Finally ….Sensible Green Nuclear Technology

Finally, someone has spent the time to create a sensible nuclear, green energy source that can be mass-produced.

The Guardian reports today that nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed [...]

Solar as Alternative?

I am beginning to look into solar options but I live in Illinois (never really known as the land of the uninterrupted sun) so I wanted to find out how to calculate whether an investment in solar makes sense in Chicago.  I learned that the total solar energy available to the earth is approximately 3850 [...]

Global…..Cooling?

This past April, the USA had an average temperature of 51 degrees, which was one of the coolest in the last 114 years — where is the global warming? Look at the data here.

Crosby Update and Work Days

Finally — after many delays, we are GOING TO PULL AUDIO-VIDEO wire this Saturday (woo Hoo!) as we gear up each weekend in April to get all of our audio/video stuf installed. It is starting to get real exciting!
Crosby Work Days
Crosby Work Days are back in full swing as we are counting down the [...]

The Sustainable House

I am a big fan of using the sun and wind as energy sources rather than paying the local utility, and working to create a sustainable house. I love to imagine what one of these “energy-free” houses would be like and I think I found one in Enertia. I saw them tonight [...]

Get Rid of Those Catalogs — Easily

My wife and I are studying “Restoring Margin in our Overloaded Lives” in our small group study and what a time a personal reflection — we are looking at all the things that barrage and steal away our time and our attention.
Sue got wind of this site that let’s you opt out of catalogs you [...]

“Green Houses”: The Inconvenient Truth

As energy prices continue to increase, I have searched for ways to reduce our cost of energy in our house — I am currently looking at solar power, wind energy and geothermal (although running a 300 foot deep pipe in the backyard doens’t seem feasible in the city) . If you like this stuff, check [...]

Chicago DifferenceMakers – Pacific Garden

The Pacific Garden mission is close to moving in their new home and they have been a Chicago DifferenceMaker for more than 130 years, as untold thousands have come to know the love of Christ through this national institution. Yea PGM– Congrats on the new digs!
America’s Largest Continuously Operating Rescue Mission Prepares for Move [...]

Where Are the 49% Going to Live?

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 [...]

Future Design

In the city of Chicago, it is very hard to own your own building but after 18 years, Park COmmunity Church is renovating a warehouse into the coolest church in the land. As we glean ideas from other architectural creations, I came across this Helios futuristic gas station in California and thought I would [...]

Adaptive Reuse of a Church

Many buildings and other commercial and organization structures are being made into churches and churches are also being made into residential homes. In Chicago, our church, Park Community Church, is providing an adaptive reuse for a 70,000 square foot warehouse, which will become our permanent church home. See here for the building plans.
In [...]