Tim Harlow

Are You a Wobot?

Ok – Father’s Day was awesome. Here is the link if you didn’t see the surprise entrance. Father's Day For 5 years now, we’ve been coming up with a creative entrance for me on Father’s Day. This one was the best.  Debbie Burk and her team made this costume. They tore apart a kid’s toy truck and made me into a Transformer. You have to see it.
 
So I’m at church yesterday, and my little, friend Stevie, who has Down’s Syndrome, comes up to me and is looking at me very strangely. And he says, "Are you a wobot?"

  
He’d been watching the video of me as a Transformer over and over again and he was unsure if I was still a robot. I’ve not laughed that hard in a long time.
 
I said, “No, Stevie – it’s really me.” And he said, “Tim – it’s you, Tim!”
 
You may ask why we do such goofy things on Father’s Day. Here is the answer from one of our staff:
 
The best part of the Father’s Day service for me was when I was sitting in the Café and overheard this obvious biker dude on his phone to who I think was probably his wife.  He says, “Well…I just decided to come inside for the 4:00 mass...pause…I don’t even know how to describe it…I’ll have to tell you in person…pause…it was really cool!”
 
Thanks to all of the team that made it happen. And be here to find out more about being transformed.
 
And thanks for letting me have Mosaic here. Here is a link for their radio performance on Shine (thanks Johnny)

And here is the link to iTunes if you’d like to buy their latest. Mosaic - As Long As It Is Day.

  
Pray for the Zirgaitis family. We did the funeral today for John. He was a great guy, great dad, great husband, loyal friend and huge supporter of his Lord and his church. It’s a tragedy today, leaving behind a wife and three beautiful daughters. And tragic in so many ways. But God will comfort us in our trouble. He promised. And he will.
 
John 11:25-26 Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I Thessalonians 4:13-14 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

 

We Believe, I Believe, Liz and the girls Believe.  I hope you do.
 
Tim

I'm an Idiot

I’ve really been stressing this week about this sermon. And really the whole day. If you don’t know, Father’s Day is one of our big days at Parkview. We have the Car and Bike show Saturday, and I always do a big entrance, and we really pull out all the stops. And the message just wasn’t there.
 
I was away at an excellent retreat this week with Bob Russell (who will be preaching for us in a month) and it was really good for Denise and I to be with these other pastors and wives. But it meant no time for prep or normal work. So everything else suffers – one way or another.
 
Then I was listening to Shine.fm this morning and Johnny said, “Do you know how you sometimes go for too long without being into the Word on your own?” And I said, "Yes, I know that – I wasn’t in the Word for me this week.  I was doing other soul stuff, but not in the Word for me."
 
So instead of finishing up the sermon on my own and scrambling around to meet deadlines, I got into the Word for me. And I actually started reading, but it didn’t do anything for me. Until it hit me that I’d passed right over the thing God wanted to tell me today.
 
Luke 12:11-12 When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.
 
How long have I been doing this? Full time ministry for 27 years now. I’m still an idiot.
 
As I talk about being Transformed this weekend – one of the major points is that we don’t Transform ourselves – God does it.
 
We are being transformed into his likeness …which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.  2 Corinthians 3:1

That was my point, but somehow I thought I was going to transform you with my sermon – duh. Or maybe that I was going to transform my own sermon. But the beauty of living in grace is that we have a mighty Father in heaven who transforms. Who tells us what to say (or write), if we will listen.
 
Right after the “don’t worry about what to say” passage, Jesus tells us not to worry about anything, because our Heavenly Father takes care of the birds and the flowers and he’s probably big enough to take care of us too.
 
I’m an idiot.
 
Be here this weekend. We also have Mosaic in to lead worship; my daughter is in the group. They will be on Shine.fm (89.7) sometime tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. And they have a concert for us on Saturday night at 7:30 pm. Their new worship album is awesome.
 
Father’s Day will be incredible – so don’t miss it.  God said he would be there!

Tim

Released 2

How about those Hawks? Wow. 49 years is a long time.  Have faith Cub Fans!
 
As promised last week, here is a link to Lauren’s blog for Guatemala this summer.
And here is Tommy Carrerras’ blog.

I was also asked to add Elise Heiting to the list of our summer kids who are released. She is doing work in the Appalachian mountains with the under resourced people there.
 
And here is a note from our team in Jamaica. 
 
I’m hearing that the Mexico trip is going well too.
 
So after last week’s article, I heard from someone else who has been released. But they have done it in a very different way. They adopted. This person reminded me that some people are released into “the whole world” and some people bring the whole world home. I definitely want to ask you to add our adoptive parents to the summer prayer list. Lauren is going to be inconvenienced for 8 weeks and then come home to normality (if that was ever true). When you adopt – you are making a permanent life changing decision. And it’s not easy. There are a lot of hurdles. Especially when it’s a special needs adoption, like many of our adopted kids are.  
 
The truth is that if 7% of the world’s Christians would adopt there would be no orphans left. As is, there are 330,000 kids in Russia alone, waiting.  And 500,000 in China.  
 
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

Doesn’t have to be international either.
 
Of the 500,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, 130,000 are available for adoption. And HELLO – the other 370, 000 need help too.
 
My friend reminded me that we all have a responsibility to do something.  For some it’s a life change – forever.  Let’s pray for them.
 
Read some articles on adoption.

Don’t miss the next two weekends.  Father’s Day is coming together!  And this week is another one I’m really passionate about.  
 
Tim

Parkview-RELEASED

The goal of a disciple of Jesus is to “go into the world” in one way or another. We call that “releasing” at Parkview. Our Mission statement is to REACH, RAISE, AND RELEASE.  (It’s kind of like “catch and release” in fishing only better). Jesus told us to:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 

So we call it Reaching the world, and Raising them (making disciples), and then Releasing them to go reach the world and start over again.

As summer is upon us we have a lot of reaching going on.  For instance, on Saturday morning we will have Parkview groups leaving from both O’Hare and Midway airports - one group to work at a deaf camp in Jamaica and another to do work in Vida Nueva, Mexico.  Both groups include families going together – which I love – and one includes my neighbors and small group host.

We also have a group of Senior High kids going to Manhattan, New York to do light construction and 60 of our Junior High kids heading to Tennessee to do a variety of light construction with Know Sweat.

We have teens going to the Czech Republic, and as a matter of fact there is a Czech girl at my house as we speak who came to visit her friends from Parkview whom she met over the last couple of years.  She brought good chocolate. J

And there’s a group of five going to Taiwan to lead a Sports and English Camp.

Plus we have individuals like Heather Crumb who is off to West Sussex, England to a Disciple Training School.

I will also be at the airport on Saturday morning to drop off my daughter, Lauren and her boyfriend, Tommy (who leads worship here sometimes).  Tommy is going off to Virginia Beach to do evangelism stuff with Campus Crusade.  And Lauren is off to Guatemala for the summer to work in an orphanage with three other students from Wheaton. 

I guess every once in a while we should step back and say, “Hey – this Parkview thing is working!”  There are more and more people stepping out and being released into the world from this ministry here at 11100 Orland Parkway.  It’s a small percentage that actually cross borders into other lands, but a large percentage who are released into the areas all around us. You – namely – if you are a part of Parkview.  I RELEASE THEE – go find some way to do ministry, make a disciple, do something.  It’s not brain surgery.

Anyway – I also want to ask for your prayers. There was a hurricane in Guatemala and there are sinkholes 300 feet deep. There is instability in Mexico and Jamaica.  We need to lift each of these groups or individuals up in prayer as they go from here. Please pray for them this summer.

And if I missed someone on this list, who is going out, let me know.  I will add them next week and we’ll keep the prayers going.  I know Lauren is going to try to blog, so I’ll attach any of those reports too.

And we will have a link for reports on all of it as the summer progresses.

It’s going to be awesome to see what God has in store!

Be praying for them – and don’t miss the next two weeks at church.  They are all issues of great importance to me and the Kingdom.  And then it’s Father Day and all the craziness – plus Mosaic will be here to lead worship.  Summer rocks.

Tim

P.S.- If you’d like to learn about upcoming trips, attend the Mission Trip Information Meeting on Saturday, June 12 from 4 to 5 pm in the Lower Level 1 meeting room.  You’ll learn about trips to Kenya, Costa Rica, and Brazil.