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Provision Theater Presents: SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN

April 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It is that time again!

Provision Theater, who is dedicated to performing works of hope, reconciliation and redemption and has received accolades for its last six shows, is getting set to mount its last production of the year, SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a foot-stompin’ musical, featuring Susan Moniz, !

Smoke on the mountain

In this musical, Provision’s artistic director, Tim Gregory, takes you back to a simpler time, where you become the congregation of Mount Pleasant Church. You have been invited to their “first ever Saturday Night Sing”. Pastor Oglethorpe is determined to move his flock into the “modern world”, by inviting the Singing Sanders Family to join him. They will delight you with some of the best old gospel tunes ever written, like “Church in the Wildwood”, “Wonderful Time Up There”, and “I’ll Fly Away”. A mixture of song, stories, hilarity and honest emotion, this audience favorite will have you tapping your toes and lifting your spirit.

WHAT: SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN

WHERE: VIADUCT THEATER 3111 N Western Avenues (MAP)

WHEN: May 8 – June 8 — Thur, Fri and Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 3pm

To purchase tickets: Call 773.506.4429

Filed Under: Chicago, Culture and Faith, Provision Theater, The Arts in the City, The City, The Cultural Conversation

15,000+ visitors

April 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Today , I surpassed 15,000 visitors to my blog (since I installed my NEO counter more than a year ago). What are all these people doing coming to my blog? What do they find interesting? The most amazing thing to me is that those visitors come from more than 129 countries. The largest visitor groups hail from:

USA 11,648

Canada 514

United Kingdom 502

Germany 234

France 220

Australia 185

Brazile 102

Cote D’Ivoire 66

The most interesting visitors hail from:

Burkina Faso 20

Kenya 16

Iran 13

Iraq 6

Guinea 4

Rwanda 4

Filed Under: Breaking News, Culture and Faith, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation

Only in America – The Mobile Phone Scourge

April 14, 2008 By 1 Comment

I saw this photo online and couldn’t believe it.  What sort of person would order their wedding topped with a bride and groom that are talking to OTHER  people on their mobile phones?  Say it ain’t so.  What are your thoughts?

phone-cake-toppers.jpg

Filed Under: Culture and Faith, Photos, Technology, The Cultural Conversation

Worship Top 25

April 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As we sit each week at Park, and have worship times with Joseph Tenney and his team, I began to wonder what are the main worship songs that are played? So I did some research on the CCLI site and thought I would list out the top 25 played worship songs in churches around the U.S.

This list came from the latest results from CCLI which is the main Christian music copyright/licensing company for non-profit organizations around the world. They conduct two surveys per year, one in February and one in August. (Please note that this compilation does not contain many of the excellent old hymns which are sung a lot but are actaully public domain and not subject to royalties). However, it does contain “Shout to the Lord” which was recently sung on American Idol. This list is the latest data and is ranked from the most played to the least:

1 How Great Is Our God Tomlin, Chris \ Reeves, Jesse \ Cash, Ed 4348399
2 Blessed Be Your Name Redman, Beth \ Redman, Matt 3798438
3 Here I Am To Worship Hughes, Tim 3266032
4 Open The Eyes Of My Heart Baloche, Paul 2298355
5 Shout To The Lord Zschech, Darlene 1406918
6 Holy Is The Lord Tomlin, Chris \ Giglio, Louie 4158039
7 You Are My King Foote, Billy 2456623
8 Forever Tomlin, Chris 3148428
9 Lord I Lift Your Name On High Founds, Rick 117947
10 Come Now Is The Time To Worship Doerksen, Brian 2430948
11 God Of Wonders Byrd, Marc \ Hindalong, Steve 3118757
12 Everlasting God Brown, Brenton \ Riley, Ken 4556538
13 You Are My All In All Jernigan, Dennis 825356
14 We Fall Down Tomlin, Chris 2437367
15 The Heart Of Worship Redman, Matt 2296522
16 You’re Worthy Of My Praise Ruis, David 487976
17 Breathe Barnett, Marie 1874117
18 Trading My Sorrows Evans, Darrell 2574653
19 Beautiful One Hughes, Tim 3915912
20 In Christ Alone Townend, Stuart \ Getty, Keith 3350395
21 I Give You My Heart Morgan, Reuben 1866132
22 Days Of Elijah Mark, Robin 1537904
23 Friend Of God Gungor, Michael \ Houghton, Israel 3991651
24 Better Is One Day Redman, Matt 1097451
25 Above All LeBlanc, Lenny \ Baloche, Paul 2672885

So what do you think of the list?

Filed Under: Culture and Faith, Inside Park, Methods & Strategies, Music That Moves, Powerful Passages, The City, The Cultural Conversation, Urban Church

Q Conference

April 12, 2008 By 1 Comment

Q

I just returned from the Q conference that I went to with venture capitalist Mike Collett in NYC this week, April 9-11 and what a hurricane of ideas, thoughts and ponderings.

Q is a forum run by Gabe Lyons and the Fermi Project for creatives, social entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers to get together and discuss how each can use their sphere of influence to shape the culture for good. One blogger said “Q is being organized by some of the brains behind the Catalyst conference. It’s a space where leaders can create, dialogue, collaborate, innovate, serve and ideate around the important topics shaping the church’s future role in culture.”

This was my first time attending since it debuted last year, and I was excited to meet with some of the most creative folks in the nation to look at key questions facing Christians as we try to engage our culture in all of its facets. I am becoming more passionate about the interaction of faith and culture and this event served to only pour gas on the fire in my heart. I am deeply involved in Chicago theater through Provision Theater and I am tangentially involved in film through some really cool producer/director friends. This is where my heart is and I am beginning to figure out what that means as I start my own sports social networking company, Fan Fuego, that gives me some means and a platform to be more involved in this area.

More to come

Filed Under: Culture and Faith

Idol: Shout to the Lord? Wow!

April 12, 2008 By 3 Comments

For the millions that watched this week, the American Idol Gives Back show ended surprisingly with the globally popular worship song “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech.

Shout to the Lord

I’m sure you’ve seen all the blog uproar over this issue. Evangelicals on a blog raised the roof with the producer’s decision to downplay its “Jesus” message by replacing the word “Jesus” with the word “Shepherd” in the first line, contending that the deletion of Jesus eliminated it from being a Christian song in its entirety. (The next night, they sang the song again — this time with the original wording.)I didn’t think too much of it when I first heard it, assuming that, as usual, the entertainment powers had cut it out — I was more surprised that Hillsong would allow it (they didn’t).

But I came across this excellent post by Josh Harris, that has several comments from entertainment insiders who are Christians and the impact this small song has on all the Hollywood types — -check it out. It changed my perspective on the matter, prompted me to pray for all those hard-working brothers and sisters in Hollywood and really challenged me about integrating my faith into the culture I am in.

Hey all you “culture and faith” folks out there, what do you think? Is this a step for Hollywood or a debacle for Christian songs? Please comment and let’s engage on this topic.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Culture and Faith, Music That Moves, Powerful Passages, The Arts in the City, The Cultural Conversation

Easter Creativity – God is at Work!

March 31, 2008 By 1 Comment

It’s now a week after Easter and I am checking out the blogs and news to see how God used people this Easter weekend and what drew people in to hear the Word of God on Easter. Wow! There is lots of creativity out there and that affirms that God is working His plan with the churches here in the United States and new creative thinkers are bringing the Gospel to the folks. I love God’s verse on creativity in the church — in Luke 14:23 (NASB) it says:

23“And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

“COMPEL THEM TO COME IN” –

Here are my “Sweet Sixteen” creative teams who I found that did a lot of brainstorming, planning, hard work and execution with excellent creative ideas to COMPEL PEOPLE TO COME IN this Easter — To God be the Glory!:

1. The Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina that is just over two years old celebrated as 4,800 people showed up for services for an excellent start to a series called “Breakout” and over 500 people gave their lives to Christ! Check it out here.

2. Oak Leaf Church, less than 19 months old, did a message on TATTOO and left their mark by giving tattoos live on stage for all three services. The point of the message was that external marks are meant to point to internal life change. The point isn’t the mark, it’s the story and the meaning. In the same way, external behavior modification is never enough…what makes us Christians are our changed hearts. They were praying for 1,000 people but had 1,350 with 60 people accepting Christ (read about it here)

3. Craig Groeschel and the folks at multi-site Lifechurch.tv Started a new series on Easter and handed out fortune cookies with a note inside of them inviting people to the series entitled “The Warrior.” They placed huge barrels of fortune cookies outside and asked people to give them to their friends. More than a grand total of 31,000 people attended all 13 LifeChurch.tv campuses this Easter weekend with 479 hands raised during altar calls.

4. Scott Hodge and his team from Orchard Church in Aurora, Illinois dropped Easter eggs from a helicopter. 20,000 eggs and thousands of people (see pictures here)

5. National Community Church in DC also celebrated with 20,000 eggs and a baptism service on Saturday (read about it here)

6. Gary Lamb and the folks at Revolution Church in Canton Georgia also dropped Easter eggs from a helicopter. I love this idea from all three of these churches! Check out the story and pictures.

7. Eric Bramlett and his team in Naperville IL at Community Christian in Naperville have a really funny video as they debuted their series called “Losing My Religion” which started Easter Weekend. Check it out HERE.

8. High Desert Church in CA continued their series called “The Most Spectacular Show on Earth” and had more than 6,000 attend and over 100 people come to Christ after battling spiritual warfare with everything going wrong on their sound systems at their various locations.

9. Travis Johnson and the crew at Life Point Church in Homestead FL held a Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt (7-9pm) and had 7,000+ people show up. How creative is that idea? A moonlight Easter Egg Hunt!? They had a great turnout on Sunday with many coming from the community who attended that Easter Egg hunt.

10. Cross Point Church in Nashville had an amazing Easter at their two campuses locally (read a great letter from someone who was greatly impacted here) and at their new church start-up in the Dominican Republic. A team of 20 from Cross Point spent their week working on the church building and while the building was far from being completed, the pastor led their first service in the new church on Easter Sunday. How cool is that?

11. Check out the things Granger Community Church had people hold in their hands during the service. HERE are the pics. Read about it here and here.

12. NewSpring Church saw 12,000 people attend their services and over 120 people receive Christ (read here) and held a great service in their Man Series called “Ultimate Fighter”

13. The team at Seacoast Church launched a new campus on Easter in one of the most crime-ridden areas of the country. HERE is the story.

14. Connexus had more than 1,300 at their two compuses with some moving stories.

15. Jordan Creek Church played the Upside Down Video.

16. A worship leader in Atlanta experienced what true worship is really all about (read this moving story here)

PS…BONUS COVERAGE I just found out that Saddleback Church opened two new sites on Easter and their San Clemente site celebrated its one year anniversary! The first service of Saddleback Corona gathered 490 attenders and 43 accepted Christ. That’s almost 10 % of those who attended! The first service at Saddleback Irvine gathered 1,826 attenders and 34 accepted Christ! The service at Saddleback San Clemente (open one year) gathered 1,550 attenders and 39 accepted Christ!

Filed Under: Church, Culture and Faith, DifferenceMakers, Entrepreneuring, Methods & Strategies, Missional, Powerful Passages, Sunday Services, The Arts in the City, The City, The Cultural Conversation

The First Mobile Hotel Room

March 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Fan attending any of the big festivals this summer might wish they have access to one of these – the “world’s first mobile hotel room”. The Travelodge hotel chain recently announced that its Travelpod would soon be available at events such as music festivals and sporting competitions. Designed to be set up anywhere you might put up a tent, it’s cheering news for anyone who books into B&Bs at music festivals or panics about camping holidays.

Travel Pod

The pod is sealed in a polycarbonate glass box, but includes features offered in conventional hotel rooms such as TV and air conditioning. Leigh McCarron, Travelodge’s director of sleep, called it “a ground-breaker in outdoor accommodation”. The Travelpod, which measures 6 metres by 2.4, includes a double bed, bedside lights, carpeted floors, and dressing table – plus blinds. A spokeswoman for Travelodge said: “The Travelpod is a ground-breaker in outdoor accommodation.” She added, “With the popularity of outdoor sleeping we saw a definite niche in the market for something a bit more up-market”. When asked who will be hiring this glamorous answer to a tent, she replied “One woman wanted 20 of them for the guests at her garden wedding to sleep in.”

Filed Under: Culture and Faith, Entrepreneuring, Photos, Sustainability, Technology

It’s Good Friday, But Sunday’s Comin!

March 21, 2008 By Leave a Comment

As we sit and reflect on this Good Friday, the story of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion is one of betrayal, brutality, despair, and pain. Yet we know even before His death that redemption was promised to be coming soon. We know that the story does not end at the cross. We know what many did not realize – although it is Friday and despair ran rampant among his followers — that Sunday’s comin’ — Jesus rose from the dead, conquered death, and provided a pathway for us to have a relationship with God.  This is my FAVORITE video on Good Friday (the preacher is S.M Lockridge, who also did “That’s My King“).

YouTube Preview Image

In two days, we will celebrate Easter, rejoicing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and recognizing what enormous sacrifice Jesus made for each one of us so that we could spend enternity in relationship with the living God.  Be reminded of this truth during Easter: God has worked, is working, and will work through all things, even now as we find ourselves awaiting his return.  This is important — please comment if you have any questions I could help you with.

Filed Under: Church, Culture and Faith, DifferenceMakers, Powerful Passages, The City

Chicago Voted Best Destination for Food and Dining

March 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Travel + Leisure, Headline News and CNN.com are launching their annual search for the best cities in America. Since Chicago was voted the best destination for food and dining in 2007, let’s make it happen again in 2008!

Here’s how to vote on the Travel & Leisure website below.

Let the debates begin

When Travel + Leisure announced the results of last year’s America’s Favorite Cities Survey, debates raged on television, in print and on the Internet: Was Chicago really the best destination for food and dining (as well as pizza)? As a foodie, I knew that, and all of you knew that, but finally the rest of the country knew that.

But did you think that Philadelphians deserve last place in the attractive citizens category? Are Seattle residents really the most intelligent in the country? How could sunny Los Angeles edge out surly New York as the least friendly city?

Cast your vote now

Here’s your chance to tell us what YOU think. Visit TravelandLeisure.com/afc/survey from March 7 to June 15, take the 2008 America’s Favorite Cities Survey and enter to win a dream trip for two. We want to know: Which of these 25 urban contenders has the best shoe shopping or ethnic eats? Where would you go for a romantic escape? Which cities have the best (and worst) museums, theater and live music? If you want a wild weekend or a relaxing retreat, which urban destination would you visit? You know best, so tell us!

 

(HT: Bestofthebestdiningchicago.com)

Filed Under: Chicago, Chicago Fact, Culture and Faith, The City, The Cultural Conversation

In Memory of Abby-Jill — We Will Miss You

March 13, 2008 By 3 Comments

This week, Park Community Church suffered a great loss, when one of its former staff, Abby-Jill Brauhn , lost her fight with cancer and went to be with the Lord on Tuesday morning, surrounded by her family in Wisconsin. Abby-Jill was a Godly woman who loved the Lord and loved people. She made a huge impact for the Kingdom and will be greatly missed, although I know she is feeling no pain and dancing in heaven as we speak. I will miss her greatly — I loved her passion to see people come to know Jesus in a personal relationship and I appreciated her tremendous gift of leadership on the trips I went on to the orphanage in Mexico. Here is a summary (with some adds by me about my friend) of the obituary sent to the Tribune:

Abby-Jill Marie Brauhn

September 16, 1964 – March 11, 2008

Abby-Jill Brauhn, 43, died Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at the home of her sister, Deborah Geary. She was the daughter of Maggie French and the late Stephen Brauhn. Abby was blessed with an extraordinary life. She graduated from Buffalo General School of Nursing, where she began her career as a registered nurse. She later joined Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals as a sales representative. Abby’s ambition and initiative brought her to Chicago, where enjoyed a successful career as new-products sales rep and then regional manager.

In 1995, Abby went on a short term mission trip to the FFHM orphanage that Park supports in the Baja of Mexico, and there her life chcanged and it would never be the same. She experienced a great renewal of her faith, and when she heard a higher calling in 1998, Abby went to work for Park Community Church in Chicago as the Director of Extension Ministries. Here she founded and grew Park’s annual Park Service Day ( now called For One Chicago), which engaged more than 900 Park Church members to serve the Chicago community for a day. She was a pivotal member of Park’s short term mission trips called Vacation with a Purpose, which led mission trips to orphanages in Mexico operated by Foundation for His Ministry and other places around the world. She always had a vision that she would create an orphanage, so when the opportunity came, Abby’s faith took her to California. In October 2004, she left Park to become a senior leader at Charla Pereault’s right hand side at FFHM in Oxnard California.

Abby lived a life that was full of joy, love, and devotion to her family, friends, and God. An avid reader and traveler, she embarked on many voyages around the world. She had a wonderful ability to touch all that she came in contact with. A diagnosis of terminal cancer brought her back to the Midwest, where she lived with her sister, Debbie, and her family. With faith and courage, Abby endured cancer treatment for two and a half years.

Abby-Jill is survived by her mother, Maggie, her sister Debbie, brother-in-law Brian Geary, brother Robert Brauhn, brother Adam Brauhn, sister-in-law Tasha, nieces Molly, Maggie, Katherine, and Grace, and nephews Christopher and Nicholas. Abby was preceded in death by her father, Stephen.

================================================

A funeral service will be held at St. Anthony on the Lake, N2101 Hwy. SS Pewaukee Wis., on Friday, March 11, at 4:00 p.m.

“A Chicago memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 15th, at 1:00 p.m. at the GERMANIA PLACE BALLROOM (please note location has been changed).

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, 877.465.6636, or Heartland Hospice, 13255 W. Bluemound Road Suite 100, Brookfield, Wis. 53005.

Cesarz Charapata & Zinnecker is serving the family. For more information, please call the funeral home at 262.542.6609.

Filed Under: Chicago, Culture and Faith, DifferenceMakers, Family, Inside Park, Missional, Urban Church

Of Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul

March 8, 2008 By 1 Comment

Many of you know that I am a serial entrepreneur and I am in the process of getting my fifth company, Fanfuego.com, a multi-sport network for sports fans, off the ground. Prior to joining Park Community Church 2 years ago as the Executive Pastor, I invested in and helped co-found Dakota Beef LLC with Scott Lively (who met his wife while attending Park).

dakota beef

Dakota Beef is now the country’s largest organic beef company and you can buy our products at Costco’s all over the country (I am excited about that as I am still an investor!).

Or you can ORDER ONLINE HERE and have it delivered right to your door

Dakota Beef was recently featured in an article in the New York Times about the symbiotic relationship between Scott Lively, an evangelical, and two Hasidic Jews, who are customers of Dakota Beef. It also features a reference to Hope Egan of Park, who published an excellent book called “Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?”.

For those who do not have access to the NYT story, here is the reprint:

=======================================

NEAR a prairie dotted with cattle and green with soy beans, barley, corn and oats, two bearded Hasidic men dressed in black pray outside a slaughterhouse here that is managed by an evangelical Christian. What brought these men together could easily have kept them apart: religion.

The two Hasidim oversee shehitah, the Jewish ritual slaughtering of meat according to the Book of Leviticus. The meat is then shipped to Wise Organic Pastures, a kosher food company in Brooklyn owned by Issac Wiesenfeld and his family. When Mr. Wiesenfeld sought an organic processor that used humane methods five years ago, he found Scott Lively, who was just beginning Dakota Beef, now one of the largest organic meat processors in the country.

Mr. Lively adheres to a diet he believes Jesus followed. Like Mr. Wiesenfeld, he says the Bible prescribes that he use organic methods to respect the earth, treat his workers decently and treat the cattle that enter his slaughterhouse as humanely as possible. “We learn everything from the Old Testament,” Mr. Lively said, “from keeping kosher to responsible capitalism.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Faith, Entrepreneuring

Christians in the Culture

March 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in how the culture ebbs and flows and who drives the culture. I’ve also seen a more determined generation who wants to drive faith and values into the culture. hidden chicagoA good friend of mine, Dave Carlson of Bucktown Pictures, has continually told me that the movie theaters are the churches of the next century and movie directors are the priests so we better wade into the culture and not shrink from it as Christians.

Recently, I have been introduced to the Wedgewood Circle folks, sort of a national angel investment network of successful entrepreneurs, investment institutions and high net worth investors who provide investment capital, strategic guidance and relationships to contribute to the renewal of the culture by investing in cultural “artifact” creation in the key influential sectors of film, music television, publishing, theatre/performing, fashion, fine arts and computer/console gaming. I like what they are doing.

I also like what Gabe Lyons and the Fermi Project is doing. Fermi Project is a broad collective of innovators, artists, social entrepreneurs, church and societal leaders experimenting with ways to advance the common good in culture.

Well over the last ten years, many have begun to make an impact in Hollywood and recently, Beliefnet has chronicled their top dozen most influential and powerful Christians in Hollywood? Well, Beliefnet has come up with their list, and it includes names like Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington, Patricia Heaton, Angela Bassett, and Martin Sheen. Sounds like a pretty diverse list with a pretty broad theological definition, but none the less, interesting. You can read more here…

Filed Under: Church, Culture and Faith, DifferenceMakers, Methods & Strategies, Missional, Provision Theater, The Arts in the City, The City, The Cultural Conversation, Weblog

Get Rid of Those Catalogs — Easily

March 5, 2008 By 2 Comments

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 receive in your mail almost every day. CatalogChoice.org is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox so use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.

Who They Are

Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, and the Kendeda Fund.

Their mission

catalog choiceThe mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs. If you can believe it, the Catalog Choice community has already opted out of 8,072,914 catalogs, improving their lives, and conserving our planet’s natural resources!

Background on Catalog Shippers

While catalog shopping may provide some environmental benefits, the millions of unwanted catalogs Americans receive in their mailbox represent a significant environmental burden, devouring natural resources, generating pollutants, and clogging municipal waste systems—for something that quickly ends up in the trash or recycling bin. While catalog companies make it easy to receive a catalog, consumers frequently find it frustrating and time consuming to get their names off these mailing lists, especially when they receive catalogs from multiple direct mailers. The industry mails more than 19 billion catalogs a year to Americans—approximately 170 catalogs for every U.S. household !

Do it NOW – Clean out your mailbox! Click HERE

Filed Under: Adaptive Reuse, Breaking News, Culture and Faith, Internet Resources

Park Community Church on Comcast

March 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Check out FAITH TODAY’s preview of a 10 minutes piece on Park Community Church its growing impact on the city that is playing on Comcast On Demand.

YouTube Preview Image

Filed Under: Breaking News, Chicago, Culture and Faith, Inside Park, The Arts in the City, The City, The Cultural Conversation

Free Webcast: Multi-Site Church Strategies and Ideas with Mark Driscoll et al.

March 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

For those of you churches looking into the multi-site model (Park Community Church already has two locations and we are praying/strategizing on four more) join Leadership Network’s Greg Ligon and special guests John Bishop (pastor of Living Hope Church), Dave Browning (pastor of Christ the King Church) and Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church) as they talk about multi-site strategies and models of ministry. This free online event is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18 at 3:00 EDT. You must register (again, it’s free) to save your place by going here.

Filed Under: Chicago, Church, Culture and Faith, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The City

Which is the Urban Church?

March 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I came across this great illustration series by Steve Collins of what an urban church is not and what it is — tell me what you think. Check it out the excellent slideshow here.

urban church

Filed Under: Breaking News, Chicago, Church, Culture and Faith, The City, The Cultural Conversation, Urban Church, Weblog

DWELL: Driving Urban Church Planters

March 2, 2008 By Leave a Comment

At Park Community Church, our vision is to be a Biblical community where the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives, renews the city and impacts the world. Being a city center church, we are focused on reaching the city of Chicago and would like to reach 1% (29,000 people) of the city in the years to come. That is why we love conferences that focus on the major global centers like Chicago or New York, and one of those great get-togethers is coming up.

The Dwell Conference is scheduled for April 29-30, 2008 in New York City and involves two of our favorites: Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City will be co-hosting and partnering with Acts 29 Network in a premiere church planting event to create a world-class training for urban church planters. It has a fabulous lineup of some of the most influential church planting leaders as speakers at this event: Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, CJ Mahaney, and Darrin Patrick.

I also love their anchor verse for this movement of planters (as it has been an anchor for our church about urban living for years):

Jeremiah 29:4-7
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and DWELL in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

Filed Under: Chicago, Church, Culture and Faith, DifferenceMakers, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The City, The Cultural Conversation, Urban Church
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