Tim Harlow

Remain in Me and Bear Fruit

What a great time we had with Dr. Kevin Leman.

Maybe by now, you can believe that you can trust me when I tell you I’m bringing someone GOOD in to speak. We will have cds available of all the seminars if you missed them. He sold out of those and of many of the books he brought. Then he went on Moody Radio and talked up Parkview in a VERY positive way. The link isn’t up yet, but we will pass it on to you when we get it. What a great guy.

We also commissioned Brian Hunt to be the Campus Pastor for our new Lockport location which will start in the fall. I just want to say how proud I am to have him on our team and to have him as the lead of this new campus. And I’m proud of those of you who have signed up to be pioneers for us as we try another campus for the first time. Some day you will be able to say you were a part of the first one! Lockport Blog

My college roommate and best man from my wedding - Greg - was in last night and I was showing him around. He hadn’t been here in 5 years and he was blown away. “How did you get the land?” “Someone GAVE you a building for a campus?” “You raised HOW MUCH for the capital campaign?” I was so proud to show you and God off. Dr. Leman was the same way. He went back with a bunch of ideas for his church in Tucson.

This scripture is a theme for me and just happened to be where I was reading this week.

5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15

That is my prayer for me and each one of you. REMAIN. We are bearing fruit and showing the Father’s glory, because we are attached. Let’s keep it that way!

Don’t forget the National Day of Prayer on Thursday night at 7 in the Sky Room. It’s even in the paper. Our leader, Paula, was interviewed in this article about it. Southtown Star

Feeling Fruity

Tim

Let's Get Out of Here

I have a friend who is suffering from MS. He's waiting to find out if he will get into the chemo treatment or the regular treatment.
Just in case, his wife asked some of his friends to write something to him to encourage him if he is stuck in the doctors office for 8 hours a day for 5 days in a row.

This is what I wrote:

The Global Work of God

I’m at a conference for a few days called “Exponential” - which is mostly about church planting. At the same time I got the e-mail below from one of our girls, Mindy Jackson, who is working with the poor in Kenya. And I talked to my own daughter, Rachel, in England today.

The work of God really is “exponential.” Our friends from the northeast, who are helping us plant in Manhattan, NY, are here and we’re working on what Parkview will do in church planting there as we partner with another church to be exponential. Our lead Pastor from Kansas City is here and so grateful for what Parkview has done to help them get off the ground. He says it’s going fantastic. Our local church planting organization is here and the partner churches that we are going to work through to plant in the Loop.

It is amazing. One of the guys today said that China has seen Christianity go from 2 million believers to 120 million believers in just a few short years. Because Jesus said, “When I am lifted up – I will draw all men to me.” John 12:32

And our design builders are here who are helping us with our own project.

It does seem exponential. It feels to me like two things are happening.

1. Christians are getting less stupid. The people that are here are talking a lot about cultural relevance. These are church planters who are trying to figure out how to make things work in a culture that is no longer “judeo\christian.” We can gripe about it all we want, but we can’t keep doing church like Ozzie and Harriet are still living next door. These people get this. Rachel gets this in England as they go to pubs to reach the college students. In China – they don’t even have church buildings – it’s just a movement of cultural relevance.

Funny – kind of like Jesus. Did I ever tell you how much I loved the way Jesus did ministry?

The Full Extent of His Love

Would you like to know how Jesus demonstrated the “full extent of his love?”

It might surprise you to find that this phrase is NOT used in the bible to describe his going to the cross to die for us.

It was used before he died. I’m not saying that the cross wasn’t the ultimate love gift. I just found it interesting to see this phrase where I did, in John 13:2…

Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

And then he washed their feet.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him

The full extent of his love – was that he washed their feet.

“What does a disciple look like?”

The staff spent the beginning of this week together in retreat – which is a funny word for it now that I think about it. I guess we were “retreating” from the office and the work that goes on around there – 90 miles an hour – so that we could talk about how to keep the church moving forward. We have to step away from time to time to see the big picture. It’s just like your spiritual life and why you need to retreat every day away from the world and into the Word. (We have the new TRAIN schedule up by the way – APRIL, 2008 TRAIN)

Anyway, a big part of this retreat for us was to talk about what we are missing – how can we be better. Our purpose as a church is to Reach, Raise, and Release. We are reaching well. We had over 5000 this past weekend for only the second time in a regular service (please try shuttle parking for the next month until we get the new lot in). So we are trying to concentrate on the Raising and the Releasing. Which brought us full circle to the beginning question - “What does a disciple (apprentice) of Jesus look like?”

We spent some time talking about that and a lot of time talking about what a disciple SHOUDLN’T look like. Jesus reserved his sharpest criticism – maybe his only criticism – for those “religious” people who thought they knew what it looked like to be a follower of God. And he called the Pharisees “white washed tombs” - looking good on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones. As we talked, I remembered a passage in Titus that turned out to be more appropriate than I even remembered. Here is the abbreviated passage:

Titus 2
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. 3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live...4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,... so that no one will malign the word of God. 6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good... 9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything... so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

It was the last part that I was thinking about. Everything we do and everything we “raise’ our people to be should be helping them to point other people to an ATTRACTIVE Savior. I’m not saying that Jesus didn’t have some hard messages and that the cross is easy! It will be foolishness to some – Paul tells us that. But look further down the text in the next chapter...

3At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. ... 8This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. 9But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

It seems to me that a disciple is someone who is learning how to live like Jesus, right? Duh! But it’s kindness, self control, being saved by God’s grace. Those are the qualities. AND a disciple is not someone who likes to waste his time on things that are unprofitable and useless – which in this case was actually a matter of religious details that they were trying to figure out.

That’s the interesting part. How much of my time gets sucked up by the unprofitable and useless? How well am I showing people an attractive Savior?

That is a disciple.

Tim

His Word is Flawless...

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. Not because it’s easy to preach about relationships, but because I have some great advice from the Word of God. I’m going to be talking about Ephesians 5 which is a passage most of us would like to try to avoid when it comes to talking about relationships. Because it talks about submission. Paul says we are supposed to submit to one another in love.

I think we’d rather look at the passages that just talk about what the OTHER person ought to do.

But this is very important. We are told that we are different and we should react differently. Men are commanded to Love and Women are commanded to Respect. So very different and so very important.

But that’s not the point of my blog. My point is that the Bible is always right. There are certainly things that we need to interpret, and there are differing ways that we can interpret. But if we can get to the essence of what God’s word is telling us, it’s always right. When it tells us that women need love and men need respect – we should understand that. Whether we like it or not.

Psychologists have been studying human behavior for many years now, and they are finding that the Bible is true. Men need respect and women need love. Gone are ideals from the 70’s that tried to tell us that men and women are the same with different plumbing. No one believes that any more. Because it isn’t true. It never was. If we would have stuck with the Word of God, we’d have known that already.

Psalm 18:30 says "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him."

I hope you can be here this weekend.

Praying for God to work in your relationships,

Tim

• By the way, we’re up to 11 million in our Great Investment pledges!!!

• Ladies – don’t miss the Girl's Night Out TFI FUNNY! coming up this Friday!

• And we DO have confirmed a second Steven Curtis Chapman concert on Thursday night, May 15th! Check out the details here!

• And if you’ve been missing our TRAIN Bible study tool, we have the new section available for you! APRIL, 2008 TRAIN
  

We are Blessed!

In case you weren’t here this weekend, we got to announce our totals for our Great Investment Campaign. As of right now – with more still coming in – we are at $10,500,000! We have had above average gifts and above average participation from our faithful people. Just as exciting is the $1,200,000 we have already received in our “First Fruits” offering. So we are on our way with our project. We will be paving 300 more parking spaces as soon as they can start laying asphalt. We will be moving on the land, working on the current building, and making plans for the new building as soon as we know how the schedule is going to work.

How can I say how thankful I am for your faithfulness? In the middle of a troubled economy – when other churches are laying off staff and struggling to stay afloat – Parkview is in as good a shape as we’ve ever been. You guys are faithful, that’s all I can say. Thank you for your faithfulness! Thank you for letting me be your pastor.

There is so much going on around here. We have Dr. Kevin Leman coming in a couple of weeks so get signed up for his parenting or marriage seminars. Register Now He is one of the best in the country.

Then we have Steven Curtis Chapman coming in concert. It sold out a half hour after the ends of our services this weekend. There is a strong possibility we will be adding another show on Thursday. We will keep you updated.

Ps 144:15 Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.

We are blessed!

Tim

My Prayer for You...

Today I am sitting in the sunshine thinking about what a blessed guy I am. To have sunshine, for one – YEAH! But for the many blessings my God has given me.

I tell you that there is nothing like going to see how the “other half” lives in a third world country to help you understand your blessings. I was just so ready to get home to some kind of beef! They have lousy cows in Costa Rica. I am spoiled, I know, but I like my air-conditioning, and my food, and the comforts of my country.

But I do recognize how blessed I am when I see how some people have to live. When I meet little babies like Jorge who had deformed ears and won’t ever have any chance at a decent life in Costa Rica – except for the love of his amazing mother who brought him to us.

My kids have everything compared to this guy. And so do I.

I’m blessed.

I’m preaching about relationships this weekend, which is so cool because I have great relationships. The most amazing wife in the world. Great kids. Great friends. An amazing church.

My life is far from perfect. It’s been a pretty rough week getting back honestly. But it’s going to be up to me to dwell on the things that are good or the things that aren’t. And after you’ve seen what other people’s “bad” is – it makes you really appreciate things differently.

Psalm 143:8 was in my quiet time this week…

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

This is my prayer for you.

Tim

I'm Back!

The missions trip was fantastic.

It was so good to see what has happened down there in Costa Rica even in the two years since I’ve been down there last. It’s amazing what our small amount of help can do in a place like that.

The team was fantastic and I would have to say that one of my favorite things about the trip was getting to know the Parkview people and finding out what God is doing in their lives. It is a living faith I saw in our team!

Stats:
Medical - 911 patients (285 children, 41 seniors)
Pharmacy – 1500 prescriptions
Eyeglasses - 1500
Dental supplies 1250

Oldest - 106 years
Youngest - 6 days
Youngest mother - 12 years

That is the way things are in the slums of Costa Rica.

I heard great things about Michael Franzese’s testimony and the weekend just blew the doors off the place. We had a record 5130 people which is really amazing considering it was the week after Easter and the end of spring break which is usually down.

I can tell you that there is nothing like being out of the country and hearing that the weekend services went so well. I almost stayed there! But I do start a new series this weekend ~ you won’t want to miss any weekends during this series!

And, I’m announcing our Great Investment campaign totals and First Fruits totals this weekend.

If you haven’t got in your commitment please drop your card by the office or e-mail it to Wayne. wayne@parkviewchurch.com

Will write more later – got to catch up.

Tim