Tim Harlow

The End is Near...ish

I've been looking for the answers.

I always look for answers; it's part of my personality. I like questions, but I really like answers. If something didn't work, I want to know why. If it did work, I really want to know the answer so I can try to replicate it. I also need to know the ramifications of the answer for the next time. It's what leaders do.

The masses do not need the answers; they just need to know that they can follow someone who does have the answers.

For some reason, I need to know; I need to lead.

So for the past week, I’ve been asking myself why unprecedented numbers of people showed up for our Christmas Eve services this year. 18,000 people – 32% more than last year (which was a previous record amount) – came to one of 12 services and both campuses had standing room only for most of them.

We had added two services in our 2000 seat auditorium and still didn’t have enough room. Why?

Answer #1 – It was a phenomenal service. My wife and her worship team put together an amazing experience and made it so easy to connect with the story of Christmas in a fun, creative, and worshipful way. Our entire staff worked very hard and our amazing volunteers came through so that we could park the cars and teach the children and transfer candles (and clean up the fake snow).

It is by far my favorite Eve service ever – it’s online at www.parkviewchurch.com  go to media and down to Christmas 2012

Here is a panorama of the crowd (thanks Michael Sadowski)

Answer #2 – (and the important one) People are searching for answers. Ironically I think the real answer is that people are looking for answers. We are a people faced with fiscal cliffs, school shootings, super storms, and that doesn’t even begin to address the issues that are going on in our own lives. People need answers.

Add to that the silly Mayan prophecy deal about the end of the world. I mean, no-one really took it seriously – but it was in the back of our minds.

I love this pic from December 22, 2012

Maybe the “nearishness” of the end world draws us together more than we realize.

If you saw “Les Miserable” they did a remarkable job of showing the hopelessness of the downtrodden lower classes in France during that time period. I believe there is something in the hopelessness of our lives that inspires us to look for hope-answers somewhere new. For them it was revolution, for some it is an election, sadly for many it is in a bottle or a pill. But at the end of the day (or the end of a year, as it were), none of those man-made answers suffice for long. We still need REAL answers.

I believe the answer to 18,000 people for Christmas Eve lies in the search for real answers. Which made me so happy that I have the wonderful occupation that I have; one in which I get to share The Answer.

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

I for one am heading into a new year – an unlucky number year no less – with incredible optimism and joy and hope and peace. If we fall off the cliff, or more sick people hurt children, or the world seems hopeless for whatever reason – I HAVE THE ANSWER.

"May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you”  Ps 32

This is actually the reason we gather as a Christian community. If the end of the world is near…ish – we should have record crowds.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Heb 10:25

Nearishness means we should hang out! That's the answer.

Tim

PS – So if you go to Parkview – please come on Saturday night. If we had 5000 extra people for Christmas Eve, I’m guessing some of them will come back. And they always come on Sunday! Please come on Saturday! The End is Near...ish.

Unto Us, and the People of Newtown, Connecticut, a Savior is Born

It’s been hard to fathom yet another senseless tragedy. This one is harder, because they were children, in a place they should feel secure. How could anyone shoot a 6 year old? It’s tragic, and we are praying for their families as well as the family of the mentally, unstable boy that did this.

That’s on the one hand. On the other hand, I believe that Jesus loves children and these kids are with Jesus.

This is the picture of the stained glass we bought from an old church in Kansas City that is currently being framed for our foyer.

It represents Jesus at his best. And it’s my picture of Jesus with the kids from Newtown.

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. "Let the little chil­dren come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Mark 10:14-13

And this one is even more telling.

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven." Matthew 18:10

Jesus loves the little children and God gives them personal angels? I don’t claim to understand it, but there is obviously something special about children.

The prophet Zechariah says that the coming Kingdom will have “city streets filled with boys and girls playing there.” Zechariah 8:5

I know that God doesn’t like what happened. The Bible says, "God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." Lamentations 3:33

So where does this leave us?  God doesn’t bring grief and he does love children, so WHAT’S THE DEAL?

I’ll tell you the deal. We need a Savior. Our world is full of mental illness, violence, hurricanes and death. We need to get out of here. All of creation knows this.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22

And we’re hoping,

That the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:21

Until then, we are incomplete. So while it’s true that this tragedy – or any of the others that you may know of – is harder at Christmas time, this may be the best time as we realize that God has sent us “glorious freedom” in the form of a baby in a manger.

About whom the angels said, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”  Luke 2:11 This is why Christmas is so important.  And this may sound like I’m trying to take advantage of a tragedy – and I guess I am – but we need to use this heightened awareness of our mortality as an opportunity to help people realize that there is hope. I don’t feel like an opportunist if I’m trying to give people something they need - Heaven. That’s my calling from God.

Will you please help spread the news that there is “good news of great joy to all people?”

Many people are going to be looking for a place to worship Jesus this Christmas.  Maybe many more than usual, because our world is messed up.

Add to that the fact that December 21 is the actual day the crazy people have predicted (according to their take on the Mayan calendar) that the world will end. (I can guarantee that it won’t, Jesus said that he will come like a thief in the night – they don’t call ahead except on Home Alone). But as the week draws on, it will add to the awareness of mortality.

At the very least – invite someone to a Christmas Eve service.  We have 12 services Orland Park Campus or Lockport Campus and here is an Evite Orland Evite or Lockport Evite.

But wherever you are, let’s get to work – the time IS short.  And we have the answer!

Tim

Attached is a prayer from Max Lucado:

Dear Jesus,

It’s a good thing you were born at night. This world sure seems dark. I have a good eye for silver linings. But they seem dimmer lately.

These killings, Lord.  These children, Lord.  Innocence violated.  Raw evil demonstrated.

The whole world seems on edge. Trigger-happy. Ticked off. We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas.  But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod’s jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty.  Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,

Your Children

© 2012 Max Lucado

The Rise of the "Nones"

The front page of USA Today said, “Protestants lose majority status in the U.S” (October 9, 2012). It just happened to catch my eye as I walked past a newsstand. I thought to myself, “Okay, but what could have taken its place? Catholicism is dying - is this about Mormonism?”

The article explained that Protestant numbers are down from 53% in 2007 to 48% today.  But these Protestants didn’t switch to a new religious brand. They just let go of any faith affiliation or label.  According to the Pew Forum, one in five Americans now claims no religious identity. None. That means there are now more “nones” in the U.S. than any other protestant denomination.

Warren Bird from Leadership Network concludes that: “More than 1 out of every 3 adults (33%) in America is unchurched. This means they haven’t attended a religious service of any type during the past year. This represents some 125 million Americans. That number alone would be the 10th largest country in the world!”  (September 9, 2012, leadnet.org)

Does that mean the U.S. is now a mission field?  I think the more appropriate question is WHEN WAS IT NOT?

In Acts 1, Jesus charged the first disciples with the responsibility of first reaching out to people in their own Jerusalem and then moving outward. This doesn’t mean that the people in Indonesia are less important than the people in Indiana.  It just means that the church is missing its easiest target. It’s like the shoemaker’s children having no shoes!

These people live next door.  We don’t have to get on a plane. In most cases, we don’t even have to learn a new language.

Though, sometimes for effective ministry you may have to learn a new language since 13% of people who are living in the U.S. are foreign-born.  Maybe you heard about the couple from (fill in the blank with the state you want to make fun of) who had nine children and went to the doctor to get “fixed?”  The doc asked, “Why now?” and they explained that they had read somewhere that one in ten children born in the U.S. today is Mexican. They didn’t want to take the chance of having another baby, because they didn’t speak Spanish.

Make no mistake about it. Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world are right here in Jerusalem, too!  I got a nice note from a girl from Denmark who is a foreign exchange student here and staying with a Parkview family.

So if 13% of Americans are foreign born, and 33% of them are unchurched, and the fastest growing religious group is those who believe in nothing, I feel it’s safe to say that we live in a mission field.  For some reason, we’ve bought into a church culture of “sending” missionaries and waiting for them to report back to us at “home base.”  If we’re not extremely careful, we run the very real risk of simply paying for mission instead of engaging in mission.  Clearly, we can’t afford to do that anymore.  We’re losing ground.

In the old days, many churches had signs as you left the property that said, “You are now entering the Mission field.”  Maybe in the “new days” we need to bring that back.  It’s really true. 

I’m not one of those guys who likes to spend a lot of time decrying the post-Christian era in which we live.  I realize that our nation was founded on Biblical principles and that our Founding Fathers were Christians.  I’m proud of that.  But honestly, I think the “church” has always been more productive as an outsider than an insider. 

Personally, I like living in a place where I’m needed.  I like being a missionary 24/7.  But I have to always think like one.

Salt does no good in the shaker.

Luke 10:2 tells us that: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

It’s great to ask the Lord to send workers. We should keep doing that. But we should also remember that each one of us is to be counted among those workers. So we shouldn’t only ask the Lord to “send.” We should also ask Him to help us “be.” We should be looking around every day and reaching out to the “nones” in our own backyards.

Because if the fields were plentiful then, what are they now?

Tim

It's the REAL Reason We Love Christmas

I think we can all relate to the fact that there is something special about Christmastime. There are plenty of songs about Christmas that mention the fact that we’re all “better people” at Christmas, or that it’s the time of year when people act like they ought to act the rest of the year.

I know that the holidays magnify the pain, and grief, and loneliness too. But the fact is there is something special in the air at Christmastime.

I found out what it is; and it’s not what you think.  It’s not about the “season” or the cookies or the songs or the decorations.  And unless you’re five, it’s not about the presents.

I was reading in Nehemiah about God’s children who had just worked really hard to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. It had come at great cost with a lot of opposition and sacrifice.

And they got to the end of it all and had a party. But they had a party by offering more sacrifices. 

They gave.

And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away. Nehemiah 12:43

There is no joy, like the joy of giving. 

And that’s why we love Christmas. It feels good to give. Elf was wrong – the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to give.

The Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Acts 20:35

I guess he ought to know. I bet Jesus felt like Christmas all the time.

Tim