Reminder Time: God’s Continuing Faithfulness August 26, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Inside Park, Urban Church, Powerful Passages, Church Construction , add a commentWow! I am continually reminded that God has a plan for the redemption of Chicago and Park is going to be a part of that. As we have moved through this summer, there has been a lot of uncertainty about where we would have our offices come September and where we would hold our services. As the project manager for the new Crosby campus building among my responsibilities, I have been frustrated by the massive rise in the price for steel and copper (causing us to exceed our budget), construction delays, unforeseen expenditures (we have to replace the entire outside brick skin of the building), the rainy weather, the lack of progress on getting more parking at our new building, and the likelihood that we would not be able to get into our offices at the Crosby campus in September and that we would need to find short-term solution for our offices.
But there was no uncertainty or frustration in God’s eyes.
Having orchestrated the creation of the world, I am reminded that God can do ANYTHING He wants, 
and getting us office space for starters is no big deal. Through a great friend of the church, God provided space for us at minimal cost in the John Hancock Tower for 4-6 months. We moved out of Germania Thursday night after an 11 year run (in the 13-hour rain-and- massive-wind, hurricane-plagued ordeal that ended at 1:00 am) and now find ourselves getting settled into great office space in the midst of the bustling Michigan Avenue avenue with offices and stores. (Many thanks to two of our awesome staff, Emily Luikart and Meghan Kosar, who organized the move and made it go so well! — you are the best!)
As I have sat at home and whined to my wife about all my frustrations, I am reminded and can now see that God is moving in Chicago, and He will not be thwarted. He has all the tools of the world at His disposal and in this case, He chose to use someone from another great church to help us because He is going to use Park as he continues His plan of redemption here in Chicago. Each person in Chicago matters to God, and he will use churches like Park and Christians like Park people to reach those people.
This situation has caused me to look back and see God’s hand of faithfulness since the beginning of our church almost 20 years ago. Even without a building for 20 years, God has grown Park, transforming thousands of people with His Gospel and the elders, staff and leaders have continued to build a Biblical community where the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives, renews the city and impacts the world.
As I read the Bible, I am reminded by the verses below about God’s unswerving faithfulness:
Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
Psalm 105:8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
Isaiah 46:8-11 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ 11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
As an exercise, look back on the last two years in your life. Where were you 2 years ago and what was your life like. Can you see God’s hand growing you and changing you? What Has God reminded you about lately?
The DownUnder Express? August 14, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , 1 comment so far
With national pride flowing after a second place finish by Cadel Evans at the Tour de France, the prospect of an Australian team competing in the 2009 Tour de France has moved closer to reality. Aussie newpapers are reporting that top Australian riders including Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans, Stuart O’Grady and Michael Rogers could join forces in the sport’s most prestigious race for a team financed by a company owned by internet entrepreneur Tony Smith.
A company called Pro Cycling Australia has been set up to oversee the project and Smith has pledged AU$20 million (US$16.6m) over four years to help establish the team.”It’s a major piece of the jigsaw,” chief executive Paul Varcoe told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “The pieces are falling into place. We always believed it would happen and this is a significan step in proving it will.” The project still needs an additional sponsor and the backing of the Federal Government, and Smith hopes Evans’s second-place finish in this year’s Tour will help. “Cadel Evans’ effort in the recent Tour de France has been an inspiration to us all and put this great sport on the radar in Australia,” Smith said.
Maybe this is what we need for a year or two….national teams supported by national sponsors….what do you think?
Curtain Call August 11, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a comment
Wow! What a difference 750 days or so makes….Looking back just two years ago, we go from total euphoria in watching Lance Armstrong, one of the premier athletes in the world, win his seventh straight Tour de France to the announcement yesterday that the Discover Channel cycling team would disband at yearend.
I am sad and disilllusioned by a sport that I love so much. It is painful to watch some of these athletes tarnish the sport so greatly, that no sponsor will step in and take the reigning tour de France championship team. Cycling is at a new low. Can it recover?
Bottled Water: Luxury vs Necessity? August 9, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentJust read an interesting Fast Company article while on vacation about the $15 billion bottled water industry. Check it out here. An exerpt:
Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We–a generation raised on tap water and water fountains–drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we’re raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We’ve come to pay good money–two or three or four times the cost of gasoline–for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes.Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets–$15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year.
When we buy a bottle of water, what we’re often buying is the bottle itself, as much as the water. We’re buying the convenience–a bottle at the 7-Eleven isn’t the same product as tap water, any more than a cup of coffee at Starbucks is the same as a cup of coffee from the Krups machine on your kitchen counter. And we’re buying the artful story the water companies tell us about the water: where it comes from, how healthy it is, what it says about us. Surely among the choices we can make, bottled water isn’t just good, it’s positively virtuous.
Except for this: Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 8 and 1/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)
Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water “varieties” from around the globe, not one of which we actually need. That tension is only complicated by the fact that if we suddenly decided not to purchase the lake of Poland Spring water in Hollis, Maine, none of that water would find its way to people who really are thirsty.
A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture. It acknowledges our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel. Yes, it’s just a bottle of water–modest compared with the indulgence of driving a Hummer. But when a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we don’t need–when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation–it’s worth asking how that happened, and what the impact is. And if you do ask, if you trace both the water and the business back to where they came from, you find a story more complicated, more bemusing, and ultimately more sobering than the bottles we tote everywhere suggest.
Time Off for Good Behavior August 3, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentJust heading out for a long (6-day) weekend in Canada with the family as we go to a family reunion in Ottawa. I am SO READY for this break……I will see you in six….
