Tim Harlow

Leadership

This is my new favorite picture. 

Snapped by my friend and fellow pastor, Todd Clark, who is also a photographer.  He actually started a cool new non-profit that uses art to help feed the hungry Eat Art.

This is just another random baby I picked up in Ecuador.  I just can’t resist a cute baby.  And he NEEDED to learn to blow raspberries, so I taught him.  Hope his mom didn’t mind.:)

I just love the expression on his face.  Look at how he’s studying my face.  I don’t know if he thinks I’m weird - or is fascinated by me – or has never seen anyone so old - but he’s into it.

I have the gift of Leadership.  I get that.  People follow me.  I was illegally parked in an alley behind a restaurant this week and I was the only car there.  When we came back a line of cars had joined me.  Becca said, “Dad, I don’t know why it is, but people just follow you.”

People are hungry for leadership.  People are looking to you for leadership.  At the very least your children are.  And probably more people than you care to admit.  What are you giving them?  (Besides blowing raspberries and illegal parking. :)

2 Timothy 2:2 - And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

The older I get, the more I realize my responsibility to the next generation.  I wish everyone reading this would go pick up my friend, Wess Stafford’s new book “Just a Minute: In the Heart of a Child, One Moment ... Can Last Forever.”

It’s a great book in which he tells stories of the little moments that change our lives for the good or for the bad.  If you think for a second, you’ll think of one - one teacher, family member, priest, pastor, friend, who believed in you and your life was never the same.  Or, sadly, maybe you’re thinking the opposite.

Will you make me a promise and start looking – especially as you look to the next generations – for just a moment that could change someone’s life.  Look them in the eyes and tell them they can do it. 

It only takes a minute.

Tim

 

Engaged!

Two summers, two weddings, I must be doing something right.  My middle daughter, Lauren, got engaged last weekend to her long time beau, Tommy Carreras.

You may recognize Tommy; he leads worship here on occasion.  He just graduated from Bradley University and Lauren will graduate in May from Wheaton.  Life will take them to St. Louis in August where Tommy will do recruiting for Bradley and Lauren will get her Masters in Psych and Counseling – and they will be preparing for the next chapter of ministry to broken girls, probably in Latin America.

So the wedding is June 24.  Yes, that’s in 5 months, but we’re old pros at this now.

Tommy’s family all goes to Parkview.  His family has been friends for years.  Rachel and Tommy’s sister Tina (now the choral director at LWN) were great friends when Tommy and Lauren were just in Junior High.  As a matter of fact they used to scheme about fixing Tommy and Lauren up.

We couldn’t be more excited, we’ve had Tommy basically in the family for 5 years already. It’s great to make it official.

All to say, if you have kids or you are young, I need to help you understand something today.  The decisions you make, even as a teenager, could stick with you for the rest of your life.  Good and bad, they will stay with you forever.

There is a thought-provoking scene in Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Young Alice comes to a fork in the road and asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should take.

“‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

“‘I don’t much care where –’ said Alice.

“‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,’ said the Cat.”

But if you do care where you’re going, you should pay attention to which way you walk!  I know that it seems like a lot of pressure on a high school student to think about who they might want to marry.  But that’s exactly where Lauren and Tommy were 5 years ago.

Here is a picture I snapped of them 5 years ago laughing at our dumb dog playing in the snow.

I love this shot of them.  If I could be transported back in time and tell them that they were going to get married on June 24, 2012, they would have a very hard time trying to process it.  Denise and I always told the girls that they needed to only date people that they thought they could marry, but no one really thinks that it’s really going to happen in high school.  But they made good choices along the way including the choice to start their relationship with a foundation in God, and the choice to remain in and grow in their relationship with God.

And now, here they are.  Ready to walk away from the Lincoln-Way East school district and Parkview; walk down the aisle; and walk out into the world and start their own life and family and ministry together.

This just seems like a good place for a reminder from Solomon.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright; he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Proverbs 2:1-8

And it starts a lot younger than you think.   Make WISE decisions young people.  Someday you’ll be old like me and Solomon, and you’ll see.

I’m very proud of you Tommy and Lauren!  We couldn’t be happier.

Tim

 

Losing My Religion

We've got a great series kicking off this weekend called LOSING MY RELIGION and you won't want to miss it.  Losing religion doesn't mean that we get to do whatever we want. It just means that we're free from paying our dues to religion, making us free to chase a relationship with God.

This is a really great series to invite folks...just not to the 11:00 service on Sunday at Orland!! If it's at all possible, PLEASE move over to Saturday...let me tell you why! 

 

(Hey Lockport! With you launching your first Saturday service on February 11th, before you know it I'll be saying this to you folks, too!  SPLASH!!)

Tim

 

PARKVIEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH

• Cannonball Website
• Orland Campus: Website / Facebook
• Lockport Campus: Website / Facebook
  

All Jacked Up on the Work of God

I'm all jacked up on the work of God.

Forget about Mountain Dew, I'm jacked up on God.  Let me tell you why.  I'm in Ecuador.

Don't worry; I'll be back for the weekend to preach one of my favorite sermons called ‘The Three Chairs’ – don't miss it.  I’m flying from South America to be there, what’s your problem?

I’m in Ecuador with the President of Compassion International, Wess Stafford.

He invited me and some other pastors and some of our children to come down here and see the work.  I’ve done this before, but it is so great to have Becca with me and let her think about God’s future for her.  

The other special thing about this is that one of my Stinkling friends (my 3 accountability ministry partners), Greg Nettle, is now the President of the Stadia church planting organization.  Stadia and Compassion are linking together here in Ecuador for a ground breaking, Kingdom synergizing, project.  Compassion works to help the poor and marginalized around the world.  They serve 1.3 million kids around the world; many of you support kids through Compassion.  And they only work through local churches.  That’s why I love this organization so much.   But the problem is that they can’t serve places that have no church.   The great thing about this partnership is that international church planting can’t happen in many places without some way to help meet the needs of the poor in that area.  James says it does no good to try to meet the spiritual needs of a person without meeting their physical needs. (James 2:15-16)

So this partnership was born.  Compassion is strong in Ecuador so Stadia is joining them here.  We can now plant churches and sponsor kids at exactly the same time.  They have 12 churches and 3000 kids ready to go right now!

It is gospel mobilization at its best.  It’s the body of Christ working together.  I’ve said it many times, but I honestly believe that the reason the whole world hasn’t already been reached for Jesus is because Satan has kept us from working together!  If the 2 billion plus Christians in the world could work together like this, it’s hard to imagine what could happen. 

More later, I need a nap.

Tim

 

 

 

Christmas Rocked!

As demonstrated by little Jeremiah.

We had 13,751 people.  To put that in perspective we had 11,400 last year and 8,900 in 2009.

I believe it was a Christmas Cannonball.  As we just completed the commitment of $28 million over the next 2 years to greatly expand the ministry of Parkview at home and abroad.  In other words, we provided God with more jars like the widow did in the story from 2 Kings 4 where Elisha helped to do a multiplication miracle.

Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”

But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

As I preached from this text, I said as long as I was at the helm of Parkview, we would always provide more jars and the oil would never stop flowing.

So we provided more jars, and God keeps pouring, man does he keep pouring!

We had 2700 adults in the final Orland service.  That was 4 overflow rooms and standing room only.  No parking spots and a ton of people shuttle parking.  Lockport had standing room only at some of their services. I really hated knowing that some people came and left.  But we keep trying.  We’re going to break ground as soon as we can…

I’m in Missouri having Christmas with Denise’s family and taking a chill pill.

But I am so grateful for the Immanuel experience this Christmas.

New Year’s Weekend Times

Orland

Saturday, December 31 – 3 and 5 pm

Sunday, January 1 – 11 am

Lockport

Sunday, January 1 – 11 am

Tim

Merry Christmas!

If you are in the area, you can’t miss our Christmas Eve services this week.  I was at the run through last night and it’s going to be an amazing service.  GET THEIR EARLY.  We have a NEW Trans-Siberian Orchestra prelude.  You don’t want to miss it.

ORLAND PARK CAMPUS

Thursday, December 22             7 pm

Friday, December 23                 3 pm, 5 pm, and 7 pm

Saturday, December 24             11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm

LOCKPORT CAMPUS

Friday, December 23                 7 pm

Saturday, December 24             3 pm and 5 pm

And pay attention.  Our Saturday services are early!  And nothing on Sunday.

I’m going to let my daughter write my blog this week.  She just returned from 6 months in Bolivia and she wrote a beautiful piece as she was getting ready to leave.

“My parents got to travel to Israel last year where they saw where the birth really happened. But truth be told, they were disappointed at how commercialism and tourism had altered the sanctity of the small town. They left with a sense of historical importance, but did not so much get to see what it looked like, or smelled like, or the kinds of people who were there.

This Christmas I am more in love with Jesus than ever, because I’ve gotten to see Bethlehem and I love the people there.

A few months ago, when I went with some of the girls who were heading back to visit their different tiny pueblos, I was struck by the lack of cell phone service, of any farming technology, and electricity. The hills were void of buildings, full of patches of trees, patches of pasture, the people did not smell very good, as it was too cold to bathe outside - the only option. The children were attending to the herds and the flocks and would sometimes gather at the central market place, that usually contained a restaurant, one small type convenience store, and good space where people would bring fruits and vegetables to trade on Saturdays. Families were always in transit, someone leaving to go the nearest city for one reason or another, most used mules or donkeys for transportation. The dress is traditional, the women with their wool skirts and top hats, and men in farming clothes and straw hats.

I was a stranger, a city girl with jeans, who looked pretty strange in the midst of the trading, but I had a connection, the girl by my side.

As I sat with Tomasa in the middle of her pueblo, she would point out the people she knew - that’s’ my uncle - she whispered in my ear. She was too shy and anxious to see her mom to say anything to him. A few more familiar faces passed by and finally she whispered - that’s my sister!

The shepherd girl with a malnourished baby on her back.

That’s your sister?

Yes.

Are those your family’s sheep?

Yes, I used to take care of them before I started working.

Jesus, my Jesus, came to a town like Tomasa’s. And if he were born in Bolivia, she would have been invited to his birth.

Mary was just about 15 years old, they say, when Gabriel came to her. My Maria at the house is 15. She is sweet as can be, and she is just starting to accept the hard lot in life she’s been given. She loves her baby, we all do. And she’s in a foreign city, and she misses the country, and she is doing her best. We pray for her, because she is starting to open up to God.

I look at her and realize the miracle of Jesus’ birth. God came to be inside a little girl from a small town who had a pure heart, just like Maria. He let her feed him. She probably had her own ideas about remedies and maybe didn’t know how to take care of him as well as some other women in other parts of the world could have. But he didn’t care, she was worth it.

See, Jesus came in the most humble way, so the Bible says. And I love him so much for it. Because if he understood what hardship looked like, then he understands my most vulnerable friends in the world, and came to be vulnerable alongside them to show them that someone does care.

Because just when Estafany was going to give up on life, he reached out to her on the harsh streets of Cochabamba (thank you Mosoj Yan) and brought her in. He was willing to inhabit our home, which was harsh, sometimes cold and smelled bad, so Estafany can now have a home.

I love Estafany so much. She wanted me to video her giving me a goodbye message, telling me that she loves me and won’t forget me. And three months ago this gem was on the streets without enough to eat. But Jesus came to Bethlehem, so he could be the living God of the streets of Bolivia.

And yes, God loves me so much that he called me too. But what I love and is so exciting is that if I lived back then, Tomasa and Maria and Estafany, the lowly “shepherd girls” would have been the ones the angels spoke to.

My girls would have told me about Jesus.

This Christmas will be different for my girls in the house. Some of them know Jesus; some of them know peace this year. I think that some of them are finally getting that while others pass judgment on them and their babies, while others looked at them so ugly thinking of them as street rats, or “sinners”, Jesus didn’t. They, I pray, are starting to get that he just came right up next to them and said- she’s with me.

I am nervous, anxious, excited, and at peace with going home. I am heartbroken to leave Albergue. They are all so playful right now. We decorated the Christmas tree, danced around, and made Christmas cookies.  And I know Christmas will be a hard day for them, as they miss family, miss what was, or long for a place of their own.

But I am not leaving them alone with all their hopes and fears. I am putting them in Jesus’ hands. The one who lived their life. The one who came to bring us all hope.

Thank you Jesus.

All our hopes and fears are met in Thee tonight.”

Tim

 

 

 

The Kids Are Coming!

Lauren arrives home from 6 months in Bolivia tomorrow! Becca is home from college in L.A. tomorrow!  They are not landing close enough to each other to keep me from making two trips to O’Hare – but that’s okay. I CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE THEM HOME.

It’s going to be such a culture shock for Lauren (and weather shock). She is going through so many crazy emotions as she leaves these girls at Mosoj Yan. But she’s got us and a boyfriend and her life here. I can’t imagine what she will be going through.  And she’s bringing a Bolivian friend that she has lived with who is going to live in our area for awhile and try to find a job, so Parkview will have a new South American member this weekend. :)

And in spite of the fact that Becca was at Disneyland on Tuesday and it’s always sunny and warm in L.A. – she’s really looking forward to being home as well.

There is nothing like being home – even if it’s nasty, old, Chicago.

The empty nest is great, and I know we’ll have some adjustments to make being re-invaded by the children. But we are so excited. And I guess I’ve used these “God the Father” analogies to death, but I was just sitting here thinking that I wish everyone reading this blog today could know that God feels the same way – times a billion – about them.

If you’ve been gone from God for a while, he misses you.  Listen to my favorite story…

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’  So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Luke 15:17-24

Happy Homecoming!

Tim