Tim Harlow

Preachers' Daughters

I'm not usually a "downer" guy on here, but this is ridiculous. Lifetime's newest series, "Preachers' Daughters," is a reality show about Christian girls gone bad. The show airs on Tuesday evenings at 10pm ET/PT (9pm CT). I don’t know what kinds of “preachers” are allowing these idiots to do a reality TV show in their home, but come on!!  The premise is just what you’d guess. Reality television about wild daughters of Pastors, who have denied their faith or at least decided to live on the other side of their faith.

"This reality show has three preachers' daughters in different situations that include teen pregnancy, contemplated abortion, planning a paternity test to discover who the father is, past drug and alcohol use, dreams of becoming a porn star, lying, disrespect for parents, and discussion of sexual acts with sisters and friends."

So what we end up with is another bad impression of pastors' families, and in general a bad impression of Christians period. We didn’t need any help with that. Of course a huge percentage of preachers' kids turn out well, but that makes for boring TV.

I'm sure these pastors and their wives genuinely care about their daughters, but these girls are being exploited in this reality show and their mistakes made public just for money. God bless their heart for their kids and their desire to show love and forgiveness, but it's not going to work.

It just makes me mad, because I have daughters. And I tried my best to protect them from the fishbowl life we live. Good or bad every little girl and boy deserve a chance to grow up and make mistakes without the whole world looking on.

Add to this, the new movie called "Spring Break" staring former Disney stars being "naughty" which is targeted at pre-teens.

As Los Angeles-based therapist Nancy Irwin noted, there's nothing acceptable about "hyping a soft-core porn movie to minors."

Agreed.

There is nothing acceptable about exploited Preachers' Daughters.

BTW - did anyone out there notice that Duck Dynasty is killing it in the ratings? One of the most popular shows on TV. With some redneck Christians who make duck calls. I love that show. So do a lot of other people. And no young girls are harmed in the making of this program!

Hey, I'm no prude here. But are there not enough broken hearts, STDs, and unwanted pregnancies in the world already?

Jeremiah said,

Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush." (Jeremiah 6:15 NIV)

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Tim

You Can Call Me Francis

White smoke! There is a new Pope. I've never been Catholic, but it's still a big deal in world religious events – a huge deal. Pope Francis. Forgive me, but the first thing that comes to my mind is the line from the crazy character played by Bill Murray in Stripes when he says, “You call me Francis - I kill you.”

But I think we need to turn that one around today. Jorge Mario Bergoglio is now known as Pope Francis, and I think it’s a great idea.  He is the first Jesuit named to the office of Pope.

The Jesuits are known for their humility and compassion and sense of community. It’s reported that as a Cardinal, Francis would take the subway instead of private cars.  He often cares for the poor in Argentina.

And by the way – he’s from Argentina! He is the first Latin American, actually the first non-European Pope of the modern era. This is politically important for the church, because Catholicism is dying in Europe and even North America, but gaining in Latin America. This election represents the people.

Latin American Catholicism has its own issues. I’ve seen the weird mixture of Catholicism mixed with strange cultic animism in Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador. There are some crazy concoctions of Catholicism in some of these places.

However, for me, the best part about Pope Francis is the fact that he hasn’t been living in some ivory palace. He’s not oblivious to the plight of the poor and the oppressed.

We can only hope his mantra is “Don't cry for me Argentina. The truth is I never left you.” (Yes, I just quoted from a musical-completely out of context).  We can only hope that Pope Francis takes a sense of what the real world is like into the Vatican.

(Now the song is in your head – LOL.)

Pope Francis is named for Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis was born into wealth, but had a vision that brought him back to work with the poor, which he did for the rest of his life.

The new Pope seems to embrace this. Already his first act as Pope was to ask the huge crowd to pray with and for him, instead of blessing them with his awesome new official abilities. Humility is what’s going to be needed. The Catholic Church needs a strong, humble leader.  They’ve got issues…

So what I would ask you to do, my blog readers, is to pray for this new leader. It doesn’t matter if you even have personal issues with the church; this new era in the Vatican is going to be important to the world.

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:1-4

Tim

Retraction - My bad - it was not Bill Murray, it was the character - Psycho. "My name is Francis, nobody calls me that. You guys call me Psycho. Any of you call me Francis, I'll kill you."

Me and My Starfish

Almost six years ago I took my first trip to Africa. I went with three pastor friends and the President of CMF International the organization we now work with.

As 94 of my friends from Parkview figured out last week, your first trip to third-world slums is one that takes a great toll on you. It’s impossible to ever imagine people living like this. We understand homelessness to a certain degree – but this is 2-5000 people per acre. There are no bathrooms; no light at night; no protection; most of them have AIDS, and the smell…

There is no way to describe the smell. Pictures just don’t work.

I was shell-shocked and we came back and Parkview's people sponsored over 600 kids a few months later. That helped jump start the Missions of Hope ministry which at that time had 300 kids in schools and now has 10,000 in 16 schools. Over a thousand are now sponsored by Parkview people.

But I knew that this was not just a corporate issue, it had to be a Tim issue as well. My heart was broken, and it needed to stay that way.

During that trip, I met this family.

This is the picture I took of Phanice and her family. She had full blown AIDS and dad was long gone.  They all live in this one room you see in front of you. The older smiling boy is Collins. He was 14 at the time. He became my starfish.

“A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!””

Collins had graduated from 8^th grade and I could tell he was a very sharp, young man. But he wouldn’t go to high school unless someone did something. Something was $80 a month; $1000 a year to save a starfish.

Fast forward to 2009. My whole family was over with Missions of Hope and we got to see Collins. 

He was in high school and doing well, but his mom and four younger siblings still lived in the slums. So I asked if there was anything we could do. They told me that for around $10,000 we could probably buy a piece of land and build her a home by one of their schools out of town. 

Our friends were sponsoring Collin’s brother, George, who was not in the original picture, because he was out tending cattle for his uncle at the time. He also got back in school. So Tim, George’s sponsor, and I put our heads together and I put out the word to some of my business friends and very quickly raised 10k for this project.

People have asked my highlight of the trip. It was definitely this moment right here.

Joska house

We moved Phanice and her kids into their new home on Tuesday and on Wednesday presented this woman, who has never owned anything, the deed to her own piece of property. She has a house, a kitchen, a bathroom (it’s an outhouse, but it’s so much better than anything she’s had access to) and a well. She has an acre of land – in her slum there would have been 500 shanties and thousands of people living on an acre.

They didn't really have anything to "move." They had a few sleeping mats and some clothes, nothing else. They are overwhelmed. The kids will be in school there and mom will work at the school. They will be safe.

It’s just one family.  

“The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.” - adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley

We can only hope.

Tim

Highs and Lows of Africa

I'm writing this from the middle of extreme poverty, and yet with a sense of great joy. The poverty is extreme in the slums of Nairobi, and the government mostly ignores it. But we work with Missions of Hope – aptly named.

When I first came here in 2007, there were a few hundred kids in a couple of schools. Now there are 10,000.

I used this picture several years ago when our church was getting more involved (Cannonball).

I’m happy to say we’ve opened up an entirely new school – there are now 16 total schools! And we have also sponsored many new kids here in the Mathare Valley. The gate has been opened to hundreds of children who had no chance any other way.

This is our girl, Sheila. We just started sponsoring her in November. We got to meet her and go to her home today. She is such a joy. (We have our daughter Rachel and son-in-law Ash with us too.)

The boy whom we sponsored through high school, named Collins, is now in college with his brother, George (who was sponsored by some friends), studying to be teachers. My son-in-law, Ash, was able to secure both of them some used laptops from his friends in Nashville, and they are thrilled to be better able to study and learn.

Hope.

We have a team of 95 people from Parkview here, working and doing ministry. We are doing construction. We have a medical team that saw 500 patients today alone - a special needs team, a business training team, and a ministry training team.

This is one of the classrooms at the school.

And here is a video of Sheila’s classroom with a greeting from the kids.

We’ll have a lot more of this to show you. I just wanted to give you Hope in the midst of whatever you are dealing with today. If these kids in these situations can find Hope in Jesus in the middle of this place, you can too.

Maybe they find it even easier because there are fewer distractions, I don’t know. But I’m happy to be here and realize what a great God we serve – and also how little it takes from a church full of blessed Americans to truly bless people across the world.

We are so blessed. There is Hope.

Tim

The Night the Lights Went Out in...Louisiana

When the lights went out at the Super Bowl, I tweeted @tlharlow that all church tech teams should feel better now. Technology is a blessing when it works and a curse when it fails. We depend on it.

The blame keeps getting shifted from one place to another. The Dome blames the Power Company; they say it was equipment inside the dome. The people of New Orleans are wondering about a curse, because the place was built too close to a graveyard. Some speculate that it was Drew Brees upset with not making it there himself.

Batman thinks it’s Bane.

And we all wonder about Beyonce…

So no one knows exactly how it happened, but the largest television event in the history of the world went dead for 35 minutes!  It was unbelievable, really. People at Super Bowl parties had to actually talk to each other. I’m guessing there will be a large crop of “Blackout Bowl babies” born 9 months from now. 

But the funniest article I saw was the copy of the praise that the U.S. Department of Energy had for the Superdome before the game, which said:

The push to re-invent this destination city contributes to making Sunday's game the greenest in Super Bowl history.

Or the blackest.

I really don’t think that energy conservation had anything to do with the problem, but you have to admit it is ironic.

As a Christian, I’ve been called to be the light of the world. So have you. 

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Matthew 5:14-15

Are we living dimly? Is our light really shining? I wonder what we could do if we stopped “conserving energy” and came out from under our “bowls” and started shining brightly again. 

I know that the problem for all of us who live within this new post-Christian era is that too many people in the past have flooded their light on people in such a way that we’re a little timid when it comes to shining.

For good reason.  The world can’t distinguish between the so-called Christians who picket funerals with signs that lie about who God loves and the real ones.

I get that. But look at what Jesus goes on to say…

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

Shining light isn’t about going around and sticking it in people’s faces.  It’s about doing good and building relationships with people so that they see your light and know where it came from. 

But please don’t be conservative with your light. 

Nobody like’s a dark stadium!

Tim

Dan Cathy, WJDD (What Jesus DID Do)

Dan Cathy is the President of Chick-Fil-A and has been the brunt of a great deal of criticism in the Gay Marriage debate, because of a statement he made affirming biblical marriage values.  He became the poster boy, used by the Gay lobby, to represent all things evil about Christianity.  It was extremely unfortunate for both sides in my opinion, because it further polarized two groups of people that ought to be sitting at football games together instead of hurling insults.

Which is why this article from Shane Windmeyer (see Dan and Me for the full story) is so fascinating.  Because Shane is the director of Campus Pride which is the LGBT group that called for the boycott of Chick-Fil-A in the first place.

And this is the picture of Shane and Dan at a football game!

Shane said, “It was among the most unexpected moments of my life.”

Check this out…

“Like most LGBT people, I was provoked by Dan's public opposition to marriage equality and his company's problematic giving history. I had the background and history on him, so I thought, and had my own preconceived notions about who he was. I knew this character. No way did he know me. That was my view. But it was flawed.

On Aug. 10, 2012, in the heat of the controversy, I got a surprise call from Dan Cathy. He had gotten my cell phone number from a mutual business contact serving campus groups. I took the call with great caution. He was going to tear me apart, right? Give me a piece of his mind? Turn his lawyers on me?

The first call lasted over an hour, and the private conversation led to more calls the next week and the week after. Dan Cathy knew how to text, and he would reach out to me as new questions came to his mind. This was not going to be a typical turn of events.

His questions and a series of deeper conversations ultimately led to a number of in-person meetings with Dan and representatives from Chick-fil-A. He had never before had such dialogue with any member of the LGBT community. It was awkward at times but always genuine and kind.

It is not often that people with deeply held and completely opposing viewpoints actually risk sitting down and listening to one another. We see this failure to listen and learn in our government, in our communities and in our own families. Dan Cathy and I would, together, try to do better than each of us had experienced before.

Never once did Dan or anyone from Chick-fil-A ask for Campus Pride to stop protesting Chick-fil-A. On the contrary, Dan listened intently to our concerns and the real-life accounts from youth about the negative impact that Chick-fil-A was having on campus climate and safety at colleges across the country. He was concerned…Dan sought first to understand, not to be understood. He confessed that he had been naïve to the issues at hand and the unintended impact of his company's actions.

Throughout the conversations Dan expressed a sincere interest in my life, wanting to get to know me on a personal level. He wanted to know about where I grew up, my faith, my family, even my husband, Tommy. In return, I learned about his wife and kids and gained an appreciation for his devout belief in Jesus Christ and his commitment to being "a follower of Christ" more than a "Christian." Dan expressed regret and genuine sadness when he heard of people being treated unkindly in the name of Chick-fil-a -- but he offered no apologies for his genuine beliefs about marriage.”

So, Mr. Cathy went on to invite Shane to be his guest at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve and asked him to sit with his family at the event his chicken empire was sponsoring.  Thankfully Shane said yes and they had a fantastic time getting to share in each other’s lives.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you a model of Jesus.  This is it.  I’m not saying that you should eat chicken or not eat chicken.  I don’t know Dan Cathy; I wish he went to my church.  I’m certain that he and I would agree about a lot and probably disagree about a little. 

But this is what Christians should be doing!  Jesus Christ was always the approachable, loving, non-combative, relationship builder with those who were living lives outside the boundaries that God intended.  They always felt comfortable with Jesus.

Contrast that with this moronic pastor who left no tip for a waitress and then blamed it on God.

What Would Jesus Do?  He would punch this guy in the head and then go buy some Chick-Fil-A. 

Well I’d want him to…

Hats off to Dan Cathy.  Please forgive Pastor Moron. Go be Jesus.

Tim

All Men are Created Equal - Including Those Not Yet Born

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in America. It's now been 50 years since his famous 'I have a dream speech.'  This is probably the most famous speech in recorded history. He is on my short list of people I can't wait to meet in Heaven. I so admire what he did to move racial equality forward. 

But it struck me yesterday, as I was hearing news reports about King and the speech, that there is a subtle irony in the fact that the day after MLK day (today) is the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision making abortion on demand legal in the U.S.

If you put it all together it doesn’t make sense. Dr. King said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." 

That is, unless you’re not quite born yet.

In my sermon on Jeremiah last weekend, I had the opportunity to point out one of many scriptures that tell us that God considers a person a person in the womb.

God tells Jeremiah…

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5

This and other Bible verses clearly indicate human life begins at conception, and we are formed in the image of God with a unique purpose.

In the past 40 years, over 55 million babies have been lost to abortion in America.  They were deemed “not equal.”

I don’t stand in judgment if you are reading this today and have made this choice already.  I’m sure my list of sins beats your list any day. You probably realize now it was, as Jeremiah described, a futile drink of bitter water.  Praise God the only thirst-quenching Water of Life, Jesus Christ, crucified our sin and gives us new life. 

But for those of you, who will someday find yourself with an unwanted pregnancy, please don’t buy the lie that it’s just a "blob of tissue," or a "choice."  He or she is a baby.

We want to help you. Someone wants your baby!  We work very closely with Pregnancy Aid South Suburbs (PASS), a pregnancy resource center that will help you, too.  Please choose life. 

The further irony of Dr. King’s speech is that it was delivered, as King states “in the symbolic shadow” of Abraham Lincoln who 100 years earlier had signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves.  Dr. King’s point was that even though it had been 100 years, they still weren’t really free. I guess my point is that after 150 years, we still aren’t all really free.

I ask you to join in praying with me today – for freedom for the unborn.  And I’ll borrow from Martin Luther King to do it.

“Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi -- from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring -- when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, (born and unborn) -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" 

Tim

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

In 1 John 1:8 - It says, 'If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.'

It doesn't matter if we're lying to ourselves or just lying to the world to cover up our use of performance-enhancing drugs.It's never going to work out well.

Lance Armstrong did a lot of good to raise funds and awareness for a horrible disease. He was an inspiration to millions. And yet here we are today with another fallen hero. Well, we knew he was fallen years ago, but he’s finally admitting it.

Honestly, I don’t think any of us would have a hard time forgiving him for taking the drugs on his way to coming back from cancer. It may have even been medically prescribed in the beginning. And when Tour De France officials tried to figure out who they could give the titles to after Armstrong was stripped, they quickly realized that probably everyone was doing it – so they gave them to no one. All have sinned…

But he didn’t stop doping. Not after the comeback, or the second win, or the seventh. Why is that?  That’s the problem with denial, and the problem with getting away with sin. It just makes it easier to keep going – until you wake up one day, like Lance, and your life is over.

Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15

If you don’t confess it, or get caught, it’s never going to go away. 

Every time someone admits their sin, God reinstates them and let’s them start over. Even the worst rule breakers in the Old Testament (See Manasseh). He was so bad God allowed the temple to be destroyed while he was King. Yet God still forgave him. (2 Chronicles 33)

So stop swimming in Denial!  Whether you are deceiving yourself or the public – the truth is not in you. And you can’t get forgiven or get better until you get some truth!

It doesn’t matter if your sin is exactly like everyone else’s sin – it is destroying you. 

Admit it.  Own it.  Confess it.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

Tell God. Tell those around you. Admit to the public if you have to. It’s never going to get better, it can only get worse. Healing can’t begin until you get out of the river and dry off.

Tim

Do You Have a Soul Idol?

I had several people ask me for a copy of the seven questions from Kyle Idleman that I used to help us identify whether we had idols in our lives from last weekend’s service. 

Our problem is that we see all the issues of idolatry in the Bible, and the over 1000 verses about how wrong it is, and as modern Christians we think that out of all of the Ten Commandments, this is the one we know we haven’t broken.

But Martin Luther said you when you break any of the other commandments, it’s really only after you’ve broken 1 and 2.  You can’t lie or kill or steal or any of them, until after you’ve taken God off the throne and put something else on there.

So it’s worth re-examining. Kyle Idleman has a new book coming out called “God’s at War.”  He reinterprets questions posed by an English Puritan preacher from the 1600s named David Clarkson to help us take another look.

1.  What are you most disappointed with right now?  It could be that you are disappointed because you have put too much hope in something besides God.  If God were really on the throne, would it be this big of a deal?

Clarkson says, “For hope is an act of worship—and worship is due only to God. It is His prerogative to be the hope of His people.” (Jeremiah 17:13; Romans 15:13)

2.  What do you sacrifice your time and money for? This one is pretty simple. The Bible says, “Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.” Matthew 6:21

If you really want to know who or what you worship, look at how you spend your money and your time. It reveals the gods within our hearts.

3.  What do you worry about? What scares you? What do you think, “If I lost this or if I lost that or “them,” life wouldn’t be worth living?”

 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Proverbs 3:5

Anything else is idolatry.

4.  Where do you go when you get hurt?  It should be to God but sometimes he seems far away.  So do you turn to a substitute? 

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after—that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple." Psalm 27:4

5.  What makes you mad?  

6.  What brings you the most joy?

When you mind yourselves, mind your estates and worldly interests, mind your profits or pleasures more than God—you set these up as idols in the place of God.  Clarkson

God gives every good gift – but it’s easy to worship the gift instead of the giver.

7.  Whose applause do you long for?  Is it the audience of One in heaven?  Or is it the audience of those here on earth?

Now, when we make other things our chief aim or main design, we set them up in the stead of God and make them idols. When our chief design is to be rich, or great, or safe, or famous, or powerful—when our great aim is our own ease, or pleasure, or credit, or profit and advantage—when we aim at, or intend anything more, or anything as much, as the glorifying and enjoying of God—this is soul idolatry.  Clarkson

"Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!" 1 Corinthians 10:14

Tim

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.