, there is always a real sense of togetherness that happens during these times.

Some church friends of ours called from out of town to see if they could bring us groceries on the way in because they saw the state of stores here!

Tonight, we're pulling together with friends and family. My brother and his kids still don't have power, so they're staying another night with us. We got a call from our good friends Iris and Pablo and they're without power as well. So, we're all hanging tonight under our roof.

Mel gets all the "girl-talk" time she can handle and me and the fellas are getting ready to play some poker.

If nothing else, there will be good conversation and deeper relationships because of this storm.

Thanks Ike.

Now Concerning Death

This week I am preaching a funeral and at the same time disheartened by the tragic news affecting the Chapman family. As I am preparing for the funeral service tomorrow, my own thoughts about death have begun to creep in. Seeing children lose their life scares me like crazy...and seeing just how close the above scenario with the Chapman's was to a situation at our house last week I am even more taken back.

I have been in silence nearly the whole day today, just trying to get my arms around God's sovereignty and our inability to comprehend how and why He operates the way He does.

Spurgeon's thoughts on the matter are hammering me right now -

"Should it not be the business of this life to prepare for the next life, and in that respect, to prepare to die? But how can a man be prepared for that which he never thinks of?...Each fading leaf admonishes you. You will most surely have to die; why not think upon the inevitable?...If I do not think of death, yet death will think of me. If I will not go to death by meditation and consideration, death will come to me. Let me then, meet it like a man, and to that end let me look it in the face."

Something happens in my soul when I'm forced to think about death. I begin to look at life from an eternal perspective. I forget about the fact that my lawn has brown spots already starting to grow (it's only May). Instead, I begin thinking about living in a way that makes much of Christ Jesus. I wonder why He isn't a part of more of my conversations. If I believe what I say I believe, then I have the most important and glorious news to share. Yet, my suburban life urges me to pull my car in the garage and "fence" myself from all those around me.

If I think about death, I cannot help but think about how I treat my family and those closest to me. I examine the fact that I am the head of my family and I will either be a blessing or a curse to them. The question is not if I will affect my wife and children's lives, but rather, will it be for their joy or for their sorrow?

I don't know the answers to all the "why's" concerning death and its often unfortunate timing, but I do trust the sovereignty of God. When my fears rise up and I want to put my trust in my mere flesh and inferior understanding, I have to cast it aside and say "Whom have I in heaven but you? and on earth there is nothing that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:25-26

The Lion and the Cub

Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to lead worship outside of Crossbridge. Over the years, I’ve developed several relationships with friends that love to come and lead with me. I don’t know why they do sometimes…rarely can I pay them more than a fajita taco, but they still come.

This go ‘round, I was leading for 2 weeks out at Clear Creek Community Church in League City. These guys were so kind in our formative years to financially support us while we launched the church and since then have had both Chuck and I out to lead for them.

The past two weeks, I gathered a few of my friends, and we went out to lead their midweek services. On a whim, I thought I’d invite one of my mentors to join me. In the past 5 years, I’ve gained a friendship with a guy named Sam Perry who has really helped to shape me as a worship pastor.

I remember being a senior in high school and all my friends driving up to Waco every week to be in Sam’s worship service and to hear Louie Giglio speak. I would listen to the Choice CD’s thinking, “man, maybe I should go to Baylor and try out for this team. But I can’t sing like this dude Sam.” (I actually longed to be a part of Baylor Showtime, but thought, “hey, this Choice thing sounds cool too.”) I’m sure now there were probably no “auditions” for Choice. Oh the naivety of my 18 year old mind.

Sam went on to lead in the formative years of Passion and then became the worship pastor to Faithbridge out in the Spring area. It’s there that he and I began to meet every quarter or so to talk about being a worship pastor. He taught me about team management, saying hard things in love, putting the cookies on the lower shelf during worship services (making songs accessible to the masses), and how the most important part of my job description is to stay connected to Jesus.

Needless to say, Sam has been instrumental in my journey as a worship pastor, far more than what’s stated above and too much for a singular blog post.

So He agreed to come and lead one of the nights with me…he sat behind the keys and sang back up. We co-led one song and it was a blast. I must say it was like the cub leading while the lion sat back and watched. It was crazy to turn around throughout the service and see Sam looking at me for cues. Talk about an upside down scenario. I must say though, he tore it up on BGV’s and keys. There were so many times I found myself literally laughing and shaking my head in amazement.

Sam is now the worship pastor at Grand Parkway Baptist with Neil McClendon. The good thing is that he’s about a 5 minute drive from my church. Hoping to further our friendship by sheer proximity.

I must say, Wednesday night was one of my favorite worship services of all time. The caliber of leaders I was playing with was amazing (ya'll are awesome, thanks). The crowd really wanted to pursue God in worship, and the speaker was great! Those times are incredibly refreshing for me!

New Transform Website

An organization called Transform Ministries that I'm a part of with my friend Casey Cease has launched their new website! Check it out when you get a chance...click the image below

First Video IChat

Had my first Video IChat today. Pretty amazing. I think I may never leave my office now...but then I could only Pastor people that have Macs...that might not be such a bad idea. :) Funny thing was, I chatted with my friend Pablo as he was sitting right next to me...then we got his brother-in-law Ernie in on the action. It took some coercing because he was in class at U of H. But yes, in the middle of lecture, there was Ernie on IChat Video. We proceeded to try as hard as we could to get him to laugh out loud. It was classic.

The whole time, I couldn't stop thinking about the days I spent working at Office Depot in High School and my first year of college. I remember there was this revolutionary new phone that allowed you to see each other via camera. The video quality was beautifully choppy and fuzzy; the machine was as big as an Apple IIE. We kept it in a big plastic case up front to keep people from damaging the state of the art piece. It was priced well over a $1000, you had to sign up for a specific phone plan, and the other person had to have the same machine. Keep in mind, it was just a telephone with a screen and camera. No computer. Definitely not portable. I wonder what those people that bought it for over $1000 think now?

Once

Some good friends of mine and Mel's came over to the house last night because they desperately wanted us to see this movie. I'm glad they came...it was incredible. Thanks Pablo, Iris, and Ernie! I immediately went to Itunes and downloaded everything I could and text my buddy Mike to share the musical wealth! :) The music is passionate and the lyrics are great. Here's a little montage from the movie Once...hope you like it.

Merry Christmas!

Note: If you do decide to rent the movie, be prepared that the first 10 minutes are littered with curse words. It gets much more palatable after that. :)

My Lovely Inbox

Please save my inbox! I will continue to receive the following highlighted emails until you visit Mike Haskew's Blog.

Randomness...

My wife recently did this on her blog and she has lovingly tagged me to make an entry on mine. I’m sure these statements will revolutionize your thinking and will most likely cause you to visit my blog regularly for more of this good stuff!

10 Random Things About Me

1. If something falls on the floor in my house (i.e. kids toy), I am very prone to pick it up with my feet rather than waste all that energy on bending over to pick it up with my hands.
2. If no one was watching, I would drink a whole can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk in one sitting.
3. When I watch Seinfeld episodes, I don’t laugh. Really…I don’t know why. It’s just not funny to me.
4. When I watch Friends episodes for the 100th time, I laugh just as hard as I did the first time.
5. I sometimes still think that a check for a very large amount will just show up in my mailbox. I sort through it expectantly, but have yet to receive one.
6. When I was a kid, I used to watch MTV religiously waiting for Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video to come on. I would get really ticked off when they would instead play Weird Al’s “Eat It.”
7. Since 9/11, I check the news about 20 times a day. CNN is my homepage.
8. Since 9/11, I think twice before I go somewhere without my cell phone.
9. I think JC Penny’s and Target sell some of the coolest clothes for guys.
10. I think Chick-Fil-A has trumped every other fast food chain on milkshakes…and the word “handspun” just makes it taste better for some reason.

Love Bites

Oh yeah…the old Def Leppard tune. I was huge into Def Leppard when I was a kid…especially during "fast skate" at the roller rink! (Not to mention a few other hair bands that we’ll save for a later discussion)

However, the title jumped in my head when I was thinking through the past 5 years of our church. I think it would be a fair assumption to say that we as a church staff love our people! However, over the past few years, I think collectively, we have hurt more people than I can stand to count.

It seems like every time I turn around, we’ve hurt somebody. Sometimes it’s people we deeply care for and have been journeying with for quite some time. Do I think we ever intentionally set out to hurt people? No. I would wager to say an emphatic “NO.” I know these guys pretty well and I don’t think anyone around here sits in there office thinking about how they can really “stick it to” somebody…especially someone they love.

So why is it that so many have been hurt in the short existence of our little church? I would say mainly because our love is not perfect. We may have every intention of communicating love to our people, but we miss the mark quite a few times. I believe all my fellow staffers are great at owning their mistakes and trying to move on from that point. Again, not perfect, but I do see intentionality in that area.

Another reason I think so many have been hurt is because we are prone to misunderstand the definition of love. “Romantic Love” like we see on TV and in the movies pretty much distorts our reality. All we see is this myth that love is a warm embrace, a long kiss, and beautifully crafted words strung together.

Back to reality…those words and warm embrace don’t do anything for me when I’m getting ready to walk in front of a speeding Mack Truck. “Biblical Love” steps in and says…dude, there’s a large Mack Truck coming your way…you should consider your next step.

Finally, I think that one of our worst relational enemies is what I’ve heard some term as the “ladder of inference.” Somebody does or says something that doesn’t quite sit well with us…and then we begin this subtle ascent up the “ladder of inference.” We begin to “infer” what may not really be there. Step 1 – I can’t believe she said that… Step 2 – I would never say anything like that… Step 3 – She really doesn’t like me… Step 4 – Why should I even try at this relationship? Step 5 – I’m out of here…

I try not to make my blogs too long because it can be sort of daunting to see a lot of text…so I know there is much more we can say about this. However, I know this…in order to be in real community with each other, we have to realize that sometimes love does bite. (Sometimes with intentional truth and other times with unintentional neglect) Regardless, we have to extend grace if we want our relationships to have any sort of depth or longevity.

Evergreen Monty King!

So we've totally ripped off a video idea from the guys at amturian.com. They've created a fictional character named Larry Linguist that is basically "the guy that starts services." We contacted them about possibly making some personalized videos for Crossbridge, but we heard no response. So...we took matters into our own hands and created Hugh Durlam...the guy that starts Crossbridge Services. Here is our second installment.

Worship Fueled by Obedience

Have you ever felt like your daily worship is completely void of any transcendent connection to God? You walk day in and day out without any sort of divine revelation or spiritual nudge concerning small or large matters. Often times I find that these days leave me clouded and poised to make both common and critical decisions without any thought to what might be pleasing to God.

That leads me to the topic of discussion today…obedience. What role if any, does our obedience play in our acts of worship to God? If one merely sees worship as an emotional experience that happens when the music and lighting are just right on a Sunday morning, then our lack of Godward obedience could possibly never impede our worship. However, if we look at worship through the Romans 12 lens, then we would see that every act of obedience is in turn an act of worship to God. In addition, if we see our corporate worship gatherings as a place to outwardly express our worship to God from the overflow of an obedient life of worship, then how deep and how rich will that worship experience be!

Sometimes I’m able to use my Sunday morning worship experience as a sort of “obedience barometer” for my life. It is often very apparent to me when my lack of obedience is hindering my worship to God. There is a disconnect…short circuit…a real spiritual heaviness. It is almost as if I am not released to worship. Why? Because I am bound up by thoughts and problems that disturb my posture of worship. It says in Ecclesiastes 7:29, “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.” When there is a definitive dark cloud over my worship to God, most likely there is an obedience issue on my part that is of my “own devising.”

So where do we go from here? Search it out…come to grips with reality. I find that most often, I am well aware of where the disobedience lies. I just prefer to live in denial. Sometimes there is fear when I think about obeying...fear of the unknown or fear of losing control. Andy Stanley says this about our fear…

“You’re afraid. So what? Everybody’s afraid. Fear is the common ground of humanity. The question you must wrestle to the ground is, “Will I allow my fear to bind me to mediocrity?”

I recently saw an incredible picture of a person whose worship was fueled by obedience. Because I knew this person’s story, watching her worship on Sunday morning blew me away. Walking through the murky waters that lead to obedience, she finally relinquished control and obeyed what God was calling her to. That very weekend in our morning services, I saw her stand; arms open wide in complete worship to God. She was the only one standing…uncaring of her surroundings and unbridled in her worship. Why…because she was free! She stepped out and obeyed…and from the overflow of an obedient lifestyle came a worship experience like none other!