Free Media Sources
At Park Community Church, a contemporary, non-denominational church of about 1,250 urbanites (20-45 year old) in Chicago, we are always looking to find the right way to express ourselves in our 8 minutes with God daily devotionals, in HTML emails, on our website and in print. Many times, we search and search for the right [...]
Today’s Tech Tip: Music in Powerpoint Presentations
TECH TIP FOR POWERPOINT: At Park, we use a lot of Powerpoint presentations as we meet with our leaders in order to share our vision to reach 1% of Chicago with the Gospel. Many people want to play music in their Powerpoint presentations. Usually, inserting music only works slide by slide. So how do you [...]
New Jib Jab Video – The News
I love Jib Jab — they make very funny videos that parody everyone from the President to Arnold Schwartzenegger. Check out the announcement on Tech Crunch: JibJab, the creators of the famous 2004 U.S. presidential election parody cartoon “This Land” have a new original video out called “The News. The new video premiered tonight at [...]
Where Are the 49% Going to Live?
March 28, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Adaptive Reuse, Chicago, The Cultural Conversation
The Census Bureau recently released their estimated population projections for 2050. Overall, the country’s population is expected to continue to grow, increasing from 282.1 million in 2000 (and 300 million in 2006) to 419.9 million in 2050. The nation’s projected 49 percent population increase during the next 50 years would be in sharp contrast to [...]
Only 20 Minutes to Live
March 27, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Church, Sunday Services
On Sunday, Ron May spoke about his harrowing experience in the Crash of Flight 232 on July 19, 1989 in Sioux City Iowa. Click here for his audio message. Click here for the Wikipedia page. Click here for the Google video. One of his statements which I have reflected on for the last few days [...]
Jeremy Camp Says It All
March 27, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Missional, Music That Moves, The City
My Desire Jeremy Camp These last few months have been hard ones for me. We are running flat out and everyone is tired, yet God is at work among us. In these times, I search for songs where others have put into words and music the feeling and desire of my heart. Jeremy Camp says [...]
I Can’t Stand the Wait – 24 Is Killing Me!
March 26, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Church, The Cultural Conversation
Why do I have to wait a week for the next episode of 24? While I appreciate that I can catch any missed episodes online, the wait for the next riveting episode is next to impossible. I love the show and I am a big fan. I wish there was a way to sit down [...]
Keller: Ministry in Major City Centers — Part 2
March 25, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Chicago, Church, Methods & Strategies, The Arts in the City, The Cultural Conversation
I came across this excellent article of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC entitled Our New Global Culture: Ministry in Major City Centers. In this Part 2, I focus on his analysis of what it will take to be an effective church in the major global cities, like Chicago. As Park’s vision is to [...]
SUNDAY: Why Me? Why Did I Survive?
March 24, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Chicago, Church, Sunday Services
United Airlines Flight 232 was a scheduled flight operated by United Airlines between Denver and Philadelphia via Chicago. On July 19, 1989, the Douglas DC-10 operating this flight suffered an uncontained failure of its number 2 engine (mounted in the tail), which destroyed all three of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. With no controls working except [...]
The Word is Out: Chicago Attracts the Young and Educated
March 24, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Breaking News, Chicago, The City
The Chicago Trib ran an article this month looking at the changing demographics of Chicago and the surge of post-college 20Somethings who are flocking to this great city of Chicago. People are finally beginning to see what an awesome place Chicago is to live and be missional! The article starts off, “ As thousands of [...]
Materialism in our Kids Generation
March 24, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Family, The Cultural Conversation
A recent article ran in the Chicago Tribune entitled “Material Kids: Wealth is a Top Priority for Today’s Youth“. How do we counteract this trend in the church? The key statistics in the article were: UCLA’s annual survey of college freshman, released in January 2007, found that nearly three-quarters of those surveyed in 2006 thought [...]
Keller: Ministry in Major City Centers — Part 1
March 23, 2007 by Steve
Filed under The Arts in the City, The Cultural Conversation
I am a big fan of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. I came across this excellent article of his entitled Our New Global Culture: Ministry in Major City Centers. He looks at who lives in the major global cities, like Chicago, what are the marks of a city-center culture, and how to be [...]
What are YOU Expecting this Easter?
March 16, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Church, Inside Park, The City
We are getting ready for a Big Easter in the city as we do a three part series on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter on “What Are YOU Expecting?” where we will explore expectations: what people expected of Jesus, what God expected of Him and why Jesus came, died and rose from the dead. [...]
Free Starbucks Thursday
March 14, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Breaking News, Chicago, The Cultural Conversation
Tomorrow, Starbucks will raise its coffee cup in honor of the daily grind by offering customers a break – a coffee break. On Thursday, March 15, 2007, from 10 a.m. to noon, complimentary, tall (12-ounce) cups of brewed coffee will be served in participating Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada. “The Starbucks Coffee Break [...]
Church Seat Opinions?
March 14, 2007 by Steve
Filed under Church Construction
We are moving along in our renovation of a 90,000 sq ft dry goods warehouse into an urban church in Chicago and would love to hear from you folks who have built churches as to who I should talk to about church seating. We expect to have about half theater-seating and half would be stackable [...]
Opening for Toby Mac!
March 12, 2007 by Steve
Filed under The Arts in the City, The Cultural Conversation
Tonight, Park Community Church’s own Becky Johnson was opening for Toby Mac, former lead singer of DC Talk, at the Chicago House of Blues! Toby has a new album out and is revving up his new tour. Becky is a certified talent– check out all her info and her latest songs at www.beckyjohnsonmusic.com and her [...]
All Paths to Dumbness?
One of my favorite bloggers is Kathy Sierra, who has been interested in the brain and artificial intelligence since her days as a game developer (Virgin, Amblin’, MGM). Her blog is Creating Passionate Users, where the discussion centers around the fascination of brains, minds and what science can tell us about the practice of making [...]
The Science of Jesus’ Tomb
March 10, 2007 by Steve
Filed under The Cultural Conversation
There is a great amount of hype out there about the recently aired documentary, the Lost Tomb of Jesus. At Park, as a body of believers in the city and in the culture, we want to equip our folks with real information to engage with others in the Cultural Conversation and point them towards Jesus [...]
